The 2027 Tour de France is longer than the 2026 route, 3,479 km against 3,333 km before homologation, with 71 km of individual time trials instead of 26.1 km, two fewer mountain stages, three summit finishes instead of five and a start in Edinburgh instead of Barcelona.
| 2026 | 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Départ | Barcelona | Edinburgh |
| Route length (ASO, before homologation) | 3,333 km | 3,479 km |
| Individual time trials | 26.1 km | 71 km (38 km and 33 km) |
| Team time trial | 19.6 km | None |
| Mountain stages | 8 | 6 |
| Summit finishes | 5 | 3 |
Time trials
The 2026 Tour had a 19.6 km team time trial on stage 1 and a 26.1 km individual time trial on stage 16. The 2027 route has no team time trial and two individual time trials, 38 km and 33 km, which add up to 71 km, the longest total since 2012 according to ASO.
Race director Christian Prudhomme says the extra kilometers are meant to rebalance the race in favor of the time trial specialists. Blois to Chambord and Toulouse are the two courses.
Mountains
ASO’s 2026 route had eight mountain stages and five summit finishes. The 2027 route has six mountain stages and three summit finishes, at the Grand Colombier, Les Saisies and the Col du Portet. ASO puts the total elevation gain at 53,450 meters, roughly level with 2026. Fewer summit finishes does not mean less climbing: stage 19, the Marie Blanque day, has no summit finish and about 4,300 meters of it.
The order has changed too. In 2026 the Pyrenees came early, with the Tourmalet on stage 6, and the race ended in the Alps, at Orcières-Merlette and twice at Alpe d’Huez. In 2027 the Alps come in the second week, with the Grand Colombier on stage 9 and Les Saisies on stage 11, and the Pyrenees close the race on stage 18 and stage 19.
The Pyrenees
The Tourmalet decided the 2026 Tour: on stage 6 Tadej Pogačar went clear on the climb, reached the top alone with 43 km to go and won by 2 minutes 38 seconds. In 2027 the Tourmalet comes with 70 km to go on the queen stage, and the day ends on the Col du Portet, 2,215 meters high. Prudhomme says it is the first time the Tourmalet and the Portet are combined. The Portet itself is known: Nairo Quintana won there in 2018 and Pogačar in 2021.
Start and finish
Barcelona hosted the 2026 Grand Départ. Edinburgh hosts the 2027 start, which ASO calls the northernmost in the race’s history, followed by stages in England and Wales. Our guide to the British stages has the dates and routes.
Both Tours finish on the Champs-Élysées after laps of Montmartre. The 2026 stage was cut from 132.5 km to 88.7 km because security staff were redeployed to wildfires; the 2027 stage is 116 km long. Tadej Pogačar won the 2026 Tour by 6 minutes 26 seconds from Remco Evenepoel.
The first week
The 2027 Tour spends its first three days in Britain, has a rest day in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin on July 5, and then rides three stages through Normandy, Brittany and the Loire country before the Chambord time trial on July 9. The 2026 race began in Barcelona with a team time trial and went to the Pyrenees within a week.
Sprinters and breakaways
Cyclingnews counts six flat sprint finishes in 2027: Carlisle, Angers, Valence, Montpellier, Pau and Libourne. ASO’s own table lists stages 1, 12, 13, 17, 20 and 21 as flat and calls stages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 15 hilly, so there is more punchy terrain for classics riders than for pure sprinters. Stage 8 is the longest of the race at 224 km, against 223 km for each of the British hilly stages.
Where the 2026 race was decided
The 2026 Tour was settled early. After the Tourmalet stage, Pogačar led Jonas Vingegaard by 2 minutes 42 seconds, and he finished 6 minutes 26 seconds ahead of Remco Evenepoel in Paris.
The 2027 route has no obvious early knockout in the mountains. The first summit finish is on stage 9 and the Pyrenees come in the last week, so the time trials at Chambord and Toulouse are the days that could shape the race before the final weekend. Visma’s Marc Reef counts “fewer summit finishes” than last year, and says that “there could have been more.”
Fewer summit finishes, and Prudhomme’s view of Mende
Reef also warned that “Some television viewers may find it harder to relate to the climbs on this year’s Tour de France route, but there are still some fantastic stages.” Prudhomme says it is probably one of the first times the Tour has stayed below 2,000 meters in the Alps, and calls the stage from Montpellier to Mende a mountain stage that few would think of as one.
The 2027 Tour de France page has the whole route, ASO’s route page has the official figures, and the Tour de France hub covers the editions before it.