The story of how the UK landed the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Grands Départs begins more than two decades ago with a text. Still today, Christian Prudhomme remembers reading it. “I’d just arrived at [Tour organiser] ASO at the time,” the men’s race director says, “and it was about golf.”
The year was 2004. The text came from a Leicestershire man named Paul Bush, and flashed up on the phone of the then ASO president, Patrice Clerc. Bush had just started a new role as an events director in Scotland. Twenty-two years on, Prudhomme is recounting the story in the basement room of Leeds City Museum, on the day of the UK Tour stages reveal for 2027. Bush is sitting three seats to his left, smiling.
Prudhomme leans over the table and twists his body to face Bush. “At the end of the text message, you said, ‘And the Tour de France…’,” he says, bending his voice quizzically at the end. “And thank you so much, because without you, it would have been impossible.”
That text was the first seed Bush planted to achieve his “bucket list” dream: hosting the biggest bike race in the world. He didn’t know it at the time, but he would have to fight for more than 20 years to make it a reality, watching as the race visited countries like Belgium, Spain and Italy – he even saw it come to the UK twice, but under other people’s leadership. Through it all, Bush never gave up hope of his own chance.
Tour director Prudhomme presents the 2027 race stages in Leeds alongside women’s race director Marion Rousse, British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton, and Grand Départ managing director Paul Bush.
(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix)
On the day of the unveiling in Leeds, Bush is dressed in a navy suit, with a striped tie, gold buttons in his jacket sleeves, and a Tour de France pin in his lapel. He looks like a bank manager, or a high-end car salesman. Neither job appears on his CV, which is impressively long – an A-list of sporting and cultural events.
“I was head of all major events in Scotland for 20 years,” Bush tells Cycling Weekly, “working for the Scottish Government and VisitScotland. We hosted many events, as you know: the Ryder Cup, the Commonwealth Games, MTV Music Awards, the Solheim Cup. The Tour de France was always on my bucket list as something that would be good to bring to Scotland.”
Bush’s first attempt to make that happen came in 2014, a decade on from the text. He met three times with Prudhomme in the build-up to that year’s edition, but talks stalled as it became clear, logistically, that the transfer from Scotland to France would be too long. The UCI didn’t allow an extra rest day after a foreign Grand Départ at the time. ASO instead accepted another UK bid for three stages from Leeds to London. “We were disappointed,” Bush says, “but we thought Yorkshire did such a wonderful job.”
In the meantime, Bush grew his CV larger. He worked on football, athletics and gymnastics events. He even organised the World Orienteering Championships in Inverness in 2015. What about cycling? Has he ever planned a bike race? Oh yes. Remember the 2023 ‘Super Worlds’ in Glasgow, the largest-ever UCI World Championships that included 13 disciplines and awarded over 200 rainbow jerseys? Bush was one of the masterminds behind that.
Bush with UCI president David Lappartient at the 2023 Glasgow ‘Super Worlds’.
(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix)
And still, the Tour de France has always been in his sights. Bush knew it would be an immensely competitive event to win – “they probably get 70-80 bids for the Tour de France, and 30-40 for the women now,” he says – but that did not deter him.
“We regrouped after 2014, and then in 2015, 2016, we reengaged with Christian and the team,” he says. This time, Bush’s plans were even bigger. “We thought that if we had a UK bid, it would be stronger than a Scottish-only bid, with the travel and logistics of trying to get from Scotland back to France.
“Christian has always challenged us to dream, so we decided, well, why not do the men’s and women’s together?”
Bush estimates that, over the last five years, he has been to Paris around 20 times to meet with Prudhomme and ASO. The result of those discussions is a history-making double Grand Départ; next summer, the men’s Tour will open in Edinburgh, stretching the length of the UK to Cardiff via Liverpool. The women’s race will then begin a month later in Leeds, with stage finishes in Manchester and Sheffield, before mimicking the 2014 Grand Départ with a London finale.
“We took that proposal to Christian a couple of years ago, and his immediate response was ‘magnifique!’,” Bush smiles. Of course, bringing the plan together in reality has come with its challenges.
“This is the most complex event I’ve ever worked on,” Bush says, matter of fact, as if the comparisons aren’t even close. It’s not that it’s a “hard sell” to the host cities, he explains, it’s that the financial ask is big; the budget he and his team are working to is around £65 million across both races – more than twice the cost of the UK’s last Grand Départ in 2014. That money comes mostly from the Scottish, Welsh and UK governments, but it also requires buy-in from a spread of local stakeholders.
“My thanks to all the partners, the cities, the regions, the mayors, the combined authorities,” Bush says. “These are tough times financially and economically, not only for the nation, but locally and regionally. They’ve all seized that opportunity, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It will probably never come back in my lifetime.”
It’s for that reason that Bush is set on savouring the occasion. He’s most looking forward to seeing how the different local communities react when the Tour’s cavalcade comes to town next July. “I did a couple of stages last year with Christian in France, and I couldn’t believe the crowds,” he says. “In Toulouse, I said, ‘Look at all these people smiling.’ And he said, ‘Every day we bring joy to communities across France.’ That was a great statement, and it’s true. We will do the same in 2027.”
Prudhomme embraces Bush at the route reveal in Leeds.
(Image credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix)
So much has happened since 2004 that Bush doesn’t recall sending that first text. He doesn’t doubt it happened, though. Now, not only is he bringing the Tour to the UK, he’s the managing director of the whole project, one he refers to as “the grandest of Grands Départs”.
“For me, if you look at world sporting achievements, winning the Tour de France sits at the pinnacle. Bringing the pinnacle event in the world back to the UK, and at the time back to Scotland, is a dream come true,” he says.
It feels fitting that, as route reveal in Leeds comes to a close, Prudhomme dedicates his last words to Bush. “Thank you so much for the bid. Thank you for your resilience, Paul. Thank you for waiting so long,” he says. “You and I haven’t changed at all in 20 years.”
Explore More
