The China Mail - Champagne start in Reims for 2028 Tour de France

The three-week race will set off on June 24 and arrive on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on July 16, a week earlier than usual, to accomodate the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

The 'Coronation City' of Reims, where French kings were crowned, was chosen for the Grand Depart over Luxembourg, which is also on the route.

"There were some wonderful candidates. The choice turned on the need to actually start in France with some regularity," race director Christian Prudhomme told AFP.

This year's Tour starts from Barcelona while the 2027 Grand Depart is in Edinburgh, with three days of racing in the United Kingdom.

Reims also hosted the first stage of the Tour de France in 1956. The city has since hosted eight more stage starts and nine finishes, often sprints, most recently in 2019.

The route for 2028 has not yet been revealed, apart from five other towns visited during the first four stages.

Verdun, with its World War I memorials, the forests and rolling hills of the Ardennes region and the mining towns of Metz and Thionville will also feature during the opening days in north-eastern France.

Charleville-Mezieres, the birthplace of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and another celebrated champagne town of Epernay are also on the agenda.

The first stage could be suited to sprinters, followed by a more hilly second stage designed to encourage a change in the yellow jersey.

The peloton is then expected to head towards Luxembourg, where there could be more than one stage, a way of rewarding a "fantastic" bid, according to Prudhomme.

U.Chen--ThChM