The the 2019 Tour de France's so-called Grand Depart will take place in Brussels in honor of iconic Eddy Merckx, race organizers announced Tuesday.
Merckx won the Tour a record-tying five times, and 50 years after his first victory the event's so-called Grand Depart will take place in the capital city of his homeland Belgium.
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The 2019 event also will mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of the yellow jersey.
This year's Tour will start in Dusseldorf, with the following Grand Depart occurring in the Vendee in the Pays de la Loire region of France.
Brussels was the first European capital to be visited by the Tour in 1947.
