Barcelona looking to hold 2014 Tour de France start

The 2014 Tour de France may start in Barcelona. The city council is said to have "very advanced negotiations" with Tour organiser ASO over the matter, according to the Spanish newspaper El Periodico.

The newspaper said that the Tour generally starts outside of France every other year, with the start in 2010 being in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and in 2012 in Liege, Belgium. The 2013 start is said to be planned for Corsica, a French island near Italy.

According to the newspaper, Barcelona would host a prologue and at least one more stage before the race moves back to France.

This year's Tour de France went to Barcelona, with stage six, won by Cervelo's Thor Hushovd, ending there. Stage seven, which went on to a mountaintop finish in Andorre Arcalis, started in the Catalonian seaside capital.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme recently confirmed to Cyclingnews that both Qatar and Tokyo are also interested in holding a start of the Tour at some undetermined point in the future.