French radio station France Bleu reports that the 2022 Tour de France will start in Saint-Etienne.

The Loire region, where Lotto-Soudal's Thomas de Gendt took a stage win this year, is one of the potential sites for the Grande Pearl, while Yorkshire, Norway, and the Basque Country have also been mentioned on various occasions as possible venues for the 2022 race.

According to sources in France Bleue, Saint-Etienne is in pole position and the deal is "80% complete." It was also reported that officials from Tour organizer ASO were in Saint-Etienne last week, lending credence to the rumor.

Although the Grande Pearl has never been held, there have been 20 stage starts and 24 stage finishes in the past. Most recently, De Gendt won a solo victory in the shadow of the Stade Joffroit Guichard soccer stadium, with stage 9 starting the next day.

In 2014, Alexander Kristoff beat Peter Sagan in a sprint finish on stage 12. The Tour first visited the city in 1950, when Raphael Geminiani won a nearly nine-hour stage from Briançon.

The Rhône-Alpes region (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016) has hosted the Tour only twice before, in 1991 in the Grande Pearl of Lyon and in 1926 in Evian-les-Bains.

The 2020 Tour de France will start in Nice, with the opening two stages to be held around the southern city; in February it was announced that the 2021 Tour will start in Copenhagen, Denmark. According to recent reports, the 2023 Tour will start in the Basque Country.