Tour de France to start with time trial in Utrecht

The 2015 Tour de France will start in Utrecht July 4 with a 13.7 km time trial, without a prologue, on a flat course entirely within the city.

The start and finish will be at the Jaarbeurs exhibition and convention centre. On the following day the peloton will continue with the second stage with a start in Utrecht and will pass under the famous Dom Tower and leave the city via Leidsche Rijn, a new neighbourhood still under construction, reports Xinhua.

Utrecht is the sixth Dutch city to stage the start of the legendary cycling race after Amsterdam (1954), Scheveningen (1973), Leiden (1978), Hertogenbosch (1996) and Rotterdam (2010). The 2014 Tour though will start in Leeds, England.

"The Netherlands is a cycling nation, one which has written quite a few remarkable chapters of the history of the Tour de France. Utrecht's main attraction was the way it's integrated cycling into its day-to-day life. Its natural and palpable relationship with cycling is quite simply an inspiration," said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.