The 2020 Tour de la Provence will feature a stage finish in Mont Ventoux on the final day. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) are among the riders expected to challenge the Provence giants in the four-day stage race, which will take place February 13-16.

Due to the early time of year, the finish of stage 3 will be at Chalet Reynard, just 6km from the summit of Mont Ventoux. The Paris-Nice peloton regularly climbs to the 1,429-meter-high Chalet Reynard.

Chalet Reynard was also the site of the stage finish of the 2016 Tour de France, when strong winds prevented a safe climb to the 1,912-meter-high summit.

The climb up to Chalet Reynard comes at the end of the 138-km stage from Istres, with short Category 3 climbs on the Col de Lauris and Col des Cedres before a summit finish on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. The climb from Saint-Estève to Chalet Reynard is 15.5 km with an average gradient of 8.8%.

Race director Pierre-Maurice Courtrade told La Provence (opens in new tab) that he has a contingency plan in case the weather prevents the peloton from climbing Mont Ventoux in mid-February.

"Yes, we have several backup plans in place in case it becomes impossible to climb to 1,400 meters."

"Our idea is to propose harder tools, but also more varied ones. We want to keep surprising. This area proposes not only a picture-postcard landscape, but also a new one."

The first Tour de la Provence was held in 2016 and was won by Thomas Voeckler, with Rohan Denis (2016), Alexandre Jenyes (2018), and Gorka Izaguirre (2019) among the names that established themselves on the early season calendar.

Organized by the French newspaper La Provence, the event, previously a 2.1 stage race, will form part of the new UCI Pro Series from 2020. The Pro Series is a two-level race below the World Tour level, replacing the existing HC classifications.

The four-day race begins on Thursday, February 13 with a flat stage from Châteaulenade to Les Saint-Marie-de-la-Mer, before entering the rugged second stage from Aubagne to La Ciotat. This 175 km stage has a total climbing distance of 2,500 m, including the Category 1 Espiglier and La Courtronne passes, and finishes with a short climb on the Les Cretes pass.

After the Mont Ventoux finale on stage 3, the race concludes with a hilly 171 km stage between Avignon and Aix-en-Provence.

Courtade told La Provence that "there will be 14 to 16 WorldTour teams at the start."

Stage 1.