2027 Tour de France route revealed: 71km of time trialling presents a new challenge for Pogacar

• From Friday, July 2 to Sunday, July 25
• From Edinburgh to Paris over 3,479km
• 2 individual time trials for a total of 71km
• 7 sprint stages, 6 hilly stages, 6 mountain stages
• 4 mountain ranges: Massif Central, Jura, Alps and Pyrenees 
• 3 summit finishes
• 53,450 metres of elevation gain in total

The 2027 Tour de France will feature two individual time trials totalling 71km, the highest quota against the watch since Bradley Wiggins won the race in 2012. Tadej Pogačar remains the favourite to win a record-breaking sixth Tour in July, but the route will give hope to world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel and perhaps also to French promise Paul Seixas.

The Tour will also include three summit finishes, at the Grand Colombier, Les Saisies and the Col du Portet, while the climb of Montmartre remains a feature on the grand finale in Paris. 

The 2027 route was presented at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Thursday, with race director Christian Prudhomme insisting that the placement of lengthy time trials on stages 7 and 16 would ultimately encourage more attacking racing.

Pogačar dominated the 2026 Tour and had already put the yellow jersey beyond the reach of his rivals by soloing clear on the Tourmalet on stage 6. The 2027 route seems like a response to Pogačar’s supremacy. No Tour route can ever be made ‘Pogačar-proof’, of course, but ASO seems eager to engineer suspense by offering time triallists – and above all Evenepoel – a clear chance to amass a lead on the Slovenian ahead of the high mountains.

The Tour gets under way in Edinburgh on Friday, July 2 and concludes in Paris on Sunday, July 25, with a total distance of 3,479km. The total elevation across the 21 stages will be 53,450m, roughly in line with 2026, and there are some mammoth climbing days, most notably to Les Saisies in the second week and the Col du Portet in the third. 

There will be three rest days, with the first coming after stage 3 to allow the peloton transfer from Great Britain to France. Despite repeated threats to reduce opportunities for sprinters, course designer Thierry Gouvenou has included seven flat stages, with ASO describing six more stages as hilly.

There are six mountain stages on the route, a reduction on the eight that featured in 2026, while the mountaintop finishes are cut from five to three. The first comes on the Grand Colombier on stage 9, with another coming on Les Saisies on stage 11. The third and final summit finish comes on the Col du Portet on stage 18, and the Col de Marie Blanque features just ahead of the drop into Laruns the following day.

The addition of two long and largely flat time trials, however, could change the dynamic of this Tour. The 38km test from Blois to Chambord comes on stage 7, while the third week gets under way with a pivotal 33km time trial around Toulouse on stage 16. 

The Grand Départ in Great Britain was revealed last year, with three road stages on offer. Likely Tour debutant Matthew Brennan (Visma Lease a Bike) will take aim at the first yellow jersey of the race on stage 1 from Edinburgh to Carlisle, though he will face stiff opposition from a full complement of fast men.

Stage 2 from Keswick to Liverpool takes in the hills of the Lake District, which could in turn force a greater selection before the finale after some 223km of racing. A more arduous day awaits on stage 3 to Cardiff, which features no fewer than seven punchy climbs and might produce some early frissons among the GC men.

After the transfer to France, the race resumes with a potentially perilous day on the Norman coast around Cherbourg on stage 4. The risk of splits on exposed roads is evident, while the Côte du Becquet provides a late springboard for attackers in the finale. It might be a Mathieu van der Poel kind of day.

Stage 5 brings the race into Brittany and provides a more obvious platform for puncheurs, with the Tour taking on a familiar finale at Plumelec. The race finishes atop the Côte de Cadoudal (1.7km at 6.2%), which is tackled twice. The 193km run from Vannes to Angers on stage 6 should produce another bunch sprint before the first major rendezvous for the GC contenders the following day. 

