Tour de France 2021: First four stages in Brittany revealed
The race will start in Brest and remain in Brittany until June 29, before moving to Mayenne for stage five.
The four Brittany stages of the 2021 Tour de France have been revealed, as the famous cycle race is set to depart from Brest next year for the fourth time in its history.
It was revealed in August that the 2021 race will depart from Brest, and not Copenhagen in Denmark as originally planned, in response to scheduling conflicts and postponements due to this year’s Covid-19 crisis.
Next year’s event has also been moved forward by a week - it was originally due to start on July 2, but will now begin on June 26, to ensure that it arrives in Paris by July 18.
This will mean it avoids conflicting with cycling events at the postponed Olympic Games, which are now set to take place in Tokyo, Japan, on July 25.
Copenhagen will still host the Tour Grand Départ, but this will now happen one year later than planned, in 2022.
Brittany will not only welcome the start of the race, but will also host the first four stages of the 2021 route.
- 1st stage: Brest to Landerneau (Saturday June 26)
- 2nd stage: Perros-Guirec to Mûr-de-Bretagne (Sunday June 27)
- 3rd stage: Lorient to Pontivy (Monday June 28)
- 4th stage: Redon to Fougères (Tuesday June 29)
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The 2021 race will be the 108th of the famous event.
The destination of the first stage, Landerneau, was not a great surprise.
Its candidature had long been promoted by its magistrate, Patrick Leclerc, who is the cousin of Michel-Édouard Leclerc. Michel-Édouard is originally from Landerneau, and is the president-director of the supermarket giant of the same name.
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The company (E.Leclerc) has been one of the five premium partners of the Tour de France since July 2019, and sponsors the “red polka dot jersey” given to “the King of the Mountains” (the rider who gains the most points for reaching mountain summits first).
The third stage has been called “historic” by Olivier Philippot, of the cycling club Véloce-club in Pontivy in Morbihan, as there has never before been an arrival at Pontivy.
After the first four days and stages in Brittany, the fifth stage of the race will take place in Mayenne, arriving in Laval the night of Tuesday June 29.
The announcement that Brittany would host the first four stages of the Tour was hailed as a great win for the region.
At a press conference, president of the Brittany region, Loïg Chesnais-Girard, said: “This is an important moment for Brittany, for Bretons, and for the Tour. We are honoured and proud to have been able to respond when the Tour asked, not to fill a hole, but to fix a calendar change due to changes in Euro 2020.
“Brittany and cycling have a long history.”
This will be the seventh time that Brittany has hosted the start of the Tour de France, it is the only region in France except Paris to have welcomed the event more than twice.
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