Lance Armstrong has a warning about the 2027 Tour de France route: 'Won’t make it across the English Channel'

The stage is set to begin in the United Kingdom. “It can be rough in northern England in July,” Armstrong points out. “It can be beautiful there, but it can also be nasty. If I were riding, I’d say to myself: let’s get this over with as quickly as possible and catch the ferry to France.”

"There’s an awful lot to lose there, and nothing to gain," Armstrong explains. "Two of those three stages are also more than 200 kilometers long. That’s an X-factor in this Tour de France," he says, referring to the stages through Scotland, England, and Wales.

“I’ll say it now: go watch it—the crowds will be amazing. But I was there in May, and it was so windy. If the weather’s bad there… some riders won’t make it across the English Channel.”

Once in France, the “lack” of tough mountain stages is striking. “We’ve talked about it a lot, and we’ve often been frustrated by it: it feels like the Tour falls a little short when it comes to iconic climbs,” says Armstrong.

“You don’t have to go to Alpe d’Huez every year, but there are about five iconic ‘Grand Slam’-style climbs.”

The American thinks that will also limit the attacks. “Back in our day, riders lost four minutes in the team time trial, and we knew they were going to do that. So they had no choice but to go absolutely crazy and stir things up in the mountains. That really livened up the race and made our lives stressful, but it did work for the Tour.”

According to Armstrong, the fact that the A.S.O. has mapped out an anti-Pogacar Tour doesn’t matter much.

“They’re trying to change the perception that the race is decided too early.” With this route, I think they’re pulling a bit of a trick: after Stage 7, Remco might have the yellow jersey. Then we get to Stage 18, and Pogacar blows everyone away, and we know it’s over—but at least you’ve waited until that stage.”

"In our day, the route was designed to be 'Postal-proof.' You could say that more kilometers of individual time trials are, in theory, better for Remco Evenepoel than for Tadej," says Armstrong.

"But people have already tried all those tactics with Tadej; in practice, that theory never works,” he says, referring, among other things, to the 2024 Tour, where Vingegaard was expected to excel on the long, grueling climbs.”

"Pogacar is, as we've said so many times before, the best there's ever been, and he's still the best. He’s a five-star favourite, and everyone else is a two-star—maybe Remco is a three. This is Tadej’s race to lose,” said Armstrong,

The Texan did circle back to his “X-factor” comment about the early stages, though: “I am concerned, though, that bad things could happen in those early stages. It worked out in the past few days, but you still have to get through them.”