Tour de France to start in Nice in 2020

The Tour de France will start in Nice in 2020, 39 years after it last hosted the Grand Départ, race organisers have confirmed.

The announcement was made jointly on Monday in the city's mayor Christian Estrosi, and by the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, the day after the Paris-Nice race - the first major race of the French cycling season - finished in the capital of the Côte d'Azur.

Nice last hosted the Grand Départ in 1981.

This year's race starts in Noirmoutier-en-l’Île, Vendée, on July 11, while the 2019 race begins in Brussels. Meanwhile has been rumoured that the 2021 event could see the peloton return to Britain, after a leaked UK Sport report was seen by the BBC.