Capital of France and capital of the Île-de-France region
Commune-department and prefecture (75)
Population: 2,250,000 (Parisiens and Parisiennes)
What more wonderful symbol could there be than for this new race to begin on the world’s most beautiful avenue? And what more prestigious setting could there be for the start than at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, followed by the climb to the Trocadero and then twelve laps of the world’s most renowned cycling circuit? It will be unprecedented and spectacular. Of course, female champions have already been honoured on the Champs-Élysées, when the legendary Maria Canins and Jeannie Longo settled their epic duels there at the end of the 1980s. More recently, between 2014 and 2016, the women’s peloton has also competed there in La Course by Le Tour avec FDJ, which gave some of today’s racers the chance to test themselves on the little cobblestones. In total, women’s races have finished there nine times – and there have been nine different winners, by the way... Although the Tour has previously started in Paris, this will be the first time that the woman wearing the yellow jersey in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe has had to defend it for the next seven days.