Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff… The first three stages of the Tour de France 2027, after starting from the Scottish capital, will cross three of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom, with the idea of arousing the same popular fervor as the two previous major British starts.
We already knew that the Grande Boucle was going to start from Edinburgh in 2027, the fifth departure from abroad in six years after Copenhagen (2022), Bilbao (2023), Florence (2024) and Barcelona (2026). Thursday evening, in Leeds, a city in the north of England which will host the launch of the Women’s Tour de France the same year, the ASO organizers presented the details of the first three stages to local elected officials.
“It’s the big start that most resembles the Six Nations Tournament, since we’re going to do Scotland, England, Wales and obviously France behind,” underlines the director of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme, to AFP.
The first stage, 185 km long, will start from Edinburgh and arrive in Carlisle, in the very north of England, 15 km from the Scottish border. “It will be a priori for sprinters because if the course is hilly, they are very long false flats. We will cross magnificent, very bucolic landscapes in the Scottish Borders,” continued Prudhomme.
The Lake District at the heart of the second stage
The next day, the race will leave Keswick and head towards Liverpool for a 100% English stage. It will be very long (223 km), which was “not necessarily planned at the start”. “And then, we took a helicopter ride with our British friends and when we saw the Lake District, the largest English national park also listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it was so beautiful that we said to ourselves that we had to find a departure point nearby. »
There will be five climbs listed on this stage, but without a huge percentage, and the Tour director sees “a sprint but not necessarily massive” at the finish. The third stage, in Wales, which will leave from Welshpool to arrive in Cardiff, will be just as long (223 km) and more selective with “a Liège-Bastogne-Liège style finale”, offering seven listed hills and 3,000 m of elevation gain.
“So we will have what I like, that is to say the punchers of course, but also the favorites of the Tour de France shoulder to shoulder”, insists Christian Prudhomme, who “necessarily keeps in mind the memory of the extraordinary and unforgettable starts in London in 2007 or in Yorkshire in 2014”.
“Scotland had already been a candidate against Yorkshire in 2014. What made the difference was quite simply the geography, the distance, because at the time, there was not yet the possibility for the three major Tours to have an exemption once every four years to leave on Friday. »
The women’s Tour de France will start in Leeds
“We used this joker in 2022 for Denmark and we will use it again in 2027 for the big departure from Edinburgh with a first stage on Friday and a transfer on Monday between Cardiff and France”, in a city in France not yet known. The women’s Tour de France will leave Leeds on Friday July 30 for a first stage arriving in Manchester.
“It will be for a sprinter. On the other hand, the second stage between Manchester and Sheffield will have much more difficulty and will be for punchers, even climbers. So, we can expect a change of yellow jersey on the second day,” explains the director of the Women’s Tour, Marion Rousse, to AFP.
The third stage will take place in London on Sunday. Details of the route will not be given until April. The women’s Grande Boucle will then return to France to end the following Saturday after nine stages. Marion Rousse also expects great enthusiasm on the side of the roads in a country which has “always been ahead of women’s sport. In 2014, I was in front of my TV and I was amazed by the atmosphere. To imagine the same excitement for women is great.”
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