Tadej Pogacar celebrates on the podium with his bike, trophy and UAE Team Emirates XRG team after winning the Tour de France last year.
Press Association
Yesterday at 21:31
The 2027 Tour de France will head through Carlisle, Keswick, Liverpool and Welshpool after starting out in Edinburgh next July before finishing in Cardiff.
And the 2027 Tour de France Femmes avec Swift, heading to the UK for the first time, will depart from Leeds later in July and take in Manchester and Sheffield before finishing in London.
Tour organisers announced the Grand Depart start and finish locations for both races in Leeds on Thursday having revealed in March that Scotland, England and Wales will share six stages of one of the world’s biggest free-to-watch sporting event. It will be the first time the two races have started in the same country other than France.
The UK will host the men’s event for the fifth time – the first was in Plymouth in 1974 – and will start the race for a third time after London in 2007 and Leeds in 2014.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme said: “The UK has always welcomed the Tour with passion and pride, and the route details we are revealing reflect the beauty and diversity of Britain’s terrain.
“Bringing both Grand Departs here is a testament to the strength of our partnership with British Cycling and the enthusiasm of the UK.”
Crowds totalling 2.5 million lined the route when the first two stages of the Tour were held in Yorkshire in 2014 and organisers are expecting a similarly spectacular turn out next year.
Prudhomme said: “There’s going to be double the impact because we also have the women’s race in Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and London, as well as the men’s race.
“It will be huge. The previous two grand departs in the UK, in London in 1977 and in Yorkshire in 2014 were unforgettable.”
The Tour de France Femmes, brought under the same organisation as the men’s race in 2022, will start outside of France for the third time following the Netherlands in 2024 and Switzerland in 2025.