London will host the first stage of the 2007 Tour de France, the city's mayor Ken Livingstone announced today.
"I am proud to announce that London has successfully bid to host the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in July 2007," Livingstone said in a statement.
The route of the first stage will be announced at a later date.
It will be the third time the world's biggest annual cycling event has visited the United Kingdom.
The Tour's first visit to English shores came in 1974 in a 164-kilomentre round trip from Plymouth to celebrate the UK's entry to the Common Market.
It was the second stage of the race that year and was a low-key affair. With most of the route on the windswept Plymouth bypass, it did not prove the most enticing of prospects for competitors or spectators.
Holland's Henk Poppe won the stage while Belgium's Joseph Bruyere retained the yellow jersey.
In contrast a 205km race from Dover to Brighton and another 187km stage from Portsmouth to Plymouth in 1994 were great successes and marked the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
The spectacle was inspired in part by Chris Boardman's victory in the prologue a few days earlier, over three million spectators packed roads along the south coast.
The Barcelona gold-medallist could not hold on to the yellow jersey long enough to wear it on his home ground. Francisco Cabello of Spain won the stage into Brighton while Italy's Nicola Minali was victorious in Portsmouth.