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Alex Baudin<\/p>\nRacing<\/p>\n
The action kicks off next summer in Great Britain<\/p>\n
October 22, 2026<\/p>\n
Our riders are already poring over the routes for next summer\u2019s Tours de France.<\/p>\n
The race maps for both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s Tours were released Thursday and promise our squads many exciting chances to attack.<\/p>\n
The action will begin with two spectacular Grand D\u00e9parts in Great Britain.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s race is going to get off to a flying start on July 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with three tough, hilly, wind-blasted stages into England and Wales, before the race crosses the English Channel into Normandy. The Tour then traverses towards the Alps in a series of tough classics-style stages, punctuated by the first of two time trials on Stage 7. This Tour, our Cannondale SuperSlices will be put to the test with more kilometers against the clock than the race has included in 15 years. A long first week concludes with a summit finish atop the Gran Colombier. The second week then starts with an ode to the 2028 world championships in the Alps with a high mountain stage from Annecy to Sallanches. There\u2019s one more Alpine stage from Cluses to Les Saisies, before the race heads back west towards the Pyrenees. Sprinters will have to fight for their chances, as stage after hilly stage could go to breakaways. The third week starts with a 33-kilometer time trial in Toulouse. There\u2019s then a lumpy stage to Pau, before the Tour hits the Pyrenees proper. A summit finish on the Col du Portet could decide the race for the yellow jersey. If not, there\u2019s a terrific stage across three Basque cols to follow, before a flat sprint day and then the grand finale over Montmartre and onto the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris.<\/p>\n
Five days later, the women\u2019s Grand D\u00e9part will begin with a bang with a stage from Leeds to Manchester made for explosive climbers. Stage 2 from Manchester to Sheffield promises to be a classic through the Peak District over some of the steepest roads any peloton has ever ridden. A team time trial in London, the first TTT in Tour de France Femmes history, concludes the Grand D\u00e9part. Then, it\u2019s off to France. From Le Touquet on the coast in northern Pas-de-Calais, the race heads south through the Massif Central over three tough stages that could go to breakaways or sprinters. Stage 7 is the first summit finish, atop La Loge des Gardes. There\u2019s then a mountainous day with a downhill finish into Clermont-Ferrand, before the climactic final stage finishing on the famous Puy de D\u00f4me.<\/p>\n
Over the coming months, our riders and staff will be studying their route books, looking for the best spots to make their bids for glory.<\/p>\n
Read their first thoughts about the routes of the 2027 Tours de France.<\/p>\n
Alex Baudin<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s going to be a really hectic start in the U.K. \u2013 really tense and stressful. It\u2019s not like last year, where there was a really hard stage making the gaps immediately, so it\u2019ll be tight in GC for the first week. It\u2019s really nice to go back to Brittany, too, with the C\u00f4te de Cadoudal, which is quite mythical in France. It is such a beautiful part of the country, so that\u2019s nice and a bit of change compared to last year. There\u2019s the time trial in Chambord, and then we race at home again, which is really special for me \u2013 to be on the Tour on my training roads around Annecy and Les Saisies, and then again in Chamb\u00e9ry. It will be super nice to have family and friends on the side of the road. We\u2019ll go over the Col du Pr\u00e9 again \u2013 you\u2019ll see the same Virage Baudin as in 2025 \u2013 so that\u2019ll be fun. And then back to the Pyrenees for the last week, which I think is going to be super hard again. I\u2019m really excited to be at the start next year.<\/p>\n
Alice Towers<\/p>\n
The first three stages in the U.K. are going to be an absolute career pinnacle for every British rider who gets to ride them. The Tour de France is the only cycling race that most British people know, so for it to be coming to the U.K. is really special.<\/p>\n
The first two stages in particular are going to be super, super hard terrain. They cross the Peak District twice, which are the roads that I grew up training on. Not those ones specifically but that region of England is where I grew up training. That\u2019s already something that I\u2019m thinking about going into the offseason training.<\/p>\n
The crowds are going to be insane. I feel like British people, we just love something that brings people together, especially sport. Everyone clubs together and gets out and is there to support even if they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re cheering for, but they\u2019ll be out clapping and cheering on the roads. It\u2019s going to be amazing.<\/p>\n
For the Tour de France Femmes to come to the U.K. for the first time is going to be super cool. I remember when the Tour came to the U.K. in 2014; I went to watch and it was the first race I watched in real life and there were so many people out on the road that day. I was out riding my little road bike with my brother and my dad. We rode a tiny bit of the course at the beginning and the people were clapping and cheering for us and honking the cowbells and honking the horns just for us passing the course a couple of hours before the race, so the crowds are going to be unbelievable, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
Of course the TTT is going to be really cool, especially being the first one in the Tour de France Femmes. Then the crossing from the U.K. into France will be interesting. To do some of the roads in northern France: that\u2019s the first time the race has visited there, so they should also be really hard and technical. Super cool. I\u2019m already thinking about it and I\u2019m already motivated during my offseason to get back in the saddle and train for it next year and to try and go for it!<\/p>\n
Jonathan Vaughters, EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO<\/p>\n
Despite it starting in UK, for me, the 2027 men\u2019s Tour seems very traditional. It\u2019s a throwback Tour with big long flat time trials and quite a few stages for sprinters. There are not so many mountain top finishes. Our approach will be as it\u2019s been for the last few years: we\u2019ll be looking for opportunities where no one else sees them.<\/p>\n
Esra Tromp, EF Education-Oatly general manager<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited, especially for the days in the U.K. The middle stages of the race are exciting for us. The TTT is challenging as a discipline itself. The course is technical \u2013 not so much a challenge of outright difficulty, but always tricky. We look forward to Stages 2, 4, 5, and 7. I think, technically, if you win Stage 2 and you have the yellow jersey and you have a good team time trial, then you can keep the jersey until the last weekend. It gives a lot of opportunities to race aggressively and go for results, so for our team, I think it\u2019s a really interesting route. Even the last weekend, it\u2019s hard, really hard, of course, but it\u2019s really interesting for a lot of different riders and a lot of different race scenarios. I look forward to the Tour next year.<\/p>\n
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