Tour de France Hospitality

The Tour de France is professional road cycling's biggest race, and in 2027 it begins in Britain. The 114th edition opens with three stages on British roads from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 July 2027, running Edinburgh to Carlisle, Keswick to Liverpool, then Welshpool to Cardiff. Four weeks later the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opens its sixth edition here as well, from Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August. According to the official host committee for the British Grand Départ, which runs the event with British Cycling, this is the first time in the history of either race that both have begun in the same country outside France.

Which stages of the 2027 Tour de France are in Britain?

Three men's stages and three women's stages, six in total. The men's race runs Edinburgh to Carlisle on Friday 2 July, Keswick to Liverpool on Saturday 3 July, and Welshpool to Cardiff on Sunday 4 July. The women's race runs Leeds to Manchester on Friday 30 July, Manchester to Sheffield on Saturday 31 July, and a team time trial in central London on Sunday 1 August. All six routes were published by the host committee and by race organiser ASO.

That gives ten host locations across three nations: Edinburgh, Carlisle, Keswick, Liverpool, Welshpool, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and London. Manchester is the only town on the list twice, as the finish of the women's opening stage on Deansgate and the start of the following day's stage. The full stage-by-stage breakdown, with distances and dates, is set out in our guide to the 2027 British Grand Départ route and dates.

Is this the first time the Tour de France has come to Britain?

No, but it is only the third British Grand Départ. London hosted the start in 2007 and Yorkshire hosted it in 2014. Britain has seen Tour stages on two earlier occasions, at Plymouth in 1974 and at Brighton and Portsmouth in 1994, but those were ordinary stages passing through rather than the race's official start.

How much of the 2027 route has been confirmed?

The six British stages are confirmed in full, announced on 15 January 2026 by Tour director Christian Prudhomme and Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse, with all ten host locations lit in yellow on the same evening: Edinburgh Castle, Powis Castle, Cardiff Castle, the Moot Hall in Keswick and the Liverpool waterfront among them. What follows the British stages has not been published. Several cycling outlets expect the remainder of the route around the end of October 2026, which matches how ASO usually stages its announcements, but the organisers have confirmed no date. The detailed London team time trial course has also not appeared yet; British Cycling said in April 2026 that it would be revealed later in the year.

What is still unknown

No host authority has yet published road closures, fan zone locations or stage timings, in any of the ten towns and cities. Local authorities along a race route usually put out closure maps and travel advice a few weeks beforehand, so that detail will land much closer to the race.

Does watching the Tour de France in Britain cost anything?

Standing at the roadside is free and needs no ticket. Two councils on the route, Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness, have both put that in writing. Every one of the six British stages will also be shown live and free-to-air on Channel 5, under a three-year agreement with TNT Sports announced on 17 June 2026.

Which of the six days suits which group?

They are six different days out, and the differences matter more than the distances. Edinburgh is a Grand Départ morning: team presentation, sign-on and the roll-out, all done by lunchtime. Liverpool is the only large city-centre finish on the three British stages of the men’s race, with the race arriving late on a Saturday afternoon. Cardiff closes the men’s weekend on a Sunday in a capital city, so it carries the ceremony as well as the sprint.

On the women's weekend, Manchester is the only host location that gives you a finish and a start from a single base, on consecutive days. Leeds is a Friday-morning start in the middle of the city. London on the closing Sunday is a circuit, so a fixed viewing point sees the field come past repeatedly rather than once.

Prestige Corporate Events works those days individually rather than as one package, because a start morning and a capital-city finish are not the same problem to solve. Detail per stage sits on the men’s British Grand Départ and the women’s British Grand Départ pages.

How the Tour de France works

The Tour is a stage race. Riders complete a set number of stages over three weeks, and the rider with the lowest combined time across all of them wears the yellow jersey and wins overall. Individual stages are won outright on the day, which is why a sprinter can take a stage without ever contending for the overall race. Green is the points jersey, usually contested by sprinters; polka dot goes to the best climber; white to the best young rider.

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is the women's edition, first run in its current form in 2022 and reaching its sixth edition in 2027. It is a shorter race over fewer days, with its own overall winner, its own jerseys and its own following. In 2027 the two races share a host nation for the first time.

A stage is largely decided in the final hour, so the best roadside viewing is rarely at the start line. Categorised climbs, where the road narrows and the riders are slow, put you closest to the race for longest, which is why the Côte de Melrose in the Eildon Hills, the Côte de Rhigos in the Rhondda and the Snake Pass crossing on the women's Peak District stage will be the busiest points on their respective days.