7. The Tour de France doesn’t actually start in France
The event finishes on July 23 in Paris, but when things kick off, it’ll be in Düsseldorf, Germany, with an individual time trial stage. Stage 2 takes the cyclists to Belgium, while part of Stage 3 is in Luxembourg before the race hits Vittel, France, on July 4.
“We’re starting in Germany, and we actually should have been starting in London,” Liggett says. “[Then] Mayor Boris Johnson had turned it down on the eleventh hour to sign the contract, so Germany snapped it up. So it’s a couple of days before we actually see French soil.”
But that won’t keep the race from being filled up with spectators: “We’ll actually have the bigger crowds in Germany and Belgium because the Tour is so well-received away from France. It is very special across Europe.”
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