Tour de France 2027 routes unveiled with British Grand Départ, two time-trials and Puy de Dôme finish for Femmes
Organisers ASO revealed the full routes for the 2027 Tour de France in Paris on Thursday, confirming British stages, two individual time-trials and a volcano finish for the Tour de France Femmes on the Puy de Dôme.
Edinburgh will host the most northerly Grand Départ in 2027, surpassing the 2022 start in Copenhagen, and follows 2026’s southerly launch in Barcelona; the first three stages in Britain — Scotland, England and Wales — had already been disclosed in January. ASO’s published itinerary includes two individual time-trials and a closing men’s stage around Paris that again takes on the Montmartre climb for the third year running. The Scottish start completes a pattern of the race beginning abroad for the fifth time in six years.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme framed the early route to favour aggressive racing, calling the Welsh third stage “Liège-Bastogne-Liège” and saying “The first 10 days are designed to keep the jerseys changing hands, the best puncheurs in the world against the overall favourites.” He warned against a procession after 2026, when “the Slovenian great – who will be bidding for a record sixth yellow jersey victory – held the lead almost from beginning to end,” adding he wanted “to muddy the waters, to have a route which allows for anything to happen”.
The route places two key time-trials before the high mountains: a pancake-flat 38km test on stage seven and a 33km individual effort around Toulouse on stage 16. The course should appeal to Remco Evenepoel — described in the announcement as “the Olympic and world champion in the discipline” who “finished second to Pogacar in July” — with organisers saying the later time-trial “should again favour the Belgian.”
Mountain content is substantial but selective: riders will face 28 climbs and a total elevation gain of 53,450m, spread across six mountainous stages that include just three summit finishes. The highest point is the Col du Portet in the Pyrenees on stage 18 at 2,215m, and the route omits Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux, Galibier and Izoard while taking on the Tourmalet and passing through Domancy, “where the world championships will be held the following month.” Prudhomme added: “If you want to discover other climbs, you have to accept that we don’t systematically use the best-known ones. It’s the first time that we will link the Tourmalet and the Portet – two monsters – and the next day there will also be terribly steep ascents with the return of the Basque climbs Burdincurutcheta and Bagargui for the first time since 2023.”
Race geography and stage profiles offer few straightforward sprints: a windy arrival on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy and a largely coastal fourth stage precede the first mountain test, a stage-nine finish on the Grand Colombier in the Jura. Organisers noted sprinters will find limited opportunities in the opening week, and curiously the 20th, penultimate stage is designed for the sprinters, “meaning that the Tour should be sewn up two days before the Montmartre excitement in Paris.”
The 2027 Tour de France Femmes will begin in Leeds and be contested over nine stages from 30 July to 7 August, 2027, with the first three stages held in England and including the race’s first ever team time-trial that passes Big Ben and Buckingham Palace in London. Its finale comes on the Puy de Dôme, reached at the end of the race’s longest stage of over 170km, which organisers singled out as decisive for the women’s overall.
The announcement arrived after two recent dramatic editions of the men’s race, with Wout van Aert winning in 2025 and Mathieu van der Poel narrowly prevailing “back in July,” aided by Tadej Pogacar; organisers confirmed the 114th edition will still finish in Paris on a stage incorporating the Montmartre climb for a third consecutive year.