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Friday, October 23, 2026
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Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2023 Tour de France, 2023: The Viking Again Conquers the Tour is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
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Team Visma | Lease a Bike posted this:
The route for the 114th edition of the Tour de France was unveiled in Paris on Thursday. With the race starting in Great Britain, mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees, and two individual time trials, an interesting route has been laid out. Marc Reef, Head of Racing at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, is already looking ahead to the summer of 2027.
“At first glance, it looks like a fairly balanced route, with several flat sprint stages, explosive finales and tough mountain stages. The two long, relatively flat time trials stand out in particular. It’s been a long time since we’ve had that in the Tour. Compared to last year, I count fewer summit finishes, and in my opinion, there could have been more. All in all, it’s an interesting route”, Reef says.
The 2027 Tour de France
For the first time since 2014, the Grand Départ will take place in Great Britain. After the start in Edinburgh, the northernmost starting point in Tour history, the riders will most likely sprint for the first yellow jersey in Carlisle. Following finishes in Liverpool and Cardiff, the Tour caravan will head toward France. “I was there myself in 2014, and it was fantastic.”
Reef continues: “It was a huge cycling celebration back then. There were so many people lining the roads, and the enthusiasm was incredible. It was great to experience just how passionate people in Great Britain are about the sport. I’m really looking forward to that again. These stages, along with the opening stages in France, will also require us to be alert when it comes to the general classification. Similar explosive finishes have made a difference in the past.”
After crossing Normandy, the peloton will reach the French Alps, where three mountain stages await. Stage nine finishes atop the Grand Colombier, and the following day offers a preview of the World Championships, with the Côte de Domancy playing a key role. This is followed by a stage featuring 4,750 meters of climbing on France’s national holiday. “This is where the GC contenders will go head-to-head for the first time. These are stages that could suit us well. Racing on the World Championships course also adds an extra dimension to the Tour.”
The day before the second rest day, the race will finish in Albi, where Wout van Aert claimed his first Tour de France stage victory in 2019. The final week begins in Toulouse with a time trial. An individual race against the clock is also scheduled for stage seven, bringing the total number of time trial kilometers in this Tour de France to 71. “The last time we had that many was in 2012”, Reef notes.
“On top of that, most of the courses are relatively flat. Time trialing is a discipline we work on extensively and invest a lot in. We’re generally very strong in this area, and we have several specialists on the team. These races against the clock will play a major role in the general classification.”
The same goes for the final block in the Pyrenees. “That’s where the race will be decided”, Reef predicts. The Head of Racing at Team Visma | Lease a Bike is referring in particular to the queen stage on the eighteenth stage, when the riders will tackle the Tourmalet and 5,400 meters of climbing before finishing atop the Col de Portet, the highest point of the Tour.
“Some television viewers may find it harder to relate to the climbs on this year’s Tour de France route, but there are still some fantastic stages. The finishes atop the Grand Colombier and Col de Portet are certainly ones to look forward to. The final stage in Paris is another highlight, of course”, Reef says, referring to Montmartre, which will once again feature in the final stage. It was there that Van Aert brought the 2025 Tour to a legendary close, attacking late and riding solo to the finish on the Champs-Élysées.
Reef sees plenty of opportunities for the yellow-and-black team next summer. “It looks like a route that should suit several of our riders very well. Our task now is to analyze the route thoroughly and use that analysis to develop a plan that gives us the best possible chance of success as a team. One thing is certain: this route offers us plenty of opportunities to achieve great things.”
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Here's the reaction to the 2027 Tour route from EF Education-EasyPost:
The race maps for both the men’s and women’s Tours were released Thursday and promise our squads many exciting chances to attack.
The action will begin with two spectacular Grand Départs in Great Britain.
The men’s race is going to get off to a flying start on July 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with three tough, hilly, wind-blasted stages into England and Wales, before the race crosses the English Channel into Normandy. The Tour then traverses towards the Alps in a series of tough classics-style stages, punctuated by the first of two time trials on Stage 7. This Tour, our Cannondale SuperSlices will be put to the test with more kilometers against the clock than the race has included in 15 years. A long first week concludes with a summit finish atop the Gran Colombier.
