Tour de France

Dates: June 26 to July 18 2021
Stages: 21
Length: 3,383 km
Grand Départ: Brest, France
Finish: Paris, France
TV coverage (UK): Eurosport, GCN Race Pass, ITV4

Key info: Tour de France 2020 route | Tour de France start list | How to watch the Tour de France | Past winners | Jerseys

Tour de France 2021

(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

The 2021 Tour de France kicks off with a Grand Départ in Brest, Brittany, before meandering around the Celtic region.

The race in 2021 is almost back to it’s original place on the calendar, only it is a week or two earlier than normal so that they do not clash with the Olympics.

The first two stages aren’t the simple sprint days, especially with stage two finishing atop the 2km climb of the Mûr de Bretagne, which maxes out at 14 per cent in gradient.

The race will then start to head south-east as it winds itself around the region of Brittany, it leaves the region for a stage five individual time trial between Changé and Laval Espace Mayenne over a 27km course.

The 2021 Tour de France route

The 2021 Tour de France then makes it’s way across the centre of the country with some classic long flat days in the summer sun before heading into the Alps.

Upon leaving the Alps they head to Provence and Mont Ventoux on stage 11, but not for the usual summit finish, instead, the riders will tackle the climb from two sides before finishing at the bottom in Malaucène.

After that, the race goes over to the Pyrenees and a brief dip into Andorra before another individual time trial on stage 20.

The race will then take to its traditional finish in Paris along the Champs-Élysées.

The 2021 edition will have six mountain stages with three summit finishes, eight flat stages, five hilly stages and two time trials, covering a total of 3,383km.

Tour de France 2021 classifications

Tadej Pogačar and Sam Bennett on the podium at the Tour de France 2020 (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

The standard classifications and jerseys will once again feature the yellow jersey for the overall classification, polka-dots for the mountains classification, green for the points classification and white for the best young rider classification.

A combativity prize will be awarded to the most aggressive rider each day, while a super-combativity prize will be awarded to a rider at the end of the Tour.

Bonus seconds will once again be distributed on the finish line with 10, six and four seconds available to each of the first three across the line on each stage.

Bonus sprints are also available at the top of some key climbs in an attempt to create more aggressive and exciting racing.

Tour de France 2021 teams

All 19 of the 2021 WorldTour teams are at the Tour de France, along with the French Pro Continental teams Arkéa-Samsic, Total Direct Energie and B&B Hotels-Vital Concept who are invited to the race through a wild card.

Alpecin-Fenix should also be joining as they came out on top in the UCI ProTeam standings last year. The leader of this gets an automatic invite to all WorldTour races in the next season.

Tour de France 2021 general classification riders

Defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and his fellow countryman, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) are almost certainly going to be on the start line.

Question marks hang over 2019 winner, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) won’t be racing to try and reclaim his crown as he leads the British team at the Giro d’Italia.

This has opened up an opportunity to some of Ineos’ other leaders with 2018 winner Geraint Thomas, 2019 Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz as well as third place in last year’s race Richie Porte all currently set to ride.

Chris Froome has set his sights firmly on this race with his new team, Israel Start-Up Nation, as he looks to get a record equaling fifth overall title. Whether his form is going to be anywhere near where it will need to be for the race is another thing entirely.

French hopes seem to fall at the young feet of Groupama-FDJ duo of Valentin Madouas and David Gaudu as Thibaut Pinot takes a step back from Tour leadership.

Tour de France 2021 sprinters

Sprint finish at stage seven of 2019 Tour de France (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was stopped from his eighth green win by Irishman, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck – Quick-Step), who put in a superb performance along with two stage wins, including stage 21 in Paris.

Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) also had an epic Grand Tour with two stage wins in last years race. In 2021 the dominative Australian will be aiming for stage wins in all three Grand Tours.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) showed that he could challenge for green too with two stage wins, he has said that he would love to go for green, so maybe 2021 will be the year for the Belgian star.

With Alpecin-Fenix down as racing the Tour, all eyes will be on Mathieu van der Poel to see how he performs against his arch-rival, Van Aert, as well as Sagan and Bennett in the fight for green.

Tour de France 2021 on TV

In the UK, you’ll be able to catch the race live on Eurosport, GCN+, ITV and S4C – and each channel will have an evening highlights package, too.

Tour de France 2021 route

Past winners in the last ten years

2010: Andy Schleck (Lux)
2011: Cadel Evans (Aus)
2012: Bradley Wiggins (GBr)
2013: Chris Froome (GBr)
2014: Vincenzo Nibali (Ita)
2015: Chris Froome (GBr)
2016: Chris Froome (GBr)
2017: Chris Froome (GBr)
2018: Geraint Thomas (GBr)
2019: Egan Bernal (Col)
2020: Tadej Pogačar (Slo)