The Grand Depart of the men’s Tour de France is set to return to Great Britain in 2027, BBC Sport has learned.

Britain last hosted the start of the world’s most famous cycling race in Yorkshire in 2014, when it began in Leeds, followed by stages finishing in Sheffield and London.

GB’s first Grand Depart took place in London in 2007.

Details of the route are still being finalised, and advanced talks between British sports authorities and race organisers continue.

But according to well-placed sources, an official announcement could come as early as next month.

Funding body UK Sport identified the 2027 Tour as one which could begin in Britain in a list of international event hosting targets last year, and has been in negotiations with race organisers ASO, alongside British Cycling.

In a statement, UK Sport said, “We have made no secret of our ambition to host the Tour de France Grand Depart in Britain – to inspire more people to enjoy cycling and bring lasting benefits to communities.

“However, we respect this is a matter for the ASO and we remain committed to working hard to develop opportunities that can bring the joy of cycling to everyone.”

According to an official report, crowds at the roadside for the three English stages in 2014 totalled 4.8 million, with 3.5m individual spectators.

That helped generate an estimated £128m in total revenue, with £102m in Yorkshire alone.

Last year’s Grand Depart took place in Florence, Italy, with the 2026 race due to start in Spain in Barcelona.

In 2021, the British government said it was allocating millions of pounds to try to bring the Grand Depart back for the 2026 Tour with stages across England, Scotland and Wales, but the bid was then abandoned.

Two years later, Scotland Cycling also said it wanted to stage the race after the country hosted the UCI World Championships.

Then in 2024 an Ireland bid to host the Grand Depart in either 2026 or 2027 was withdrawn.

Cycling legend Sir Mark Cavendish and equestrian Yasmin Ingham have taken the top honours at the Isle of Man Sports Awards.

Cavendish also received a lifetime achievement award at the annual event, held at the Villa Marina on Thursday evening, following his retirement from competition in November.

The ‘Manx Missile’ became the most successful stage winner in Tour de France history when he took his 35th victory at the event in July, surpassing Eddy Merckx’s previous tally.

Ingham was selected as the alternate for the Great British eventing team at the Paris Olympics last summer.

It marks the fifth time the 27-year-old has been crowned Sportswoman of the Year, while Cavendish now has 10 Sportsman of the Year accolades to his name.

Speaking to Manx Radio, Cavendish said it was “always a great evening” because “you almost take for granted what an incredibly sporting nation we are for 85,000 people”.

“When you see the achievements that every athlete here has, it makes you proud – across motorsports, across cycling, across ball sports, we’re a little island that loves sports and a little island that punches well above its weight,” he said.

Wimbledon debutant Billy Harris and TT sidecar siblings Ryan and Callum Crowe were among the other winners at the awards, picking up the Ambassador of the Year and Team of the Year prizes respectively.

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.

Tom Pidcock said goodbye to Ineos Grenadiers at a training camp in December in Denia, Spain, “on good terms” following a career-defining three years which ended with the 25-year-old being “no longer compatible” with one of cycling’s biggest and most successful teams.

A couple of months later he looked a man unleashed as he blasted away from his pursuers on the second stage of his debut race for his new second-tier Q36.5 team, winning comfortably between steep sandstone rocks during the Alula Tour – a race where he would go on to win the overall green jersey.

The only thing missing was any of his true rivals for the big race wins this year. It made Pidcock look imperious in Saudi Arabia, but it’s how he will look in Belgium and France as the season progresses that will define his year – and possibly the double Olympic mountain bike champion’s road-race career.

Very little information about how the relationship with one of Ineos’ biggest talents broke down has made it outside the team bus. Which leaves many looking for clues within what both team and athlete say – even while they are trying not to say much.

“I think it’s as simple as the word ‘compatibility’,” said Ineos CEO John Allert during a pre-season press call. “There’s no guarantees in life… I think Tom and the team probably realised we’d come to a point of recognising that.

“I think the whole Tom topic might be one for a book in 10 years’ time.”

It’s as telling, especially in Allert’s last line, as it is diplomatic.

There’s little doubt there was a fallout: they dropped him from competing in the final big race of last season – the Il Lombardia ‘monument’ classic across Italy’s wealthy northern region. A one-day event Pidcock was perfect for.

Pidcock himself gave his own clues to BBC Sport during his second training camp before the new season. “I feel fresher, more energised. I feel like it’s my own journey, taking control and being in charge of my own destiny. It’s a really nice feeling as well.”

The past few seasons had seen Ineos shift from a winning machine to a more relaxed and autonomous environment, which would seemingly suit a young, nonchalant, multi-discipline athlete such as Pidcock.

