Tour de France 2027 and the “British Trilogy”: starting from Edinburgh

Rome, 24 March 2025 – The 2025 Tour de France still has to be held, but the Aso organizational machine is moving forward with its work and thinking about the next editions of the Grande Boucle: the 2026 edition, as has been known for some time, will start in Barcelona, ​​while the 2027 edition, and this is very recent history, will start in Edinburgh.

The Grand Départ 2027 and its predecessors

The Grand Départ, which is also valid for the women's edition (for the first time ever, despite the various precedents for the men's edition), will actually touch the whole of Great Britain. From Scotland, in fact, the caravan will pass through Wales and then England, for a Big Departure from Three Nations which then becomes the real news packaged by Aso for the2027 edition. Director Christian Prudhomme's statements were not long in coming, and he also revealed some background information. "Scotland's candidacy dates back several years, perhaps even a dozen, but in 2014 we chose Yorkshire because it is closer to France. In the meantime, however, there has been a change in the rules that allows, once every four years, to depart not on Saturday but on Friday, and so everything changes". Hence, the choice of 'British trilogy' which goes well beyond the 'simple' passage on English soil, which has already happened four times starting from 1974, the year in which there was a lightning appearance on a circuit in Plymouth valid for just one stage.

In 1994, the Grande Boucle paid homage to the recent opening of the English Channel with two stages, finishing in Brighton and Portsmouth before arriving in the current century: in 2007, the race started in London and in 2014, in the edition that would later be won by Vincenzo Nibali, it started in Yorkshire. In two years, however, there will be – just to stay in the English-speaking world – an upgrade, with as many as three nations touched by an epochal Grand Départ: Scotland, Wales and then England, just enough to make all of Great Britain and almost all of the United Kingdom happy.

Castroviejo retires at the end of 2025

He will not participate in that edition, nor in the next one, to be honest. Jonathan Castroviejo, fresh from announcing his retirement at the end of 2025. A professional since 2008, the 87-born rider has distinguished himself as a valuable domestique, first at the Movistar Team and then above all between Team Sky and the current Ineos Grenadiers, albeit with a license to shine in time trials, his home specialty. The announcement of the person directly involved, who has won 11 times in his career, has yet to be made, but according to the Spanish newspaper As it is only a matter of time. The Basque is currently busy with the Volta a Catalunya 2025, despite the initial plans of Ineos Grenadiers being different: among them is the Giro d'Italia 2025, with the mission of escorting Egan Bernal towards the possible and hoped for rebirth.