From Rotterdam to Barcelona: A snapshot of the last 10 foreign Tour Grand Départs

The 2026 Grand Départ will be hosted in Barcelona and will open with a team time trial for the first time since 1971. 

Times will be taken individually, meaning that the GC picture will already begin to take shape after just 19km of racing. 

Next up is an explosive Catalan stage that could provide a similar type of action to that in the Basque Country in 2023. The main feature of stage 2 is a finishing circuit around Montjuïc hill which the peloton will tackle twice.  

Stage 3 sees the race cross from Spain to France, with an early Pyrenean stage, meaning that after just three days of action, there could be significant differences already in the fight for yellow. 

The 2024 Tour de France made more history with its first-ever Grand Départ in Florence, Italy.

Stage 1 was a brutally hot, hilly trek over the Apennines to Rimini. Romain Bardet jumped from the peloton to the breakaway, linking up with Frank van den Broek, who was riding his first Tour.

Together, the duo caused an upset, narrowly holding off the peloton by five seconds, earning Bardet his first career yellow jersey, fittingly in his final Tour before retirement.

Bardet held the lead for just one day. Stage 2 to Bologna featured the steep ramps of the San Luca climb. Up front, Kévin Vauquelin took a solo breakaway win. Behind him, GC favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard traded explosive attacks, Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz bridged across, and Pogačar moved into the yellow jersey.

Stage 3 from Piacenza to Turin belonged to the sprinters. Biniam Girmay navigated a chaotic bunch finish to win, making history as the first Black African rider to win a Tour de France stage before the race crossed into France. Carapaz moved into the yellow jersey based on his stage positioning, marking a great spell in Italy for the former Giro d'Italia winner. 

Stage 1 was a punishingly hilly loop around Bilbao. The brutal final climbs tore the peloton apart, forcing Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz out of the race due to a major crash.

Stage 1 was a punishingly hilly loop around Bilbao. On the brutal, steep ramps of the final climb, the Côte de Pike, top favourites TadejPogačar and JonasVingegaard launched an explosive acceleration that shattered the peloton, with only VictorLafay remarkably able to match their furious pace. 

After the trio crested the summit together, identical twins Adam and Simon Yates slipped away on the descent. AdamYates ultimately outsprinted his brother to secure the first yellow jersey in a unique Tour situation.

Yates successfully defended his lead on Stage 2 to San Sebastián, which featured the Jaizkibel climb. While the GC contenders fought for bonus seconds at the summit, Frenchman Lafayexecuted a brilliant, late solo attack in the final kilometre, capitalising on his exceptional shape, catching the selective group out to take a much-needed Tour stage win for Cofidis.

Stage 3 saw the race bid farewell to the massive Basque crowds, travelling from Amorebieta-Etxano across the border into Bayonne, France. The transition stage belonged entirely to the fast men. Aided by a flawless, high-speed lead-out from teammate Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen comfortably won the chaotic bunch sprint to open his account. 

For the first time in Tour history, the Grand Départ took place in Scandinavia in 2022. Copenhagen, Denmark, took centre stage on the opening day with an individual time trial. 

Yves Lampaert flew under the radar on the rain-soaked course that caught plenty of riders out, to take the stage victory and yellow jersey four seconds ahead of Wout van Aert. 

Stage 2 saw the riders cross the Great Belt Bridge, an 18km stretch which threatened crosswinds and even saw the race leader Lampaert suffer a crash. 

In the dash to the finish in Nyborg, it was Lampaert's teammate Fabio Jakobsen who took the spoils, continuing his remarkable comeback after his horror crash at the Tour of Pologne in 2020. 

Despite returning to the peloton, Lampaert lost the yellow jersey courtesy of the bonus seconds that Wout van Aert picked up for finishing second on the stage. 

The Danish Grand Départ rounded out with another bunch sprint where Dylan Groenewegen proved to be the quickest ahead of Van Aert, who took his third consecutive second-place finish. Van Aert would later get his hands in the air on stage 4 when the race returned to France. 

The 2019 Grand Départ kicked off in Belgium, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx's first overall victory at the race. 

It was a delightful start to the race for Jumbo Visma as Mike Teunissen claimed a surprise sprint victory on the opening stage in Brussels after his sprint leader, Dylan Groenewegen, crashed inside the final 2km.

Teunissen remained in yellow after Jumbo-Visma powered to victory in a team time trial on stage 2, finishing by the Atomium landmark. 

The third and final stage, which began on Belgian soil, took the peloton to France and Épernay, where Julian Alaphilippe launched a daring solo effort on the hilly run-in to take the stage and yellow jersey. 

It marked the start of Alaphilippe's spectacular run at the Tour, where he would wear the yellow jersey for all but three remaining stages. 

2017 marked the return of the German Grand Départ for the fourth time, and the first time since 1987, before German reunification. 

The race began with an individual time trial in Düsseldorf that was defined by inclement weather conditions. Alejandro Valverde was among those who were impacted by the wet roads, with the Spanish rider abandoning the race after a crash. 

