Edinburgh Opens a 2027 Tour Built for Time Trials

A.S.O. published the Tour de France 2027 route on 22 October, sending the 114th edition from Edinburgh to Paris over 3,479 kilometres. Two individual time trials add up to 71km, the most since 2012, and only three of six mountain stages finish on a summit.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme told French media he wanted a rebalancing after Tadej Pogacar, the five-time winner, held yellow almost from start to finish in 2026. The map that followed still asks the same rider to beat the punchers, the clock, and the Pyrenees.

Where the 2027 Tour Starts in Britain

Riders leave Edinburgh on Friday, 2 July 2027, the northernmost Grand Depart the race has ever staged, further north than Copenhagen in 2022. A.S.O. calls it the 28th start abroad and the third in Great Britain, after London in 2007 and Yorkshire in 2014. Scotland and Wales host the men’s race for the first time.

The opening 185 km run from the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the foot of Edinburgh Castle, up the Royal Mile, then south through Midlothian, the Borders and a slice of Dumfries and Galloway to a likely sprint in Carlisle. Melrose holds the day’s only ranked climb. Newcastleton gets the intermediate sprint.

Saturday’s 223 km from Keswick to Liverpool and Sunday’s 223 km from Welshpool to Cardiff complete a 631 km British loop. Prudhomme compared the Welsh day to Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a string of steep hills through the old mining valleys, with Caerphilly’s last kilometre pitched at 11 or 12 percent. Britain then hands the race to a transfer rest day in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin on 5 July.

The official account posted the full map as soon as Prudhomme left the stage at the Palais des Congres in Paris.

🚩 Edimbourg ➡️ Paris 🏁

🤩 Here is the official route of the #TDF2027!

🤩 Voici le parcours officiel du #TDF2027 ! pic.twitter.com/0EtPvXzEq4

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) October 22, 2026

Out of 38 stage towns, nine appear on the Tour map for the first time. Six of them sit on those opening British roads.

NINE NEW STAGE TOWNS

• Edinburgh: Start of stage 1, and the first Scottish Grand Depart.
• Carlisle: Finish of stage 1, just across the English border.
• Keswick: Start of stage 2 in the Lake District.
• Liverpool: Finish of stage 2 on the waterfront.
• Welshpool: Start of stage 3 in Powys.
• Cardiff: Finish of stage 3, the last British night.
• Pontorson: Start of stage 5 in Normandy.
• Les Saisies: Summit finish of stage 11 in the Alps.
• Hasparren: Start of stage 19 in the Basque country.

Paul Bush, managing director of Grand Depart GB 2027, called the dual British starts “an extraordinary, and historic moment.” Inside France the race later visits 9 regions and 31 departments.

Two Time Trials Stretch to 71km

Stage 7 is 38 km from Blois to Chambord, pancake-flat among the Loire chateaux. Stage 16 is 33 km around Toulouse, an out-and-back along the Garonne with one sting: the Pech David climb, about 800 metres at more than 12 percent, the bottom nearer 20 percent. Together they are the longest dose of individual time trialling in the Tour since Bradley Wiggins’s 2012 win.

Prudhomme named the man that distance is built for. Remco Evenepoel, the world time trial champion who finished second to Pogacar in 2026, is “the grand master of the exercise,” he said. He also pointed to Paul Seixas, the Frenchman who took fourth on his Tour debut at 19 and then won Il Lombardia. “There’s a kind of rebalancing happening when you see the dominance of a rider in the time trials, with Remco Evenepoel in this case, Seixas or others,” Prudhomme said.

We never design a route for or against a particular rider. We can design courses for a certain type of rider, but not for a specific rider.

Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director

He repeated that this was not an anti-Pogacar plan, and even floated the thought that Pogacar might win both time trials. “Pogacar likes challenges,” he said. The harder reading of the same map is that 71 km against the clock hurt a high-mountain specialist such as Jonas Vingegaard more than they hurt Pogacar, who already wins the short, steep days the first week is stuffed with.

