The 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes will visit major cities including Manchester, Cardiff and London when the Grand Départs are jointly held in the United Kingdom next summer, it was unveiled on Thursday.
The news that the UK would become the first foreign country to host the Grand Departs of both the men’s and women’s races came last March, and now the start and finish locations of all six stages have been confirmed.
The second stage will start in Manchester and journey into the climb-filled Peak District before finishing back in Yorkshire in Sheffield. This tough stage will tackle some of the UK’s hardest climbs in Peaks, including Snake Pass, on a course set to follow some of the roads used for the Yorkshire Grand Départ in 2014.
The third stage will see the race visit the capital in London, with more details of this stage to be confirmed in the spring. The two previous British Grand Départs in 2007 and 2014 both also visited London with finishes on sprinter-friendly The Mall.
The men’s race, which will arrive in the UK a month earlier, will set out from Edinburgh on Friday, July 2, travelling south to Carlisle’s medieval castle, which could be a bumpy route through the Scottish borders, but there will be just one classified climb, which the organisers have named the Côte de Melrose.
Race director Christian Prudhomme predicted on Thursday that this stage would finish in a bunch sprint, delivering the first yellow jersey to a sprinter.
The second stage will start in Keswick in the Lake District, heading south through the National Park and some of its most famous lakes, into Lancashire and Merseyside for a city centre finish on The Strand in Liverpool. The day will total 223km and feature five categorised climbs.
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