![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pog-by-Billy-Ceusters-1200x800.jpg\")
A major new plan has been in the works for some time, and is about to be unveiled, aimed at bringing the Tour de France to Ireland for three stages (Photo: Billy Ceusters)<\/p>\nA major new plan has been in the works for some time, and is about to be unveiled, aimed at bringing the Tour de France to Ireland for three stages (Photo: Billy Ceusters)<\/p>\n
A new plan is being worked on to secure the opening stages of the Tour de France in Ireland after a previous effort by the authorities in the Republic and in the North ran into problems and was derailed.<\/p>\n
This time around, the plan would see the Tour visiting the west of Ireland, though the format of the race\u2019s start in Ireland would be a cross-Border one again, with at least some of the action taking place in the North.<\/p>\n
The Irish Government and Cycling Ireland have been involved in the plan, which is due to be launched shortly. Clare County Council appears to be the driving force behind the plan.<\/p>\n
Stickybottle understands Irish cycling figures like Sean Kelly and former UCI president Pat McQuaid will be lending their support to the Irish Grand D\u00e9part plan, with further information set to emerge very soon.<\/p>\n
However, though the plan is still in its very early stages, it is proposed a prologue TT could take place in Limerick before the opening road stage from Ennis to Galway, via the Burren and using a section of the Wild Atlantic Way. The final stage would likely finish in Belfast.<\/p>\n
In 2022, a plan was launched the Government in the Republic and their counterparts in Northern Ireland to bring the Tour de France to the island in 2026 or 2027.<\/p>\n
Then Minister of State for Sports Jack Chambers TD said the Tour was one of the \u201cbiggest and most prestigious\u201d events in the world. It held \u201chuge potential for Ireland\u201d if the race was secured in a planned joint bid between the Republic and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
He said a \u201cproject team\u201d would now be assembled, including people from government and agencies on both sides of the Border, with some \u201cscoping work\u201d already done on that part of the process, adding the projected cost would be \u20ac20-\u20ac30 million.<\/p>\n
However, in late 2023 the proposal fell apart, with the Irish Government confirming it had ended its efforts to host the Grand D\u00e9part after its proposed partners in the North said they could not afford to continue with the proposal. <\/p>\n
Though the bid was effectively over by the summer of 2023, it took a number of months before the news emerged publicly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major new plan has been in the works for some time, and is about to be unveiled,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-260136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}