Tour de France to start in Edinburgh in 2027

LONDON : The Scottish city of Edinburgh will host the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2027 as the world's most famous cycling race returns to Britain for the fifth time.

It will be the third time the race has started in Britain after London in 2007 and Leeds in 2014.

Organisers also confirmed on Wednesday that the Tour de France Femmes will come to Britain in 2027, the first time both races have held stages in the same country outside of France.

Further details on routes will be announced in the autumn, but the prospect of a stage on the cobblestones of Edinburgh's Royal Mile is a mouth-watering one.

Organisers also confirmed that the Tour's first three stages will be in Scotland, England and Wales.

"Why Edinburgh? Because it's a magical city," the Tour's General Director Christian Prudhomme told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday. "In the Tour de France and all cycling races, what is very important is the helicopter shots.

"Edinburgh and Scotland will offer a magnificent backdrop."

The Tour first came to Britain in 1974 when Plymouth hosted a stage and it returned 20 years later in Dover to celebrate the opening of the Channel Tunnel. London staged the Grand Depart in 2007 and in 2014 massive crowds perched on the Yorkshire hills as the race began in brutal and spectacular fashion.

"It was a wall of people, it was massive," Prudhomme said.

The opening stage in 2014 ended in Harrogate where home favourite Mark Cavendish crashed badly, ruling him out of the rest of the race. Despite that disappointment, Cavendish said starting a Tour in Britain was unforgettable.

"I did two British Grand Departs. The first one was my first ever Tour of France and for many years that was the greatest Grand Depart any rider of our generation