Will the Tour de France return to Normandy this year? It’s…possible…if we take into account that the 2023 edition will start from the Spanish Basque Country, go through the French Pyrenees, go up France before the final explanation in the Alps. The 2022 edition having given pride of place to the North and East, it is likely that the West will be well served this year.
The Grande Boucle has not passed through Normandy since the big start organized in the Channel in 2016. In five weeks the route of the 110th edition will be unveiled by its organizers. Although the secret will be officially well kept until October 27, the leaks have started to filter. Lisieux is one of the candidate cities and hopes that its turn will soon come, whether it’s this year or not. Lisieux is a cycling town that hosts the first post-Tour criterium every year.
The municipal team in place has been applying every year since 2020. “I know that one day we will have the Tour de France but I don’t know when says the mayor of Lisieux” Sébastien Leclerc. He prefers to remain very cautious on the future route of the Tour and speaks of a return of the event rather by 2025. He claims to have no information about the choice or not of his municipality. And if the teams from Amaury Sports Organisation, the organizer of the Grande Boucle, have passed through, they are doing so in all the candidate cities.
The previous municipal team (note: that of Bernard Aubril, a great cycling enthusiast and historic organizer of the Criterium) had also applied for and even aimed for a time trial. An online stage now seems more realistic. It would not be a first for Lisieux, which has hosted three arrivals and three departures since 1964. The last passage of the Tour de France peloton dates back to 2011 and a stage between Dinan and Lisieux.