About Tour de France
The Tour de France sets off every July for three weeks and roughly 3,300 kilometers of racing. The 2027 Grand Départ leaves Edinburgh on Friday, July 2 — the furthest north the race has ever started — with three stages on British roads through Scotland, England and Wales before the peloton crosses to France. The 113th edition started in Barcelona on July 4, 2026, and only rarely does the world's greatest bike race begin outside France.
The Tour is sport at its most epic: 21 stages over 23 days, crossing flat sprinters' country, brutal high-mountain passes in the Pyrenees and Alps, and time trials that can decide everything. The leader wears the famous yellow jersey (maillot jaune); green rewards the best sprinter, polka-dot the king of the mountains, and white the best young rider.
Up to 12 million spectators line the roads each July — it is free to watch the world's best athletes pass your front door — and a billion more follow on television, drawn as much by the helicopter shots of châteaux and lavender fields as by the racing. Every edition ends the same way, with the traditional finale on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
FAQ
When does the Tour de France start?
Tour de France is on Friday, July 2, 2027. That is 264 days from today. The 2027 Tour starts on Friday, July 2 with a Grand Départ in Edinburgh. ASO sets each year's date and route, usually announcing them the previous October.
How long is the Tour de France?
21 stages raced over 23 days in July, covering roughly 3,300 km including high-mountain stages in the Pyrenees and Alps.
Why does the Tour sometimes start outside France?
The Grand Départ is awarded to a host city that bids for it, and it regularly goes abroad — Copenhagen, Bilbao, Florence, then Barcelona in 2026 and Edinburgh in 2027. It was Barcelona's turn.
What is the yellow jersey?
The maillot jaune is worn by the overall race leader — the rider with the lowest cumulative time — and winning it in Paris is cycling's greatest prize.