Geraint Thomas motored around the course to take the stage win and yellow jersey, as home favourite and World Champion Tony Martin had to settle for fourth.

Stage 2 began in Düsseldorf but would conclude in Liège, Belgium. This didn't stop the German party as Marcel Kittel romped to victory, his first of five in the 2017 edition. 

The Tour returned to the Netherlands after a five-year absence in 2015, with Utrecht hosting the Grand Départ.

Utrecht played host to a rapid time trial on the opening stage, which saw Rohan Dennis blast to victory with the fastest time trial in Tour de France history, completing the 13.8km course with an average speed of 55.446km/h.

The peloton departed Utrecht at the start of stage 2, heading along the coast towards Zeeland, with a finale that saw echelons wreak havoc on the race. In the end, André Greipel navigated the trials and tribulations to take the stage win, with Chris Froome and Alberto Contador the big GC winners, while Nairo Quintana and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali shipped valuable time. Meanwhile, Cancellara took yellow as Dennis was distanced. 

Stage 3 began on Belgian soil in the city of Antwerp and finished on the iconic Mur de Huy. There was more chaos as a significant crash with 58km remaining forced a brief neutralisation of the stage. Among those involved in the crash were race leader Fabian Cancellara and Tom Dumoulin, who led the youth classification. 

When the action resumed, and the riders hit the steep slopes of the Mur, Joaquim Rodríguez rose to the fore on a natural playground for the Spaniard, taking the stage win ahead of Froome, who moved into yellow.

For just the second time, the Tour de France kicked off in England.  However, unlike the 2007 edition, which began in London and featured stages in the south, the 2014 edition kicked off in Leeds, Yorkshire.

The atmosphere on the opening stage was electric, with British star Mark Cavendish among the favourites for victory. In a frantic finish to Harrogate, Cavendish was involved in a collision with Simon Gerrans, ruling both out of the finish, which was ultimately won by a powerful Marcel Kittel. 

Kittel would only have one day to savour the yellow jersey as stage 2 was a hilly affair that had the potential to draw out the GC contenders. That proved to be the case as the short, steep Category 4 Jenkin Road Hill saw a select group of around 20 riders break clear with a mixture of GC contenders as well as Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet. 

However, a late attack from Vincenzo Nibali caught the opposition cold, and the Italian Champion soloed the final couple of kilometres to take his first of four victories in the 2014 edition en route to winning overall. 

The final stage took place further south, beginning in Cambridge, heading via Essex towards London with a finish near Buckingham Palace on The Mall. With Cavendish abandoning the race after his opening stage crash, the stage was set for Kittel to sweep up, and the German duly delivered with another fine finish ahead of Sagan. 

The 2012 Tour began in neighbouring Belgium with the city of Liège hosting the Grand Départ for the second time, one of just three foreign cities to have hosted multiple Grand Départs following 2004. 

Fabian "Spartacus" Cancellara romped to victory in the opening prologue around Liège, as Bradley Wiggins finished best of the rest, setting a precedent en route to winning the GC. 

Stage 1 took the peloton from Liège to Seraing, culminating on the uphill ramp of the Côte de Seraing. Here, 22-year-old Peter Sagan burst through the pack to claim his first career Tour stage victory.

In the process, Sagan became the youngest Tour stage winner since Lance Armstrong in 1993, in what was the Slovakian's first of twelve stages at La Grande Boucle. 

The Belgian Grand Départ concluded with a pure sprint stage from Visé to Tournai. Predictably, Mark "The Manx Missile" Cavendish rocketed to victory in the rainbow jersey ahead of André Greipel and Matthew Goss.

This podium mirrored the Copenhagen World Championships, where Cavendish won his stripes, with Greipel and Goss swapping steps. 

The 2010 Tour de France launched its Grand Départ from the port city of Rotterdam, marking the first time the race had started in the Netherlands since 1996

Following an opening prologue time trial won by Fabian Cancellara, Stage 1 took the riders from Rotterdam into Brussels.

It was a chaotic finale with the likes of Mark Cavendish, Óscar Freire, Lance Armstrong and Cancellara caught up in incidents. In the end, Alessandro Petacchi navigated the dangers to land the stage victory.

Stage 2 from Brussels to Spa completely upended the race. Wet, slick conditions on the descent of the Col du Stockeu caused an unprecedented wave of crashes, taking down GC contenders including Andy Schleck and stage 1 winner Petacchi. 

In response, Cancellara famously neutralised the peloton's pace to allow everyone to regroup. This suited Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel who was out front in the breakaway, who soloed to a stage win and claimed the yellow jersey from Cancellara. 

Stage 3 from Wanze to Arenberg brought the peloton face-to-face with the punishing cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. The stage split the field with many GC contenders losing significant time. 

Up front, Thor Hushovd sprinted to victory from a select group of six ahead of Geraint Thomas, Cadel Evans, Ryder Hesjedal, Schleck and Cancellara with the latter regaining the yellow jersey.