La Grande Boucle will start in Spain in two years.
The Tour de France 2023 will indeed start from Bilbao, in the Spanish Basque Country, according to the announcement made on Friday March 26 by its organizers with local authorities.
In its history, the Tour has started only once from the Basque Country, in 1992 in San Sebastián (Spain).
In 2023, the race will begin with a stage with start and finish in Bilbao, the capital of the province of Biscay.
The second stage will go from the province of Biscay to the province of Alava.
The Grande Boucle will leave abroad twice in a row, as was already the case in 2014 (Yorkshire, United Kingdom) and 2015 (Utrecht, Netherlands).
💛 Grand Départ # TDF2023
🗓 1st July 2023
🤩 It's destination Bilbao and @Bizkaia for the start of the 110th edition of the Tour de France!
💛 Grand Départ # TDF2023
🗓 July 1, 2023
🤩 Head to the Basque Country and Bilbao for the 110th edition of the Tour de France!
pic.twitter.com/bZkzChV6uG
- Tour de France ™ (@LeTour) March 26, 2021
25th departure from abroad
If the next edition starts on June 26 from Brittany, from Brest, the event will start in 2022 in Copenhagen, since the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the organizers to change their plans and postpone the start by one year. from Denmark.
Bilbao has never hosted the Tour de France before.
But the Basque Country has long been linked to the history of the race, as much by the runners who distinguished themselves there as by its supporters who have often crossed the border in the Pyrenees by displaying the ikurrina (Basque flag).
This departure from abroad will be the 25th of the Tour since its creation in 1903. The Netherlands is the country which most often hosted the kick-off (6 times), ahead of Belgium (5 times) and the Germany (4 times).
With AFP
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