The 2027 Tour de France is expected to start in Great Britain, according to a report by BBC Sport on Friday, which noted that an official announcement should be made in March.
It will mark a third time the Grand Départ has started on British soil, last in 2014 in Yorkshire. The first overall start in Great Britain for the Tour was in 2007 in London.
The news comes three days after Tour organisers ASO confirmed the 2026 Grand Départ would take place in Barcelona, Spain, including a stage 1 team time trial. The 2026 Tour de France will have three stages in Spain, with the second day starting in Tarragona to mark the southernmost point ever visited by the Tour.
In 2021, Great Britain bid on the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France, hoping to have stages across England, Scotland and Wales. At that time, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said £30 million would be allocated to fund two major events, the opening stages of the 2026 Tour de France and the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup. From August 22-27 this year, Great Britain will host the 10th edition of the women's rugby global competition.
"We have made no secret of our ambition to host the Tour de France Grand Depart in Britain - to inspire more people to enjoy cycling and bring lasting benefits to communities," UK Sport said in a statement posted by BBC Sport.
The Yorkshire Post also noted that Great Britain is expected to host the 2027 Tour, but provided an exclusive report that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift would start in Britain for the first time, most likely a Grand Départ for women from Leeds.
Only two of the first three editions of the Tour de France Femmes have started in France, last year's eight-day race taking off from The Netherlands. All nine stages of this year's Tour de France Femmes, July 26 to August 3, will unfold through French roads and cities, with a start in Brittany.
Since the 1970s the traditional finish of the Tour de France has centred on the Champs-Élysées, only in 2024 moving to Nice due to the Olympic Games in Paris. Since the course changes each year, so does the Grand Départ, and in the past seven decades of the 112-year-old Grand Tour organisers have expanded the overall start beyond the borders of France 26 times.
In 1954 the Tour began in The Netherlands, and it was also the first time a team time trial was held, which was on the fourth day back in France. It was four years later the Grand Départ was held in Belgium.
In 1998 Dublin, Ireland hosted the overall start, marking the first time the Tour transitioned from the mainland of Europe. Since then, France has only hosted the overall start in three consecutive years, 1999-2001, interspersing the reach of the race to other countries on a consistent basis. In the last three years, the early stages have been hosted in Denmark, Spain and Italy.
The 2025 Tour de France begins in the Hauts-de France region in Lille on July 5. There are two more stages in the north of France with the route progressing to two final mountain stages in the high Alps to Courchevel and La Plagne before the finish in Paris on July 27.
