Tour de France: Brest to host 2021 Grand Depart after Copenhagen withdrawal

Cycling
The 2019 Grand Depart in Brussels

The 2021 Tour de France will start in the western French port of Brest after the Grand Depart in the Danish capital of Copenhagen was postponed by a year.

As well as hosting the Grand Depart, the Brittany region will host four full stages of the race.

Copenhagen pulled out because of a clash with the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament and will now host in 2022.

Next year’s race will start earlier than normal on 26 June to avoid a clash with the Tokyo Olympics.

The conclusion in Paris on 18 July is now six days before the men’s Olympic road race in Japan.

“We have been talking with local authorities about this since 2018,” said Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme.

“We were originally thinking about 2022, but the pandemic has changed all that.”

However, Prudhomme refused to confirm whether the city of Rennes had refused to host a stage.

“We can only go where the elected officials invite us to go,” he added.

“There are four stages and even then we couldn’t please all the people who did want us.”

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