The 2027 Tour de France has 71 km of individual time trials, which ASO calls the longest total since 2012: 38 km from Blois to Chambord on stage 7 and 33 km around Toulouse on stage 16. Both courses are close to flat, which favors the specialists, and each sits two days before a mountain stage.
The two courses
Stage 7 is on Friday, July 9. It starts on the Place de la République in Blois, in sight of the royal château, follows the Loire, passes the Château de Cheverny and finishes in front of the Château de Chambord, with about 200 meters of climbing. The race’s records from 1947 on list no earlier finish at Chambord.
Stage 16 is on Tuesday, July 20, the day after the third rest day, and it also has about 200 meters of climbing. The one exception is the Côte de Pech David, 800 m at 12 percent, inside the last 10 km. The Tour used the same climb in the finale of its 2025 road stage in Toulouse, which Jonas Abrahamsen won from a breakaway.
For comparison, the 2026 Tour had one individual time trial, 26.1 km from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains, which Remco Evenepoel won, and a 19.6 km team time trial in Barcelona.
Why ASO added the kilometers
Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour’s technical director, explained the change to Ouest-France: “For a long time, the gaps in the mountains weren’t very big so we reduced the time trials accordingly.” The gaps in the mountains have grown again, and the time trials have grown with them.
Race director Christian Prudhomme puts it as balance. “We’re adding more time trials because we want to rebalance things,” he told RMC, and he named two riders: “Among the very strong time trialists, there’s obviously Remco Evenepoel, but there’s also Paul Seixas, yes, I won’t hide that from you.” He also says no route is built against a rider, and that “Pogacar loves a challenge, so perhaps he’ll be the one who wins both time trials.”
Who gains
Evenepoel has won the flat individual time trial in each of his three Tour appearances, and he won a fourth straight world time trial title in September 2026. Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Ralph Denk said: “He is the best time triallist at the moment, the world champion.” He added: “It’s more than 70km in total, so I think he will not be unhappy.” Visma’s Richard Plugge was brief: “It favors Evenepoel.”
Seixas, who finished fourth in the 2026 Tour and took bronze in the world time trial in Montréal, is the other name. Former team manager Jérôme Pineau said of the second time trial: “Obviously, if he were really bad at time trials, they wouldn’t have added a second time trial.” Visma does not concede the point: Marc Reef calls time trialing “a discipline we work on extensively and invest a lot in.”
What it does to the mountains
The riders who lose time against the clock have one place to win it back. “Those riders who’ll need to claw back losses to the specialists in this discipline will be even more determined to go on the attack,” Prudhomme said. “They will do so in the high mountains.”
Stage 7 comes two days before the first summit finish, on the Grand Colombier on July 11. Red Bull’s Zak Dempster said the time trial “could be crucial heading into the Alps in the second week.” Stage 16 comes two days before the Col du Portet on July 22, and only five stages remain after it.
Not everyone reads it the same way
Red Bull’s Ralph Denk, whose rider benefits most, was careful: “I see this a bit differently because we have a stage with more than 5,000m of climbing.” He added: “I will not confirm this is an easy Tour de France.”
Visma’s Richard Plugge said the course is not designed for the top-tier climbers: “I don’t think it’s necessarily designed for the top-tier climbers, but we still need to analyze it properly.” Marc Reef added that “most of the courses are relatively flat” and that these races “will play a major role in the general classification.”
Cyclingnews compares the return of the long time trials to the Team Sky years, when Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas used them to build their leads. It says the 33 km stage in Toulouse could close a gap before the Pyrenees, and that it should also suit Paul Seixas.
What Pogačar has already shown
Prudhomme’s own view of Tadej Pogačar is that terrain does not decide it: “You include cobblestones and he’s at the front, you make it harder and he’s there, you make it a little easier and he attacks from further out.” A flat time trial is a different test from any of those, and it is the one place on this route where the specialists can take minutes without climbing.
Tadej Pogačar won the 2026 Tour by 6 minutes 26 seconds from Evenepoel. ASO’s own route page has the official figures. Every stage is on the 2027 Tour de France page, and the Tour de France hub has the race’s history.