The edition of the Tour de France 2021 will start from the city of Brest, in Brittany, as announced on Monday by the French region and the director of the round, Christian Prudhomme.
The announcement comes a week after Copenhagen’s forced resignation from hosting the world’s most prestigious stage cycling race next year.
“We had discussions with the Brittany region about the next ‘big start’ since 2018,” explained Christian Prudhomme. “Last fall we adapted it for 2022 and we had planned to announce it in spring. But, of course, the pandemic happened there, “he added.
Copenhagen, which was to host the big start in 2021, will wait another year. The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic caused a change in the dates of the Tour, and therefore, the headquarters of its start.
«We understood a month ago that the cycling events of the Olympic Games would not move from the dates and the International Cycling Union advanced the Tour a week. The mayor of Copenhagen told us: ‘We want the Tour but we don’t know if we can for security and logistics reasons, also for accommodation.’ The only possible solution was a year later, ”Christian Prudhomme continued. The Danish capital will be in 2021 one of the venues for the 2020 soccer Eurocup, in turn postponed one year due to the pandemic.
It has not yet been specified how the four stages will be in the region, but the four departments of Brittany (Finistère, Côtes d’Armor, Morbihan and Ille-et-Vilaine) will play a leading role, according to Prudhomme.
Prudhomme assured that Britain “is not, never was and never will be a plan B.” It’s an advance plan. Brittany is the eldest daughter of cycling, “said the organizer.
This will therefore be the fourth departure from Brest, a city of 420,000 inhabitants, the last one going back to 2008. “Four departures on the Tour will be a record for a city other than Paris,” Christian Prudhomme revealed.
Asked about the hypothesis of an eventual departure from Rennes, capital of Brittany, something that is opposed by local ecologists, Christian Prudhomme avoided the controversy: “The Tour can only go where the administrations want it to go, it has always been like that” .
“Even with four 100% Breton stages, we know that not all applications can be satisfied,” said the Tour director. “Four stages, it’s something that hasn’t happened for a long time. In 2008 there were two stages and an exit ».
To know the final route, we will still have to wait several months. The presentation of the 2021 Tour is scheduled on October 29, one week later than planned.
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