Cycling-Tour de France to start from Bilbao in 2023 - organisers

FILE PHOTO: People wearing protective masks walk past bar customers after bars reopened in Spain's Basque Country, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bilbao, Spain, February 19, 2021. REUTERS/Vincent West

The 2023 Tour de France will set off from Bilbao, marking the sixth time in 10 editions that the world's most famous cycling race starts outside France, its organisers said on Friday.

The opening two stages will be held in the Basque country, where the Tour also began in 1992, when it rolled out from San Sebastian.

Since marking its "Grand Depart" in Yorkshire in Britain in 2015, the Tour has started in Utrecht in the Netherlands (2015), Duesseldorf in Germany (2017) as well as in Brussels (2019), and next year it will set out from Copenhagen.

FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 21 - Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris Champs-Elysees - France - September 20, 2020. UAE Team Emirates rider Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, passes the Arc de Triomphe in the peloton. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

This year's race will set off in home territory, beginning in Nice on June 26.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 21 - Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris Champs-Elysees - France - September 20, 2020. The peloton in action towards the Arc de Triomphe. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe