The start of the Tour de France is back… in France. Launched in Copenhagen (2022), Bilbao (2023) and Florence (2024), the Grande Boucle, in 2025, will start from Lille, the organizer of the cycling event announced on Tuesday, November 14, in a press release. This will be the 112th edition of the Tour.
The more detailed program of what Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) calls the “Grand Départ” will be revealed on November 30. For several years, the city or region hosting the launch of the Tour has hosted several stages. Thus, in 2024, the event will start from Florence (June 29) and three stages will take the runners successively to Rimini, Bologna and Turin. Due to the Paris Olympic Games, the arrival of this 111th edition of the Tour will exceptionally be judged in Nice – and not in Paris – on July 21.
One in two times abroad since 2000
Lille has already hosted the start of the Tour de France twice in the past, in 1960 and in 1994. In 2025, participants in the Grande Boucle should explore the Nord department and the Hauts-de-France region for a few days, which ASO designates, in its press release, as equal hosts with the European Metropolis of Lille.
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Having become commonplace, the start of the Tour far from Paris dates back – apart from an experience in Evian in 1926 – to 1951, when the peloton set off from Metz. In 1954, the Grande Boucle began, for the first time, outside the borders of France, in Amsterdam. Between 2000 and 2023, the Grande Boucle started twelve times abroad, or one in two times, a sign of the organizer’s desire to internationalize the event and its audience.