Prudhomme also asked, in public, how Pogacar will come back from a heavy crash at the Vuelta a Espana. “There are definitely some questions after his crash,” he said, talking as much about nerve on descents as about watts.

Only Three Roads Finish Uphill

The 3,479 km official route lists six mountain stages and a total of 53,450 m of climbing, yet it plants the finish line on a summit only three times: the Grand Colombier on stage 9, Les Saisies on stage 11, and the Col du Portet on stage 18. There is no Alpe d’Huez, no Mont Ventoux, no Galibier, no Izoard. Prudhomme said the Alps in 2027 may not even go above 2,000 m.

“If you want to discover other climbs, you have to accept that we don’t systematically use the best-known ones,” he said. The official 2027 route poster still finds room for the Tourmalet, the Portet, and a Basque encore that the race has not used since 2003.

THE 21 STAGES FROM EDINBURGH TO PARIS

Distances are listed before a final measurement of the roads. Every road stage still pays 10, 6 and 4 bonus seconds to the first three, with an intermediate sprint each day.

Punchy Days Before the Mountains

Prudhomme said people who only glance at the first week will count eight bunch sprints and be wrong. After Carlisle, the route keeps hanging finishes in front of the yellow-jersey group. Cherbourg’s coastal loop has a 10 percent kick about 10 km from the line. Plumelec returns the Cadoudal climb, 1,500 metres at 5 percent, on a finishing circuit. Le Creusot, the longest day at 224 km, revisits the steep ramps where Matej Mohoric won in 2021 after Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert had already torn the race open.

“The first 10 days are designed to keep the jerseys changing hands, the best puncheurs in the world against the overall favourites,” Prudhomme said. The best rider in both groups, as he also noted, is still Pogacar.

THE FIRST ELEVEN DAYS

1. 2 July 2027: Edinburgh to Carlisle, 185 km, the northernmost start, built for the sprinters.
2. 3 July 2027: Keswick to Liverpool, 223 km, hills in the middle and a fight between pure sprinters and men such as Mads Pedersen.
3. 4 July 2027: Welshpool to Cardiff, 223 km, the Liege-style day through the Welsh valleys.
4. 5 July 2027: Rest and transfer in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.
5. 6 to 8 July 2027: Cherbourg, Plumelec and Vannes to Angers, three hilly days on the French coast and into the west.
6. 9 July 2027: Blois to Chambord time trial, 38 km, the first big gaps on the clock.
7. 10 July 2027: Bourges to Le Creusot, 224 km, the longest stage, a puncher’s finish.
8. 11 July 2027: First summit, the Grand Colombier, the day before the Haute-Savoie rest.

The Grand Colombier is the third Tour finish on that climb. Prudhomme said there is no other col before it on stage 9, so the favourites can empty themselves knowing the rest day sits on the other side.

The Col du Portet Is the Queen Stage

Week two threads the Jura, then the Alps. Stage 10 from Annecy to Sallanches uses the Cote de Domancy, a preview of the world championships that follow in August. Stage 11 finishes at Les Saisies after the Col du Pre and the Bisanne climb, 12.4 km at 8.3 percent. Stage 14 to Mende, which looks like a transition on a map, carries about 4,300 m of climbing through the Cevennes, including the Cote de l’Estrade and a finish above 12 percent.

Then the race stops in Toulouse, races 33 km against the clock, and sprints into Pau. Stage 18 is the one Prudhomme called the queen day without a pause: 174 km from Pau to the Col du Portet, about 5,400 m of climbing, the Soulor from its harder side, the Tourmalet from Bareges, the Hourquette d’Ancizan, and 16 km at 8.7 percent to 2,215 m. It is only the Portet’s third Tour appearance, and the first time it has been tied to the Tourmalet on the same day.