The stage 7 time trial from Blois to Chambord takes in some typically telegenic backdrops in the Loire valley, and the 38km distance should produce some significant gaps among the men vying for yellow in Paris. Above all, the time trial presents Evenepoel with a chance to put his stamp on the Tour much like he did early in the 2022 Vuelta a España, but Pogačar, Seixas and Jonas Vingegaard will all believe they can limit the damage.

Those efforts will weigh on the legs when the peloton tackles the rugged stage 8 through the Morvan to Le Creusot, site of the dramatic stage in 2021 when Matej Mohoric claimed the spoils and an injured Primož Roglič’s overall challenge collapsed. The stiff climb of Signal d’Uchon, with its 18% gradients, features with 18km to go.

The opening week of the Tour ends with the race’s entry into the mountains by way of a demanding stage 9 in the Jura. The peloton faces the Col du Berthiand, Côte des Neyrolles and Col de Richemond before the arduous summit finish on the Grand Colombier (17.4km at 7.1%). The ascent has twice featured as a Tour finale, with Michal Kwiatkowski winning from the break in 2023 and Pogačar claiming victory in 2020.

After the Tour’s second rest day, the race resumes in the Alps with a stage to Sallanches that offers a taste of the following month’s demanding World Championships course. The route of stage 10 takes in the Col du Plan de Salève and Montée de Brison before reaching Sallanches, where the peloton will tackle two climbs, the Côte de Domancy either side of the Bettex and Côte du Plateau d’Assy. The relative brevity of the ascent won’t mask the difficulty of the stage, which totals 3,750m of climbing.

An even more onerous day awaits on stage 11, where a set-piece Alpine day awaits.  There are four mountain passes crammed into 150km of racing for a total of 4,750m of climbing. The Col de la Colombière, Col de la Croix Fry and Col de la Forclaz precede the finale at Les Saisies, which is tackled by way of the Montée de Bisanne (12.4km at 8.3%).

The sprinters should have their way on stage 13 to Montpellier, but the climbing resumes again the following day as the Tour snakes through the Massif Central to Mende. There is scarcely a metre of flat on stage 14, with 4,300m of climbing including the Col de la Lusette, the Côte de l’Estrade and the stiff Côte de la Croix Neuve, first climbed when Laurent Jalabert and ONCE blew the Tour apart on Bastille Day in 1995.

The second week concludes with a rugged stage to Albi on stage 15. In years past, this kind of terrain would have lent itself to the early break. In the supersonic 2020s, where every stage is a GC stage, just about anything could be possible, with eight short climbs scattered across the day.

There is a brisk start to the third week, with the stage 16 time trial around Toulouse set to be a defining day in the race for yellow. The 33km test is largely flat, but it comes with a twist just inside the final 10km, with the short but sharp Côte de Pech David (800m at 12%) offering a sudden but short change of rhythm. 

The sprinters should enjoy another opportunity on stage 17, which visits their habitual hunting ground of Pau, before the Tour reaches its final act in the Pyrenees.

Stage 18 is, on paper, the most demanding of the entire Tour, with 5,400m of climbing. The Col du Soulor is followed by the mighty Col du Tourmalet and Hourquette d’Ancizan ahead of a demanding summit finish on the Col du Portet (16km at 8.7%). At 2,215m above sea level, the Portet marks the highest point of the Tour and it features as a summit finish for just the third time after Nairo Quintana’s 2018 victory and Pogačar’s triumph in 2021. 

It should be decisive, but there is still more hardship to come in the Pyrenees on stage 19. The Col de Burdincurutcheta, Col de Bagargui and Col de Soudet precede the Col de Marie Blanque (7.7km at 8.6%), which is followed by a drop into Laruns for a total of 4,300m of climbing.

Stage 20 has the look of a transitional stage, with the sprinters and the break vying for the honours in Libourne, while the Tour concludes in Paris the following day. For the third year in succession, the climb to Montmartre will feature on the final laps of the finishing circuit before the traditional grand finale on the Champs-Élysées.