List of Tour de France Grands Départs


The Tour de France is an annual road bicycle race held over 23 days in July. Established in 1903 by newspaper L'Auto, the Tour is the most well-known and prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours"; the others are the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. The race usually covers approximately 3,500 kilometres, passing through France and neighbouring countries such as Belgium. The race is broken into day-long segments, called stages. Individual finishing times for each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race.
The course changes every year, but has always finished in Paris; since 1975 it has finished along the Champs-Élysées. The start of the course is known as the Grand Départ. Since the 1950s it has typically taken place in a different town each year, and since the 1970s it has been common to award the Grand Départ to cities outside France as a way of increasing international interest in the competition and the sport. The right to host the Grand Départ is now highly sought after, with cities bidding to host, and has been shown to increase economic activity as well as interest in cycling in the host area.

Host cities

YearCountryRegionGrand Départ hostWinning rider
1903 Île-de-FranceMontgeron
1904 Île-de-FranceMontgeron
1905 Île-de-FranceNoisy-le-Grand
1906 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1907 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1908 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1909 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1910 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1911 Île-de-FranceNeuilly-sur-Seine
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1912 Île-de-FranceParis
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1913 Île-de-FranceBoulogne-Billancourt
1914 Île-de-FranceSaint-Cloud
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919 Île-de-FranceParis
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1920 Île-de-FranceArgenteuil
1921 Île-de-FranceArgenteuil
1922 Île-de-FranceParis
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1923 Île-de-FranceParis
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1924 Île-de-FranceParis
1925 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1926 Rhône-AlpesÉvian-les-Bains
1927 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1928 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1929 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1930 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1931 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1932 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1933 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1934 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1935 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1936 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1937 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1938 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1939 Île-de-FranceLe Vésinet
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947 Île-de-FranceParis
1948 Île-de-FranceParis
1949 Île-de-FranceParis
1950 Île-de-FranceParis
1951 LorraineMetz
1952 BrittanyBrest
1953 AlsaceStrasbourg
1954 North HollandAmsterdam
1955 Upper NormandyLe Havre
1956 Champagne-ArdenneReims
1957de la Loire.png" /> Pays de la LoireNantes
1958 BrabantBrussels
1959 AlsaceMulhouse
1960 Nord-Pas-de-CalaisLille
1961 Upper NormandyRouen
1962 LorraineNancy
1963 Île-de-FranceParis
1964 BrittanyRennes
1965 North Rhine-WestphaliaCologne
1966 LorraineNancy
1967 Pays de la LoireAngers
1968 LorraineVittel
1969 Nord-Pas-de-CalaisRoubaix
1970 LimousinLimoges
1971 AlsaceMulhouse
1972 Pays de la LoireAngers
1973 South HollandScheveningen
1974 BrittanyBrest
1975 WalloniaCharleroi
1976 Pays de la LoireSaint-Jean-de-Monts
1977 Midi-PyrénéesFleurance
1978 South HollandLeiden
1979 Midi-PyrénéesFleurance
1980 HesseFrankfurt
1981 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurNice
1982 Basel-StadtBasel
1983 Île-de-FranceFontenay-sous-Bois
1984 Île-de-FranceMontreuil
1985 BrittanyPlumelec
1986 Île-de-FranceBoulogne-Billancourt
1987 West BerlinWest Berlin
1988 Pays de la LoireLa Baule
1989Luxembourg DistrictLuxembourg City
1990 Poitou-CharentesFuturoscope
1991 Rhône-AlpesLyon
1992 Basque CountrySan Sebastián
1993 Pays de la LoireLe Puy du Fou
1994 Nord-Pas-de-CalaisLille
1995 BrittanySaint-Brieuc
1996 North Brabant's-Hertogenbosch
1997 Upper NormandyRouen
1998 LeinsterDublin
1999 Pays de la LoireLe Puy du Fou
2000 Poitou-CharentesFuturoscope
2001 Nord-Pas-de-CalaisDunkirk
2002Luxembourg DistrictLuxembourg City
2003 Île-de-FranceParis
2004 WalloniaLiège
2005 Pays de la LoireChallans
2006 AlsaceStrasbourg
2007Greater LondonLondon
2008 BrittanyBrest
2009MonacoMonaco
2010 South HollandRotterdam
2011 Pays de la LoirePassage du Gois
2012 WalloniaLiège
2013 CorsicaPorto-Vecchio
2014 West YorkshireLeeds
2015 UtrechtUtrecht
2016 Lower NormandyMont Saint-Michel
2017 North Rhine-WestphaliaDüsseldorf
2018 Pays de la LoireNoirmoutier-en-l'Île
2019 Brussels-Capital RegionBrussels
2020 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurNice
2021 Region HovedstadenCopenhagen

Footnotes

A. Bjarne Riis has admitted to doping during the 1996 Tour de France. The organizers of the Tour de France have stated that they no longer consider him to be the winner, although Union Cycliste Internationale has so far refused to change the official status due to the amount of time passed since his win. Jan Ullrich was placed second on the podium in Paris.
B. Lance Armstrong was declared winner of seven consecutive tours from 1999 to 2005. However, in October 2012 he was stripped of all titles by the UCI due to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The tour director Christian Prudhomme had previously declared that if this happened, there would be no alternate winners for those years, but this has not yet been made official.
C. Floyd Landis was the winner at the podium ceremony in Paris on the last day of the 2006 tour, but subsequently was found to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during stage 17 of the race. The United States Anti-Doping Agency found him guilty of using synthetic testosterone during the race and stripped him of his title on 20 September 2007.
D. Alberto Contador was the winner at the podium ceremony in Paris on the last day of the 2010 tour, but subsequently was found to have tested positive for the prohibited substance Clenbuterol on a rest day. The Court of Arbitration for Sport found him guilty of using clenbuterol during the race and stripped him of his title on 6 February 2012.