Tour de France to start in Edinburgh in 2027
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The 2027 Tour de France will start in Scotland, England and Wales before heading to France.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – The 2027 Tour de France will start in Edinburgh with the first three stages taking place in Scotland, England and Wales, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) announced at a ceremony in the Scottish capital on March 19.
The women’s Tour will also begin in Britain in 2027, from a location yet to be revealed.
This will be the third men’s start from the United Kingdom but the two previous Grand Departs both took place in England, making these the first stages ever to be raced in Scotland and Wales.
The first two stages of the 2007 edition were in London with Yorkshire hosting the start of the 2014 race.
According to an official report, the Grand Depart of the 2014 race attracted 3.5 million spectators to the roadside as two stages took place in Yorkshire, with a third between Cambridge and London.
“The popular success was absolutely phenomenal. We were faced with walls of people, a great mass of people,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said.
He added that setting off from the “magical city” of Edinburgh was something he had in mind for some time but its remoteness had worked against it.
“Scotland was already a candidate against Yorkshire for 2014 and one of the major differences at the time was the distance from France,” said Prudhomme.
“But since then, there have been new UCI regulations which mean that, once every four years, we have a ‘joker’ to start on the Friday, which fundamentally changes the deal.”
The ASO used the exemption in 2022 for the start in Copenhagen, Denmark, instead of a Saturday. They will use it again in 2027 to start on Friday, July 2, for three complete stages on British soil.
Details of the cities have yet to be revealed, but the peloton will head straight for England, where the second stage will also take place.
The third stage on Sunday, July 4, will visit Wales for the first time, where, according to Prudhomme, the architects of the route will “use the hills and very steep gradients so that the favourites in the general classification will be shoulder to shoulder”.
Monday will be a rest day, devoted to the transfer of the peloton to France.
While the 2025 Tour will start in Lille, the Edinburgh start will mark the fifth foreign start in six years, after Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, Florence in 2024 and Barcelona in 2026.
Prudhomme said he is “proud” of these international starts, which he believes not only help to “raise the profile” of the Tour and of France, but also generate a lot of money for ASO – around €6 million (S$8.7 million) for Bilbao and Florence. AFP
