Pays de la Loire to host 2018 Tour Grand Depart

It will be a return to the race's roots as the first edition in 1903 was also hosted by the western region.

Grand Départ du Tour de France 2018. Source: Getty

Since then the cities and towns of the Pays de la Loire have welcomed the Grand Depart nine times, most recently Passage du Gois in 2011.

The announcement was made by race director Christian Prudhomme at half-time of the rugby match between France and Scotland. Specific details of the route on the initial stages will be unveiled at a news conference on Feb. 28.

The Pays de la Loire region hosted the Tour de France on its very first edition. It was via the Vendée that the pack entered the region in 1903 on the Bordeaux-Nantes stage, destined to become a classic on the routes of the era in which the Tour de France emerged.

Since this time, the cities and towns of the Pays de la Loire region have welcomed the Grand Départ nine times, five of which have set out from the Vendée. In 2018, the riders will once again gather in this cycling-crazy part of the country to tackle the 105th edition of the Tour de France.

This year's Tour begins in the German city of Dusseldorf.

The Grand Départs of the Tour de France hosted by the Pays de la Loire region:

1957: Nantes

1967: Angers

1972: Angers

1976: Saint-Jean-de-Monts

1988: Pornichet

1993: Puy-du-Fou

1999: Puy-du-Fou

2005: Fromentine

2011: Passage du Gois