Tour de France 2021 to start in Copenhagen in first for Scandinavia

Denmark signals the most adventurous jaunt abroad by the organiser ASO since the race visited Yorkshire in 2014

The 2021 Tour de France will begin in Copenhagen, the first time cycling's most prestigious race has visited Scandinavia.

The race has tended to start outside France every other year since the turn of the century, and will begin in Brussels this summer before returning to France in 2020, with the Grand Depart in Nice.

Denmark signals the most adventurous jaunt abroad by the organiser ASO since the race visited Yorkshire in 2014.

While RCS, which runs the Giro d’Italia, took the Italian race to Israel last summer and has been weighing up a potential start in the US in the coming years, which would break new ground for any of cycling’s Grand Tours, ASO has tended to stick to the cycling heartlands of Western Europe.

Race director Christian Prudhomme told French outlet Europe 1 that there will be an "ultra-fast" 13km time trial on the opening stage in the Danish capital, before two further stages heading west towards the Danish fjords.

A rest day will follow to allow the race to move back towards France, not unlike the 2018 Giro d'Italia which began in Israel before returning to Italy.