Grand news for Tour de France’s Grand Depart from Capital - Steve Cardownie
That the first ever Tour de France stage to be held in Scotland is to take place next year is great news. The ‘Grand Depart’ is scheduled to take off in Edinburgh on Friday, 2 July 2027. It will start from the city centre and make its way through the borders to Carlisle where the 114 mile stage will finish.
I remember when I was the Edinburgh Council’s Festival and Events Champion trying to secure the Grand Depart for the city back in 2014 when we were up against a bid from Yorkshire.
When I hosted a dinner for the committee they told us that they were impressed by what the city had to offer and that we had certainly given them “food for thought”, which was true in more ways than one.
The bid from Yorkshire was ultimately chosen and it successfully hosted the first two stages of the event.
Paul Bush, the Grand Depart, GB managing director, was Visit Scotland’s director of events at that time and played an important role in “our team”, so it is pleasing to see that he will now see the race leave from the city.
Paul has predicted that that the men’s race could attract up to one million spectators along the route, saying that “People travel from all over the world for the event, it’s one of those bucket list events and it’s free.”
Thankfully our summer festival programme is scheduled to start from Friday 7 July, so the city should be able to cope with the additional visitor numbers expected to throng our streets.
As the world’s third biggest sporting event, with millions of international viewers, it will showcase the city and Scotland in a unique way as the race unfolds against the backdrop of our fantastic scenery and architecture.