Rumor: Las Vegas Sets Sights on Hosting Tour de France

By Scott Roeben, on October 13 2022
3 min read 4 comments
Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) made quite a splash when it announced F1 was coming to Las Vegas.

The agency is tasked with drawing big events (and tourism dollars) to town, in support of casino resorts and all the businesses associated with them.

Now, we’ve heard the LVCVA is wooing another massive international brand: Tour de France.

That’s the bicycle one.

Tour de France describes itself as the “world’s biggest sporting event.” That’s very Vegas-style marketing.

Many have opined about the financial impact F1 will have on Las Vegas, as it’s expected to be massive. The first Las Vegas Grand Prix will be held Nov. 16-18, 2023.

We suspect a Tour de France event held in Las Vegas would also represent a significant boost for Las Vegas.

The reason we’re talking about F1 so much is: 1) We have virtually zero information about the Tour de France coming to Las Vegas. 2) That’s the whole list. F1 is a year away and we’re already sick of hearing about it.

We sort of just wanted to put the “Tour de Las Vegas” thing out there so when it’s announced, we can take credit for the scoop. Do you know this blog at all?

From what we understand, Tour de France is an annual men’s multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Apparently, a female Tour de France was staged this year, Tour de France Femmes.

The reigning champ of the Tour de France is Jonas Vingegaard. It is very, very important that if, and when, the Tour de France comes to Las Vegas, we keep Tadej Pogacar away from Pahrump.

Anyway, the Tour de France is a big deal, mostly to people in other countries.

The race is an incredible test of endurance and by that we mean an “incredible tourism and revenue-generation opportunity.”

We have no idea how far along the talks are with the Tour de France, but we trust the organization is doing all the necessary math, with the assistance of the LVCVA, to determine if the Tour de France is a good match for Las Vegas.

Holding a Tour de France race in Las Vegas would be the ultimate “Grand Depart.” Yes, we actually read couple of articles about the Tour de France. The sacrifices we make for you.

If you’re into touring or Francing, the unveiling of the routes for the 2023 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes happen Thursday, 27 October. Yeah, the French do dates weird.

We trust if there’s a Tour de France event in Las Vegas, it will be adjusted a smidge. The Tour de France, for example, has 21 stages over 23 days. In Vegas, things tend to be downsized to avoid keeping people away from the casinos too long. For example, “Bat Out of Hell” has been shortened from two hours and 40 minutes to 85 minutes, and from what we’ve heard about the show, we’re pretty sure audiences wish it were even shorter.

Anyway, that’s all for now. We got the scoop, and that’s what’s really important.

It remains to be seen if the LVCVA can close the deal with Tour de France, but if this prestigious race and its intrepid cyclists were to come to Las Vegas, we know they’d have a ball.

If you didn’t think we’d make a Lance Armstrong joke, you were sadly mistaken.

We reached out to the LVCVA for comment, but haven’t heard back yet.

Update (10/13/22): An LVCVA rep pointed us to an upcoming event, L’Étape Las Vegas by Tour de France, an amateur cycling event. The event happens May 13-14, 2023. This sounds like a great event, and looks like a great step toward the thing we’ve heard could happen, which isn’t this. More to come!