They were happy to see him throw himself into a lake off a speedboat on Instagram, or fly at breakneck speed down the dirt tracks of the Alps for Olympic glory on a different kind of bike.

But road cycling is changing and Ineos are making a transition into a modern ‘super-team’. This includes last year’s introduction of performance director Scott Drawer and a search for more sponsors on top of the already substantial backing of Ineos owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, which requires a refocus on what was their original objective as Team Sky: to win the Tour de France, again and again.

Pidcock himself remains confident he is capable of winning a three-week race – he has won one of the hardest stages of the hardest race of them all, of course, descending his way to folklore at 100km/h before climbing Alpe d’Huez to victory during the 2022 Tour de France.

Pidcock, however, won’t be there in 2025 as cycling’s biggest race would have been unlikely to accept Q36.5 this year – given their current lower UCI ProTeams status, they will rely on wildcard invites to this year’s biggest World Tour races.

“I’m happy, I’ve got a year out from it… a break. When I come back it’ll be [with] a refreshed energy,” he said.

Q36.5 will make it to at least one three-week Grand Tour this year and it allows Pidcock to focus on the one-day races, where he has excelled in recent seasons.

His next objective must be to win one of the five ‘monument’ one-day races. “Italian races, Ardennes [classics]… all these races I want to perform in, and now be a bit more focused on them.”

It’s a focus which begins this weekend with the spring classics ‘opening weekend’, the Omloop Nieuwsblad race in Belgium.

More clues lie within a team seemingly behind Ineos in terms of resource.

“This team has super-impressed me with how much knowledge there is and expertise in certain areas,” said Pidcock. “This is the highest standard of people I’ve actually ever worked with.”

Pidcock knows he hasn’t simply jumped ship and landed hastily with a minnow. There’s a lot more to a team who have already won as many races this year as they had in a whole season since 2023.

Owned by a former mining magnate, South African Ivan Glasenberg, the team – named after the high-end cycling clothing brand – have potentially very deep pockets and a few ‘prestige’ sponsors in a sport which still allows big spending to pay off quickly.

The team was born in 2023 out of the ashes of Team Dimension Data, which under many guises won several big races as a World Tour team across the previous 15 or so years, including Mark Cavendish – wearing the yellow jersey – claiming four Tour de France stage wins in 2016.

Team boss Doug Ryder, a fellow South African, led that team. And while anyone would expect an employer to be excited about their new charge, Ryder’s view of Pidcock is effusive.

“[Pidcock’s] attention to detail is next-level,” he says. “He focuses on every millimetre. We did a nice team-building event, and it was Tom’s idea, and then he wouldn’t let the team pay – just those personal things are just really, really cool.”

Quite the team player for a man considered by some to be the opposite at Ineos. And it’s likely the biggest clue of all when it comes to Pidcock’s Ineos era…

“Within our team, he doesn’t have to fight for leadership,” concludes Ryder. “He will be our out-and-out leader when we go to those races.

“He wants to be a world champion. And he wants to ride for general classification in a Grand Tour, and show that he’s one of those riders that can stand tall on the podium in the highest endurance events in our sport.”

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome suffered a broken collarbone in a crash at the UAE Tour.

The 39-year-old Briton sustained the injury in a mass pile-up in the opening 10km of Sunday’s final stage.

His team Israel-Premier Tech said: “A CT scan confirmed a fracture to the right clavicle. Chris will be examined tomorrow [Monday] by an orthopedic surgeon to find out if an operation will be necessary to stabilise his fracture.”

The injury casts doubt on how much Froome can compete in what is expected to be his final season in cycling.

The two-time Olympic bronze medallist, who has also won two Vuelta a Espana titles and the Giro d’Italia, hinted in December he may retire after this year’s Vuelta in September.

Lauren Bell and Matthew Richardson completed a hat-trick of sprint medals on the final day of the British Track Cycling Championships in Manchester.

Scotland’s Bell won the women’s individual sprint to go with her team sprint and keirin victories, while England’s Richardson won the men’s keirin to complete the men’s sprinting set.

Bell said: “Nationals are always such a great event – there’s always sold-out crowds. It’s nice to have my family in the crowd to cheer me on, it’s great.

“I knew I had good legs coming in. I’ve got the speed and I’ve started to develop the tactics now. I tried to take each race as it came, and this is the result.”

Richardson was making his debut at the event having switched allegiance to Great Britain after collecting two silver medals and a bronze for Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“I set this as one of my goals,” he said. “I knew I was capable of it, but doing it and saying it are two completely different things, so I’m just really relieved and happy that I can go out there and achieve my goals.”

Katie Archibald, competing at the championships for the first time in six years, stormed to a dominant victory in the women’s points race.

