Tour de France Femmes to hold first team time trial in London for 2027 Grand Départ
The closing stage of the women's race in Britain will be a team time trial through central London, the first in the modern history of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, with the opening two stages running from Leeds to Manchester and Manchester to Sheffield across the Pennines and the Peak District.
The closing stage of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Grand Départ in Britain will be a team time trial through central London, race organisers confirmed on Monday — the first time a team time trial has featured in the women’s race since its 2022 relaunch.
The 18-kilometre circuit, finishing in front of Buckingham Palace on The Mall on Sunday 1 August, will pass The Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and Tower Bridge. The full London route is due to be revealed at the official 2027 race presentation in Paris in October. The British Continental reported on the January 2026 confirmation of the wider Grand Départ routes here.
The team time trial is a rare format in women’s racing, featuring most prominently in recent years at the UCI World Championships and the Vuelta Femenina. The men’s Tour de France will open with one in Barcelona this July. Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse described the discipline as “one of the most exciting and spectacular formats in cycling”, and said the London staging marked “a huge moment in the history of the race”.
Cat Ferguson (Movistar) and Flora Perkins (Fenix–Deceuninck) joined Rousse at the launch at Canada Gate, overlooking the Mall finish line. Ferguson, now 19, watched the men’s Tour pass through Yorkshire in 2014 as a child. “Having the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift so close to home feels like a full circle moment for me,” she said. “I truly appreciate how far women’s procycling has come.”
Stage one of the British Grand Départ leaves The Headrow in central Leeds on Friday 30 July — the same start point used by the men’s Tour de France in 2014 — for an 85.7-kilometre run west and south through Headingley, Heckmondwike and Mirfield to Huddersfield, taking in the Côte de Kirkheaton (1.7km at 7.5%). The route then crosses the Pennines via the Côte de Meltham (3.2km at 8.2%) before descending past Dove Stone Reservoir to Oldham. The Côte de Delph (2.1km at 6.3%), familiar from recent editions of the Tour of Britain, sits roughly 20 kilometres from the finish on Deansgate in Manchester.
Stage two on Saturday 31 July is the longer and more demanding of the two days, covering 154.4 kilometres from Manchester to Sheffield with close to 3,000 metres of climbing. After leaving Manchester via Stockport, Marple and New Mills, the route climbs Long Hill into Buxton before tackling Winnats Pass (1.4km at 12.3%) and Snake Pass (5.4km at 4.6%) in the Peak District. A late sequence of short, sharp climbs through Sheffield includes the Côte de Jenkin Road (0.8km at 10.8%), used in the men’s Tour de France’s 2014 Sheffield finish. The stage concludes on Attercliffe Common, on the same finish line where Vincenzo Nibali won twelve years ago, though approached from the opposite direction.
The 2027 race will mark the first time both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes have begun in the same country outside France. The men’s race opens in Edinburgh on 2 July and concludes its three British stages in Cardiff on 4 July, four weeks before the women’s race rolls out of Leeds. Volunteer registration for the Grand Départ opens at the end of May.
The closing stage of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Grand Départ in Britain will be a team time trial through central London, race organisers confirmed on Monday — the first time a team time trial has featured in the women’s race since its 2022 relaunch.
The 18-kilometre circuit, finishing in front of Buckingham Palace on The Mall on Sunday 1 August, will pass The Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and Tower Bridge. The full London route is due to be revealed at the official 2027 race presentation in Paris in October. The British Continental reported on the January 2026 confirmation of the wider Grand Départ routes here.
The team time trial is a rare format in women’s racing, featuring most prominently in recent years at the UCI World Championships and the Vuelta Femenina. The men’s Tour de France will open with one in Barcelona this July. Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse described the discipline as “one of the most exciting and spectacular formats in cycling”, and said the London staging marked “a huge moment in the history of the race”.
Cat Ferguson (Movistar) and Flora Perkins (Fenix–Deceuninck) joined Rousse at the launch at Canada Gate, overlooking the Mall finish line. Ferguson, now 19, watched the men’s Tour pass through Yorkshire in 2014 as a child. “Having the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift so close to home feels like a full circle moment for me,” she said. “I truly appreciate how far women’s procycling has come.”
Stage one of the British Grand Départ leaves The Headrow in central Leeds on Friday 30 July — the same start point used by the men’s Tour de France in 2014 — for an 85.7-kilometre run west and south through Headingley, Heckmondwike and Mirfield to Huddersfield, taking in the Côte de Kirkheaton (1.7km at 7.5%). The route then crosses the Pennines via the Côte de Meltham (3.2km at 8.2%) before descending past Dove Stone Reservoir to Oldham. The Côte de Delph (2.1km at 6.3%), familiar from recent editions of the Tour of Britain, sits roughly 20 kilometres from the finish on Deansgate in Manchester.
Stage two on Saturday 31 July is the longer and more demanding of the two days, covering 154.4 kilometres from Manchester to Sheffield with close to 3,000 metres of climbing. After leaving Manchester via Stockport, Marple and New Mills, the route climbs Long Hill into Buxton before tackling Winnats Pass (1.4km at 12.3%) and Snake Pass (5.4km at 4.6%) in the Peak District. A late sequence of short, sharp climbs through Sheffield includes the Côte de Jenkin Road (0.8km at 10.8%), used in the men’s Tour de France’s 2014 Sheffield finish. The stage concludes on Attercliffe Common, on the same finish line where Vincenzo Nibali won twelve years ago, though approached from the opposite direction.
The 2027 race will mark the first time both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes have begun in the same country outside France. The men’s race opens in Edinburgh on 2 July and concludes its three British stages in Cardiff on 4 July, four weeks before the women’s race rolls out of Leeds. Volunteer registration for the Grand Départ opens at the end of May.
Featured image: A.S.O-Pauline-Ballet
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.