The 2027 Tour de France will start in Edinburgh with the first three stages taking place in Scotland, England and Wales, the organisers ASO announced at a ceremony in the Scottish capital on Wednesday.
The women's Tour de France will also start from Britain in 2027, from a location yet to be revealed.
This will be the third men's start from the United Kingdom but the two previous Grand Departs both took place in England, making these the first stages ever to be raced in Scotland and Wales.
A Tour de First! 🟡
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) March 19, 2025
In 2027 we welcome the world’s most famous cycle races to Grande-Bretagne for a Grand Départ like no other.
Both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift pelotons begin their journeys on the same foreign land for the first time ever! pic.twitter.com/VVuPi0rfwz
The first two stages of the 2007 edition were in London with Yorkshire hosting the start of the 2014 race.
According to an official report, the Grand Depart of the 2014 race attracted 3.5 million spectators to the roadside as two stages took place in Yorkshire, with a third between Cambridge and London.
"The popular success was absolutely phenomenal," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told AFP.
"We were faced with walls of people, a great mass of people."
Prudhomme said setting off from the "magical city" of Edinburgh was something he had in mind for some time but its remoteness had worked against it.
"Scotland was already a candidate against Yorkshire for 2014 and one of the major differences at the time was the distance from France," said Prudhomme.
"But since then, there have been new UCI regulations which mean that, once every four years, we have a 'joker' to start on the Friday, which fundamentally changes the deal."
We are absolutely delighted that the men’s Tour de France 2027 will officially begin in Edinburgh!
— Edinburgh (@edinburgh) March 19, 2025
Both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will take place in the UK, marking the first time both the men’s and women’s Grand Départs will take place in the… pic.twitter.com/BfayF1I7b0
The ASO organisers used the exemption in 2022 for the start in Copenhagen instead of a Saturday.
They will use it again in 2027 to start on Friday July 2, 2027 for three complete stages on British soil.
Details of the cities have yet to be revealed, but the peloton will head straight for England, where the second stage will also take place.
BRITISH CYCLING SLUMP
The third stage on Sunday, 4 July will visit Wales for the first time, where, according to Prudhomme, the architects of the route will "use the hills and very steep gradients so that the favourites in the general classification will be shoulder to shoulder".
Monday will be a rest day, devoted to the transfer of the peloton to France.
While the 2025 Tour de France will start in Lille, the Edinburgh start will mark the fifth foreign start in six years, after Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023, Florence in 2024 and Barcelona in 2026.
Prudhomme says he is "proud" of these international starts, which he believes not only help to "raise the profile" of the Tour and of France, but also generate a lot of money for ASO – around six million euros for Bilbao and Florence.
This departure from Scotland will also help to breathe new life into British cycling, which, after two hugely successful decades that spawned three Tour winners in Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, now appears to have slipped into a slump.
The once-dominant Ineos team is in a slump, not helped by losing star British rider Tom Pidcock in December, and from 2026 the public will no longer be able to tune into the Tour de France on free-to-air television.
This is also the reason why the women's Tour de France will be hosted by the United Kingdom in 2027.
The cities and dates have yet to be confirmed, with the start scheduled for the weekend following the finish of the men's Tour.
💛 2027 Grands Départs in Britain: a three-nation innovation!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) March 19, 2025
🇬🇧 The already rich history between the Tour de France and the UK will be even richer in 2027! The #TDF2027 and the #TDFF2027 avec @GoZwift will get the show on the road with a British trilogy. The men's peloton will… pic.twitter.com/YxzEIv2hQc