The second week then starts with an ode to the 2028 world championships in the Alps with a high mountain stage from Annecy to Sallanches. There’s one more Alpine stage from Cluses to Les Saisies, before the race heads back west towards the Pyrenees. Sprinters will have to fight for their chances, as stage after hilly stage could go to breakaways. The third week starts with a 33-kilometer time trial in Toulouse. There’s then a lumpy stage to Pau, before the Tour hits the Pyrenees proper. A summit finish on the Col du Portet could decide the race for the yellow jersey. If not, there’s a terrific stage across three Basque cols to follow, before a flat sprint day and then the grand finale over Montmartre and onto the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Profile of 2027 TDF stage 18 with its finish at the Col du Portet.
Five days later, the women’s Grand Départ will begin with a bang with a stage from Leeds to Manchester made for explosive climbers. Stage 2 from Manchester to Sheffield promises to be a classic through the Peak District over some of the steepest roads any peloton has ever ridden. A team time trial in London, the first TTT in Tour de France Femmes history, concludes the Grand Départ. Then, it’s off to France. From Le Touquet on the coast in northern Pas-de-Calais, the race heads south through the Massif Central over three tough stages that could go to breakaways or sprinters. Stage 7 is the first summit finish, atop La Loge des Gardes. There’s then a mountainous day with a downhill finish into Clermont-Ferrand, before the climactic final stage finishing on the famous Puy de Dôme.
Over the coming months, our riders and staff will be studying their route books, looking for the best spots to make their bids for glory.
Read their first thoughts about the routes of the 2027 Tours de France.
Alex Baudin:
"I think it’s going to be a really hectic start in the U.K. – really tense and stressful. It’s not like last year, where there was a really hard stage making the gaps immediately, so it’ll be tight in GC for the first week. It’s really nice to go back to Brittany, too, with the Côte de Cadoudal, which is quite mythical in France. It is such a beautiful part of the country, so that’s nice and a bit of change compared to last year. There’s the time trial in Chambord, and then we race at home again, which is really special for me – to be on the Tour on my training roads around Annecy and Les Saisies, and then again in Chambéry. It will be super nice to have family and friends on the side of the road. We’ll go over the Col du Pré again – you’ll see the same Virage Baudin as in 2025 – so that’ll be fun. And then back to the Pyrenees for the last week, which I think is going to be super hard again. I’m really excited to be at the start next year."
Alice Towers:
"The first three stages in the U.K. are going to be an absolute career pinnacle for every British rider who gets to ride them. The Tour de France is the only cycling race that most British people know, so for it to be coming to the U.K. is really special.
"The first two stages in particular are going to be super, super hard terrain. They cross the Peak District twice, which are the roads that I grew up training on. Not those ones specifically but that region of England is where I grew up training. That’s already something that I’m thinking about going into the offseason training.
"The crowds are going to be insane. I feel like British people, we just love something that brings people together, especially sport. Everyone clubs together and gets out and is there to support even if they don’t know what they’re cheering for, but they’ll be out clapping and cheering on the roads. It’s going to be amazing.
"For the Tour de France Femmes to come to the U.K. for the first time is going to be super cool. I remember when the Tour came to the U.K. in 2014; I went to watch and it was the first race I watched in real life and there were so many people out on the road that day. I was out riding my little road bike with my brother and my dad. We rode a tiny bit of the course at the beginning and the people were clapping and cheering for us and honking the cowbells and honking the horns just for us passing the course a couple of hours before the race, so the crowds are going to be unbelievable, that’s for sure.
"Of course the TTT is going to be really cool, especially being the first one in the Tour de France Femmes. Then the crossing from the U.K. into France will be interesting. To do some of the roads in northern France: that’s the first time the race has visited there, so they should also be really hard and technical. Super cool. I’m already thinking about it and I’m already motivated during my offseason to get back in the saddle and train for it next year and to try and go for it!"
Jonathan Vaughters, EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO"
"Despite it starting in UK, for me, the 2027 men’s Tour seems very traditional. It’s a throwback Tour with big long flat time trials and quite a few stages for sprinters. There are not so many mountain top finishes. Our approach will be as it’s been for the last few years: we’ll be looking for opportunities where no one else sees them.
