The penultimate stage was earmarked as the queen stage of the race, with two first-category climbs in the closing of the stage – the Col Saint Martin and the stage finish at the ; the finish was also the highest in the race's history, at above sea level. Both mountains had previously featured during the fifteenth stage of the 1975 Tour de France, when Bernard Thévenet ultimately wrested what would have been a sixth yellow jersey away from Eddy Merckx, at the finish at Pra-Loup. The final stage finished along the seafront in Nice, but not on the Promenade des Anglais as customary, as a mark of respect to the victims of the Bastille Day terrorist attack in 2016. Instead, the race ended at the .