THE 2027 ROUTE IN FOUR FIGURES

• 3,479 km: Total distance from Edinburgh to Paris, before a final check of the roads.
• 53,450 m: Total climbing, spread across the Massif Central, Jura, Alps and Pyrenees in that order.
• 71 km: Individual time trialling, the most in 15 years.
• 3 summits: Grand Colombier, Les Saisies and the Col du Portet, the roof of the race at 2,215 m.

Stage 19 from Hasparren to Laruns brings back Burdincurutcheta and Bagargui, unused since 2003, and unused in this direction since 1987. Prudhomme reminded the room that Bernard Hinault detonated the race on Burdincurutcheta in 1986, the year he was chasing a sixth Tour, and then cracked the next day. Stage 20 is a 198 km flat run from Maubourguet to Libourne, a sprinters’ day that, on paper, means yellow should already be settled. Stage 21 is 116 km into Paris with the Montmartre climb back for a third year. Prudhomme said he has no wish to remove it, and that he hopes the times count this time after they were neutralised in previous editions.

Wout van Aert won that Paris stage in 2025. Mathieu van der Poel held off the bunch by inches in 2026, with help from Pogacar.

The Women’s Race Starts in Leeds

Great Britain is the first country outside France to host both Grands Departs in the same year. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opens on 30 July, five days after the men reach Paris, and runs nine days with no rest, a nine-stage women’s route of 1,156 km and 17,665 m of climbing.

Stage 1 is 86 km from Leeds to Manchester. Stage 2 is 154 km from Manchester to Sheffield across the Peak District. Stage 3 is the first team time trial in the race’s history, 18 km through central London, finishing on The Mall. Marion Rousse, the women’s race director, said the team time trial has always been one of the most spectacular formats in the sport, and that she was proud the first one in this race would be in London.

The peloton then crosses to Le Touquet-Paris-Plage and races through 11 French departments in six regions. The last three days sit in the Massif Central. Stage 9, the longest at 170 km, finishes on the Puy de Dome with 3,840 m of climbing. The highest point of the week is the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert at 1,451 m on stage 8.

Prudhomme’s own test for the men’s map was simple. If the favourite wins, that is fine, so long as the fight is ruder than 2026. The course he signed off still gives that favourite the punchy week he likes, then asks everyone else to take time back on 71 km of tarmac and three roads that actually end uphill.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Does the Tour de France 2027 Start and Finish?

The men’s race runs from Friday, 2 July to Sunday, 25 July 2027, with rest days on 5 July in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, 12 July in Haute-Savoie and 19 July in Toulouse. Those three rest days, including the Channel transfer, are part of the published calendar, not optional add-ons.

Where Does the 2027 Tour de France Start in Scotland?

Stage 1 starts in Edinburgh at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the foot of Edinburgh Castle, then uses the Royal Mile, North Bridge, Princes Street, the Mound, the Grassmarket and the A7 south through Newtongrange, Gorebridge, Innerleithen, Galashiels, Melrose, Selkirk, Hawick and Newcastleton before the finish in Carlisle.

How Many Time Trials Are in the 2027 Tour de France?

There are two individual time trials and no team time trial for the men: 38 km from Blois to Chambord on 9 July and 33 km around Toulouse on 20 July. The Toulouse circuit is flat along the Garonne except for Pech David, a short wall that already featured in 2025.

What Are the Summit Finishes on the 2027 Route?

The three summit finishes are the Grand Colombier on 11 July, Les Saisies on 14 July and the Col du Portet on 22 July. Mende, Sallanches and Laruns are mountain days that do not finish at the top of the last climb, which is why a race with six mountain stages still has only three uphill arrivals.

When Is the Tour de France Femmes 2027?

The sixth edition runs from Friday, 30 July to Saturday, 7 August 2027, nine stages and no rest day, starting in Leeds and ending on the Puy de Dome. Time bonuses on the women’s road stages match the men’s: 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three.