Esra Tromp, EF Education-Oatly general manager:
"I’m excited, especially for the days in the U.K. The middle stages of the race are exciting for us. The TTT is challenging as a discipline itself. The course is technical – not so much a challenge of outright difficulty, but always tricky. We look forward to Stages 2, 4, 5, and 7. I think, technically, if you win Stage 2 and you have the yellow jersey and you have a good team time trial, then you can keep the jersey until the last weekend. It gives a lot of opportunities to race aggressively and go for results, so for our team, I think it’s a really interesting route. Even the last weekend, it’s hard, really hard, of course, but it’s really interesting for a lot of different riders and a lot of different race scenarios. I look forward to the Tour next year."
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The team sent me this:
We are thrilled to announce that Tobias Bayer will join EF Education-EasyPost in January.
The 26-year-old loves to race the spring classics as well as grand tours. In the last six years, he has helped his teammates earn 25 wins across one-day races, stages, and general classifications, including 11 grand tour stage victories. Tobias excels in breakaways and medium mountain stages. He is a two-time U23 Austrian time trial and road race national champion and has podiumed at Brussels Cycling Classic.
After six years with the same team, Tobias is ready for a change. He wanted a team where his penchant for breakaways and his ability to race aggressively through all three weeks of a grand tour would be put to good use. EF Education-EasyPost was the first team that came to mind.
Tobias Bayer finishes sixth in 2022 Giro d'Italia stage 19. Sirotti photo
“I like this brave mentality of the team,” Tobias said. “It's a really attacking team. And I think that's just nice to race like this. And I think you have to do things differently in modern cycling, to win against those GC superstars. I mean, you saw in the Tour how successful the team was with their way of racing. The whole team went all out. I think you can only do it this way and they made a lot out of it. Plus, the pink jersey is iconic. I love it.”
Tobias is already looking forward to growing in a new environment and to supporting his new teammates.
“I want to make that next step. There is room to improve and I want to make this step. I always look forward to getting nice results with the team, to really fight for that together. Those are the nicest victories you can have when it's really a team effort. And when the opportunity is there to take something myself, if that's in a breakaway or something else, I really want to give it a shot and go for it,” he said.
EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters sees in Tobias a track record that confirms that the Austrian has proven versatility, as well as room to grow.
“Tobias is the kind of rider who can race a one-day or a grand tour with the same level of focus, freshness, and commitment. He’s shown that he is an incredibly devoted teammate who won’t hesitate to turn himself inside out for the cause. That said, we think he still has untapped potential and we are excited to see what he can do,” Vaughters said.
Over the years of training, racing, and sacrificing, Tobias has learned how to tough it out through challenging times and how to appreciate the joys that life can bring.
“Through cycling, I’ve learned to keep going, keep pushing. It’s not always nice and there will be hard times but to just keep pushing. Sometimes you have to go through the difficult times because that’s what makes the good times even better,” he said.
Tobias knows he’s one of the lucky ones who gets to live his dream every day, and that fuels him.
“Growing up and watching all this on TV, seeing also how it motivates friends and family around me, the atmosphere and everything, is just super cool to be a part of. I've had some really nice moments winning really big races and stages with my teammates while taking part in the biggest races in the world and making an impact. I really like this way of working really hard and getting the best out of myself. This is something that drives me,” Tobias said.
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The Austrian rider is motivated to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way. As a teenager, he faced the choice of becoming a professional cyclist or studying to become an engineer. Tobias, long accustomed to grueling days and hard work, saw no reason not to do both.
“I wanted to do an engineering degree. It takes five years and it’s quite time demanding and it’s a bit difficult to combine with cycling but at one point I said, ok, I really want to give it a shot with cycling and see how far I can go. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll still have a nice job that really excites me,” he said.
Tobias knows every climb, lake, and road around Mondsee, his home these days and just 15 kilometers from where he grew up. In fact it was a local race –and some sibling rivalry– that first got 12-year-old Tobias interested in cycling.
“We had a mountain time trial around my home. My family were all competing in it, and then I also started. That made it kind of fun because I was trying to beat my brother. It took me a few years till I finally beat his best time and that just made it more fun,” Tobias laughed.