The 103rd edition of the world's most prestigious cycling race, the Tour de France, began at Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy on Saturday amidst tight security.
Reigning champion Chris Froome of Britain was one of 198 riders on the start line ahead of the 188km first stage to Utah Beach, site of one of the famous World War II Normandy landings.
The race will finish on July 24 on the famous Champs Elysees in Paris after covering 3,500km around France.
This year's event is being conducted amidst maximum security following the terror attacks in Paris last November which left 130 people dead.
Despite resources being stretched due to the simultaneous running of the ongoing Euro 2016 football tournament, elite GIGN special forces have been assigned to protect the Tour de France from a potential terror threat.
There will be 23,000 police mobilised to handle security and each of the 22 teams of nine riders has been assigned a dozen officers to look after them, while a police command post is being set up at the finish of every stage.
The fight against cheats has also been stepped up with technological fraud seen as the new threat after years of EPO use and blood-doping.
A thermal camera is to be used by authorities at the Tour for the first time alongside magnetic resonance screening to try to spot hidden motors in bicycles.
Meanwhile, the fight against EPO has not been sacrificed with l'Equipe newspaper announcing that the French laboratory tasked with testing doping samples can now detect micro-doses of the banned blood-booster.
Sky's Froome is one of the favourites to land a third victory having also triumphed in 2013.
His main challenges will come from Colombian Nairo Quintana, who was second to him in both his winning years, and two-time former winner Alberto Contador of Spain.
But Saturday's opening stage is a largely flat affair suited to the specialist sprinters.
Although there are two early minor climbs, the long straight roads to the finish will almost certainly set up a bunch sprint.
One of the big favourites for the opening stage is German sprint king Marcel Kittel, back at the Tour after a one-year injury and illness induced hiatus.
Having won the opening stage in 2013 and 2014, Kittel is gunning for a hat-trick, but he knows it will be tough.
“The last kilometres will be nervous and fast: downhill, straight forward and with no corners. You need a good position, but also to be lucky,” he said.
The other main favourite is his countryman Andre Greipel, who won four stages last year in Kittel's absence.
Neither Englishman Mark Cavendish, who is third on the all-time list of Tour stage wins with 26, nor world champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia, winner of the green points jersey for the last four years, can be discounted.
A breakaway group will likely animate the first stage but the sprinters' teams will never let them far off the leash and will take no chances in reeling them before setting up a fast, furious and perhaps manic bunch finish.
Two years ago, Cavendish crashed in just such a mass sprint, breaking his collarbone and being forced out of the Tour. – AFP