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The full route for the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes have been unveiled, with a double-header of the Col du Tourmalet and Col du Portet featuring on a brutal queen stage for the men’s race, while the women tackle the iconic Puy de Dome.
Race organisers ASO revealed the course design at a presentation at the Palais des Congres in Paris on Thursday.
The men’s race runs from Friday 2 July to Sunday 25 July, with three race days rather than the customary two and a three-day opening week. The women’s race begins on Friday 30 July 30 and runs until Saturday 7 August.
The Grand Depart for both editions is to take place in Britain and had already been announced, with 2027 marking the first time that both races will begin in the same country outside France.
Stage one of the Tour travels from Edinburgh to Carlisle, with stage two from Keswick to Liverpool and stage three from Welshpool to Cardiff, before the extra rest day on the first Monday of the race to allow for the transfer to France.
Once on the mainland the race continues in Cherbourg, heading out of Normandy through well-known host towns Plumelec and Vannes before the first of two individual time trials in Chambord. The mountain stages begin on stage nine’s ride to Grand Colombier, with a rest day in Haute-Savoie leading to another two days in the Alps including the climbs of the Cote de Dormancy and Les Saisies.
The final week begins with a 33km ITT in Toulouse before moving south into the final mountainous battleground, the Pyrenees. Jumping off from Pau, stage 18 is the most brutal, taking in the Col du Portet and the infamous Col du Torumalet, which feature on the same stage for the first time, with Le Soulor and the Hourquette d’Ancizan adding to an already gruelling queen stage.
The climbing continues in the Basque Country before a long transfer back up north to Paris. The final stage begins in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, home of the Paris Olympics velodrome, and once again visits the hugely popular Montmartre, with three circuits of the punchy climb before a 10km run to the traditional finish line on the Champs-Elysees.
As well as two ITTs totalling 71km – the longest time against the clock of any edition since 2012 – there are seven flat stages, six hilly stages, and six days in the mountains including three summit finishes – on the Grand Colombier, Les Saisies and Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet – on the parcours.
In total the riders will tackle 53,450m of climbing across the Massif Central, Jura, Alps and Pyrenees, traversing 3,479km in total.
Overall this route has followed the trend of recent Tours: another mountainous challenge tailor-made for five-time champion Tadej Pogacar, who will resume hostilities with Jonas Vingegaard as he targets a sixth title. The amount of time-trialling on the route will also appeal to Olympic and world champion Remco Evenepoel, who finished second this year.
The Tour de France Femmes will begin in Leeds – harking back to the Grand Depart of the 2014 men’s race – with a flat stage to Manchester before a tough day out in the Peak District and a first-ever team time trial in central London, featuring landmarks including Westminster, St Paul’s Cathedral and Trafalgar Square before finishing on The Mall.
The sixth edition of the women’s race has stuck with the nine-day schedule from last year but with an additional rest day to allow for the transfer to France.
The peloton will then head to France with a flat stage from Le Touquet to Calais, with the race visiting Orleans and Clermont-Ferrand as it travels southwards, with the queen stage coming on its last day and finishing atop Puy de Dome, which makes its debut, in the Massif Central.
There are only two mountain stages on the agenda, both summit finishes, the first on stage seven at La Loge des Gardes, and no individual time trial.
The queen stage features 3,840m of elevation gain but while there are two ‘hilly’ stages which promise general classification action, overall this is a less dramatic route on paper compared to previous years’ – in particular the 2026 edition, which featured more than 1,000m more climbing and a spectacular queen stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux.
In total the race covers 1,156km, with the longest day coming on stage nine at 170km from Clermont-Ferrand to Puy de Dome, an 11.3km climb averaging 7.8%.
The layout of this race, with the toughest stage on the final day, means the battle for the yellow jersey is highly likely to be decided at its very end – setting up a grandstand finish.
The last three stages are the toughest, with chances for breakaway specialists and Classics-style riders on the Ardennes-style stage five and two chances for the pure sprinters before the backloaded finale.
This year’s champion Demi Vollering of FDJ United-Suez is set to renew her rivalry with 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma, who is moving to Lidl-Trek in the off-season, as the Dutchwoman seeks a third title at the sport’s biggest race.