The two-time Olympic champion took maximum points from five of the eight sprints and gained a lap on the field to finish on 47 points, 37 clear of Danielle Watkinson and Cat Ferguson, who took silver and bronze respectively.

“I’m very happy about a plan well executed. The fact I’ve been away for so long has made me very motivated for the nationals,” said Archibald.

“I’m the person that people want to beat, but it’s still nice to be surrounded by that mentality and take a buoy from being a part of that.”

Elsewhere, Noah Hobbs won the men’s scratch race ahead of defending champion Sam Fisher and William Gilbank.

In the Para-cycling events, Samuel Davies, Rebecca Newark and Jacob Smith took gold in the mixed C team sprint, while Sophie Unwin, Jenny Holl, James Ball and Steffan Lloyd claimed victory in the mixed B team sprint final.

Anna Morris broke her own world record for the third time in a week to win the women’s 4km individual pursuit title at the British Track Championships in Manchester.

The Welshwoman had broken her own record twice in one day when winning gold at last week’s European Track Cycling Championships.

She made it a hat-trick by shaving off more than a second to claim victory with a time of four minutes 24.060 seconds at the National Cycling Centre.

“The motivation was really high, especially on my home track in front of a home crowd,” she said. “I am feeling it a bit after racing at Euros, so I wasn’t sure how much I had left in me, but the crowd definitely carried me in those last four laps.

“I was just trying to keep my head down in that last kilometre, trying to keep pedalling as much as I could, they felt like they were giving up, but I could hear the crowd, so I just tried to hold on.

“I often feel like I am living someone else’s life sometimes, it is quite surreal. But I am very grateful for all the opportunities I have had.”

It was Morris’ second victory at the championships after winning the women’s scratch race on Friday.

Elsewhere, Will Perrett claim the men’s points title for a third year in a row, winning by just one point from Henry Hobbs, with Ben Wiggins third.

Lyall Craig, Harry Ledingham-Horn, Niall Monks and Matthew Richardson won the men’s team final, while Lauren Bell beat Emma Finucane to claim her first national keirin title.

Amelia Cass stormed to victory in the 3km C1-3 pursuit, winning by almost 30 seconds from Katie Toft and lapping third-place Elisabeth Simpson twice.

Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl won the tandem 1km time-trial to go with the women’s B individual pursuit title won on Friday.

There were also victories for Morgan Newberry in the men’s C5 4km pursuit, Matthew Robertson in the men’s C2 individual pursuit, Fin Graham in the C3 and Archie Atkinson in the C4.

In the final para event of the night, B Xavier Disley edged William Bjergfelt to take the C5 pursuit title.

Matthew Richardson won the men’s sprint final on his debut at the British Track Cycling Championships in Manchester.

The 25-year-old, who switched his allegiance to Great Britain after collecting two silver medals and a bronze for Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympics, beat Peter Mitchell to gold, with Marcus Hiley finishing third.

Welsh rider Anna Morris won the women’s scratch race in style, coming home over half a lap ahead of Katie Archibald, with Erin Boothman third over the 10km distance.

European champion Josh Charlton won gold as he caught Michael Gill in the men’s individual pursuit final, with William Perrett claiming bronze.

Meanwhile, Lauren Bell, Rhian Edmunds and Lowri Thomas held off Iona Moir, Rhianna Parris-Smith and Georgette Rand in a competitive women’s team sprint final.

Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl set a world record time of four minutes 36.737 seconds as they took gold in the women’s B individual pursuit.

Lora Fachie and Charlotte Deykin were second with Selvi Krishna and Eva Hague taking third, while Elisabeth Simpson won the women’s C1-5 time-trial.

Earlier on Friday, Alex Jones tasted success in the men’s C5 time-trial, while Archie Atkinson produced a superb ride to beat reigning champion Jody Cundy to gold in the men’s C4 time-trial.

Jacob Smith took the men’s MC3 time-trial title with Ben Hetherington, a former stage winner at the 2019 Tour of Morocco, taking silver.

Matt Robertson secured the blue, white and red national champion jersey in the C2 time-trial and Steve Bate and Chris Latham retained their men’s B individual pursuit crown.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock sprinted clear on stage two of the Vuelta a Andalucia to claim his fourth victory of the season.

After a sharp final climb Q36.5 rider Pidcock launched his sprint with 150m to go, with his former Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Brandon Rivera finishing second.

Another ex-colleague, Pavel Sivakov, now riding for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, finished third to take the overall race lead 32 seconds ahead of Pidcock, who rises to third in the general classification in the five-stage event.

Pidcock, who was disappointed to finish eighth on stage one after racing “over-enthusiastically”, was much happier with his performance on Thursday.

