{"id":380745,"date":"2026-01-20T18:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/380745\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:20:13","slug":"pleased-the-tour-de-france-is-coming-to-the-uk-in-2027-meet-the-man-you-have-to-thank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/380745\/","title":{"rendered":"Pleased the Tour de France is coming to the UK in 2027? Meet the man you have to thank"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of how the UK landed the 2027 Tour de France<\/a> and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a> Grands D\u00e9parts begins more than two decades ago with a text. Still today, Christian Prudhomme remembers reading it. \u201cI\u2019d just arrived at [Tour organiser] ASO at the time,\u201d the men\u2019s race director says, \u201cand it was about golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The year was 2004. The text came from a Leicestershire man named Paul Bush, and flashed up on the phone of the then ASO president, Patrice Clerc. Bush had just started a new role as an events director in Scotland. Twenty-two years on, Prudhomme is recounting the story in the basement room of Leeds City Museum, on the day of the UK Tour stages reveal for 2027<\/a>. Bush is sitting three seats to his left, smiling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Prudhomme leans over the table and twists his body to face Bush. \u201cAt the end of the text message, you said, \u2018And the Tour de France\u2026\u2019,\u201d he says, bending his voice quizzically at the end. \u201cAnd thank you so much, because without you, it would have been impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

That text was the first seed Bush planted to achieve his \u201cbucket list\u201d dream: hosting the biggest bike race in the world. He didn\u2019t know it at the time, but he would have to fight for more than 20 years to make it a reality, watching as the race visited countries like Belgium, Spain and Italy \u2013 he even saw it come to the UK twice, but under other people\u2019s leadership. Through it all, Bush never gave up hope of his own chance.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

Tour director Prudhomme presents the 2027 race stages in Leeds alongside women’s race director Marion Rousse, British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton, and Grand D\u00e9part managing director Paul Bush. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

On the day of the unveiling in Leeds, Bush is dressed in a navy suit, with a striped tie, gold buttons in his jacket sleeves, and a Tour de France pin in his lapel. He looks like a bank manager, or a high-end car salesman. Neither job appears on his CV, which is impressively long \u2013 an A-list of sporting and cultural events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was head of all major events in Scotland for 20 years,\u201d Bush tells Cycling Weekly, \u201cworking for the Scottish Government and VisitScotland. We hosted many events, as you know: the Ryder Cup, the Commonwealth Games, MTV Music Awards, the Solheim Cup. The Tour de France was always on my bucket list as something that would be good to bring to Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s first attempt to make that happen came in 2014, a decade on from the text. He met three times with Prudhomme in the build-up to that year\u2019s edition, but talks stalled as it became clear, logistically, that the transfer from Scotland to France would be too long. The UCI<\/a> didn\u2019t allow an extra rest day after a foreign Grand D\u00e9part at the time. ASO instead accepted another UK bid for three stages from Leeds to London. \u201cWe were disappointed,\u201d Bush says, \u201cbut we thought Yorkshire did such a wonderful job<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Bush grew his CV larger. He worked on football, athletics and gymnastics events. He even organised the World Orienteering Championships in Inverness in 2015. What about cycling? Has he ever planned a bike race? Oh yes. Remember the 2023 \u2018Super Worlds\u2019 in Glasgow<\/a>, the largest-ever UCI World Championships that included 13 disciplines and awarded over 200 rainbow jerseys? Bush was one of the masterminds behind that.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Paul\n<\/p>\n

Bush with UCI president David Lappartient at the 2023 Glasgow ‘Super Worlds’. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

And still, the Tour de France has always been in his sights. Bush knew it would be an immensely competitive event to win \u2013 \u201cthey probably get 70-80 bids for the Tour de France, and 30-40 for the women now,\u201d he says \u2013 but that did not deter him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe regrouped after 2014, and then in 2015, 2016, we reengaged with Christian and the team,\u201d he says. This time, Bush\u2019s plans were even bigger. \u201cWe thought that if we had a UK bid, it would be stronger than a Scottish-only bid, with the travel and logistics of trying to get from Scotland back to France.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cChristian has always challenged us to dream, so we decided, well, why not do the men\u2019s and women\u2019s together?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush estimates that, over the last five years, he has been to Paris around 20 times to meet with Prudhomme and ASO. The result of those discussions is a history-making double Grand D\u00e9part<\/a>; next summer, the men\u2019s Tour will open in Edinburgh, stretching the length of the UK to Cardiff via Liverpool. The women\u2019s race will then begin a month later in Leeds, with stage finishes in Manchester and Sheffield, before mimicking the 2014 Grand D\u00e9part with a London finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took that proposal to Christian a couple of years ago, and his immediate response was \u2018magnifique!\u2019,\u201d Bush smiles. Of course, bringing the plan together in reality has come with its challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most complex event I\u2019ve ever worked on,\u201d Bush says, matter of fact, as if the comparisons aren\u2019t even close. It\u2019s not that it\u2019s a \u201chard sell\u201d to the host cities, he explains, it\u2019s that the financial ask is big; the budget he and his team are working to is around \u00a365 million across both races \u2013 more than twice the cost of the UK\u2019s last Grand D\u00e9part in 2014. That money comes mostly from the Scottish, Welsh and UK governments, but it also requires buy-in from a spread of local stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thanks to all the partners, the cities, the regions, the mayors, the combined authorities,\u201d Bush says. \u201cThese are tough times financially and economically, not only for the nation, but locally and regionally. They\u2019ve all seized that opportunity, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It will probably never come back in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for that reason that Bush is set on savouring the occasion. He\u2019s most looking forward to seeing how the different local communities react when the Tour\u2019s cavalcade comes to town next July. \u201cI did a couple of stages last year with Christian in France, and I couldn\u2019t believe the crowds,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Toulouse, I said, \u2018Look at all these people smiling.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Every day we bring joy to communities across France.\u2019 That was a great statement, and it\u2019s true. We will do the same in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Christian\n<\/p>\n

Prudhomme embraces Bush at the route reveal in Leeds.<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix)<\/p>\n

So much has happened since 2004 that Bush doesn\u2019t recall sending that first text. He doesn\u2019t doubt it happened, though. Now, not only is he bringing the Tour to the UK, he\u2019s the managing director of the whole project, one he refers to as \u201cthe grandest of Grands D\u00e9parts<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, if you look at world sporting achievements, winning the Tour de France sits at the pinnacle. Bringing the pinnacle event in the world back to the UK, and at the time back to Scotland, is a dream come true,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It feels fitting that, as route reveal in Leeds comes to a close, Prudhomme dedicates his last words to Bush. \u201cThank you so much for the bid. Thank you for your resilience, Paul. Thank you for waiting so long,\u201d he says. \u201cYou and I haven\u2019t changed at all in 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explore More<\/p>\n


\nTour de France
\n<\/a>
\n
\nTour de France Femmes
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The story of how the UK landed the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-380745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380745","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=380745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}