Tour de France to start in Lille in 2025

The 2025 Tour de France will start in the northern city of Lille, the organisers of cycling's most famous race announced this week

The opening stage has been held in Lille, near the Belgian border, twice before in 1960 and 1994.

The past two editions of the Tour, which started in 1903, have taken place abroad, in Copenhagen and Bilbao.

Next year's race will take off from Florence, Italy, and for the first time it will end in Nice and not Paris, due to the Olympic Games taking place in the French capital.

Local newspaper, La Voix du Nord, reported the first stage will be a sprint with another day of the opening four to be based on northern France's famous cobbles.

Although the full details of the 2025 Grand Départ are yet to be disclosed and are scheduled to be announced on November 30th in Lille, speculation surrounds the potential inclusion of the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix and various terrain in the Hauts-de-France Region. The proximity to the cobblestone routes hints at a possible challenging start to the Tour.

Lille, known for being close to the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, has historically been a start-finish town for the Tour’s pavé stages. Local media report that the first stage will commence in Lille, with the possibility of four stages in the Hauts-de-France Region before moving along the west coast of France towards Normandy and Brittany.