“Today I raced really smart. I didn’t have a big panic, I let the race play out, and in the end it was perfect. I know I’m in great shape,” said Pidcock, who celebrated by jumping his bike off a speedbump after the line.

“It’s really nice to get my hands in the air and be up there on GC.”

The 25-year-old has now won three individual stages this year, as well as the general classification at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia.

His latest success arrived on the punchy 133.2km route from Alcaudete to Torredelcampo after he bridged across to the front of the race just under 40km from the finish to be involved in a five-man breakaway.

They comfortably held off a group containing overnight leader Maxim van Gils before Pidcock punched clear to win in style.

1. Tom Pidcock (GB/Q36.5) 3hrs 22mins 04secs

2. Brandon Rivera (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time

3. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates – XRG) “

4. Clement Berthet (Fra/ Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) “

5. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) “

6. Maxime Van Gils (Bel/Red Bull – Bora Hansgrohe) 1min 10secs

7. Markus Hoelgaard (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) Same time

8. Tim Wellens (Bel/UAE Team Emirates – XRG) “

9. Ruben Guerreiro (Por/Movistar) “

10. Jose Manuel Diaz (Spa/Burgos Burpellet BH) “

1. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates – XRG) 7hrs 4mins 35secs

2. Clement Berthet (Fra/ Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +23secs

3.Tom Pidcock (GB/Q36.5) +32secs

4. Maxime Van Gils (Bel/Red Bull – Bora Hansgrohe) +1min 03secs

5. Tim Wellens (Bel/UAE Team Emirates – XRG) Same time

6. Marc Soler (Spa/UAE Team Emirates – XRG) +1min 38secs

7. Steff Crass (Bel/TotalEnergies) +1min 42secs

8. Johannes Staune-Mittet (Nor/Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +2mins 43secs

9. Markus Hoelgaard (Nor/Uno-X Mobility) +2mins 46secs

10. Nicolas Prodhomme (Fra/Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 3mins 02secs

The first stage of the Volta ao Algarve ended in chaotic scenes after a large part of the peloton headed the wrong way.

Italy’s Filippo Ganna raised his arms in celebration after crossing the line first after many of his rivals mistakenly headed up the wrong side of the finishing straight.

Race organisers later said the 192.2km stage from Portimao to Lagos had been cancelled with no winner declared.

The bizarre scenes happened after the majority of the first 50 riders followed the camera motorbikes along a deviation, off the course, but parallel to the finish line.

Austrian cyclist Marco Haller labelled the finish “ridiculous” and said there should be consequences for the organisers.

“For me it’s pretty ridiculous because we suffer for 190 kilometres to put ourselves in a perfect position,” Haller told Eurosport.

“It’s something where there needs to be consequences for the officials, for the organisers.

“You could see on the last kilometre the deviation wasn’t blocked by the officials.

“It cannot always be the riders to be blamed. It’s very frustrating.”

Race organisers later released a statement which said: “On the approach to the finish line in Lagos, the peloton became divided and a large number of the riders took the wrong route, followed the detour of the support cars and missed the finish line.”

Race director Sergio Sousa added: “The College of Commissaires interpreted the regulations and, given what happened, decided to cancel the stage because they considered that sporting truth did not prevail in the end.”

Welsh rider Josh Tarling won stage two of the UAE Tour to take the overall lead in the week-long race.

Three days after his 21st birthday, the Ineos Grenadiers rider won a 12km test against the clock ahead of Switzerland’s Stefan Bissegger and three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar.

Victory in Tuesday’s time trial marks a second win for Tarling on the World Tour since turning professional, having previously won at the 2023 Renewi Tour.

“From the end of last year, I had a bit of bad luck, and I kept coming second in the TTs [time trials] with Remco [Evenepoel]. I needed this. I’m super happy,” said Tarling.

The British time trial champion averaged 56.670km/h for a comfortable winning margin of 13 seconds over runner-up Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished a further five seconds down.

“It was really windy,” added Tarling.

“The first part was the hardest, then we got a bit of respite with the corners before the end. It was kind of two halves.”

Tarling will take a 13-second lead in the general classification into Wednesday’s stage three, a first big climbing test with a summit finish to the 19km-long Jebel Jais mountain ascent.

“I think tomorrow’s going to be a big day,” said Tarling.

“Hopefully I get a bit of confidence back now. I’m excited for the rest of the season.”

Tarling’s victory is a further boost for Ineos Grenadiers, a day after Michal Kwiatkowski won at the Clasica Jaen in Spain.

The Polish rider’s success ended a long winless streak for the British team, stretching back to last June’s Criterium Dauphine.

However, the Spanish one-day race also saw Ineos rider Egan Bernal break his collarbone in a crash during the closing stages.

Ineos Grenadiers have not put a timeframe on Bernal’s return.