Il Nuovo Postiglione - Northern start and finale in the Pyrenees for 2027 Tour de France

A year after the race's most southerly start in Barcelona, the Scottish capital will surpass the 2022 Grand Depart in Copenhagen in the opposite direction, as for the fifth time in six years, the Tour sets off from abroad.

The Edinburgh start had been known for more than a year and the first three stages in Britain -- in Scotland, England and then Wales -- were revealed in January.

But organisers ASO published the full route on Thursday, with two individual time-trials and a closing stage around Paris taking on the already iconic Montmartre climb for the third year running.

That is sure to whet the appetite after the last two years produced thrilling finishes, with Belgian Wout van Aert taking the victory in 2025 and Mathieu van der Poel, with a bit of help from overall winner Tadej Pogacar, holding off a charging peloton by inches back in July.

But long before the peloton arrives there for the finale of the 114th edition of the Tour -- and even before it reaches the high mountains -- there will be plenty of opportunities for cycling's renowned "puncheurs" to take centre stage in the first part of the race.

"Wales is Liege-Bastogne-Liege," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told AFP about the third stage in 2027, in reference to the famous hilly spring one-day classic.

"The first 10 days are designed to keep the jerseys changing hands -- the best puncheurs in the world against the overall favourites."

The best in both of those categories is Pogacar, but the course design aims to avoid a repeat of the 2026 edition when the Slovenian great -- who will be bidding for a record sixth yellow jersey victory -- held the lead almost from beginning to end.

Prudhomme said he wanted "to muddy the waters, to have a route which allows for anything to happen".

Riders will face a windy arrival in France on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, with a fourth stage largely ridden along the coast.

Even before the first mountain challenge on stage nine, finishing on the Grand Colombier in the Jura range, the sprinters will struggle to find too many days that favour them.

- 'Terribly steep' -

The first time-trial is on stage seven and at 38km and pancake-flat, it should leave Olympic and world champion in the discipline Remco Evenepoel salivating.

He finished second to Pogacar in July but the early part of the 2027 edition should give him a great chance to steal a march on the Slovenian before the mountains begin.

A second time-trial of 33km around Toulouse on stage 16 should again favour the Belgian.

There will be no shortage of mountains, though, with 28 climbs and a total elevation gain of 53,450m, but just three summit finishes among six mountainous stages.

The highest point will be the Col du Portet in the Pyrenees on stage 18, topping off at 2,215m above sea level.

But there will be no Alpe d'Huez, Ventoux, Galibier or Izoard in 2027, although the Tour will take on the Tourmalet and pass through Domancy, where the world championships will be held the following month.

"If you want to discover other climbs, you have to accept that we don't systematically use the best-known ones," said Prudhomme.

"It's the first time that we will link the Tourmalet and the Portet -- two monsters -- and the next day there will also be terribly steep ascents with the return of the Basque climbs Burdincurutcheta and Bagargui for the first time since 2023."

Curiously, though, the 20th and penultimate stage is designed for the sprinters, meaning that the Tour should be sewn up two days before the Montmartre excitement in Paris.

T.Barbieri--INP