2020 Tour de France will depart from Nice

The day after the 2018 Paris-Nice stage race ended with Movistar’s Marc Soler making an Alberto Contador-style raid to steal the title from Simon Yates, ASO, organizers of the Tour de France, announced that the 2020 edition will start in Nice. Nice is located in Southwest France. Last May, ASO revealed that the 2019 La Grand Boucle would kick off in Brussels to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Belgian Eddy Merckx winning his first or five Tour crowns.

The 2020 Grand Départ will be a little earlier than usual on June 27. The last time the race started in Nice was 1981. Bernard Hinault would go on to win his third yellow jersey that year. In 2013 Nice hosted a team time trial.

Le Tour de France partira de @VilledeNice pour la deuxième fois après 1981 ⏪ // Le Tour will start at Nice for the second time. The first one was in 1981 ⏪ #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/MFhsw3q0rO

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) March 12, 2018

Christian Prudhomme, the Tour de France’s race director said, “The most recent editions of Paris-Nice (including the one that just finished yesterday) have shown us that the variety of landscapes and relief in this region are conducive to suspense, attacking and a thrilling spectacle!”

Nice is close enough to Italy to entice organizers into an early foray into the adjacent country. As Sunday’s exciting closing stage of Paris-Nice underscored, there are plenty of hills around Nice.

The 2018 Tour de France kicks off in Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile, the Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region in the west of France on July 7.