French local newspaper La Provence has unveiled its plans to hold a new three-day stage race in the region from February of next year. The event, to be known as the Tour La Provence, is pencilled in to take place from February 23-25.

The event will be held in between the Tour du Haut Var and the Boucles-Drome-Ardeche. The race has already been approved by the French Cycling Federation (FFC) and the French Cycling League (LNC), the organisers will now forward their dossier to the UCI, applying for 2.1 status for the race. 

“We’ll have more or less a similar field with maybe even more leaders than at the Tour du Haut-Var,” organiser Serge Pascal told La Provence. “All of the teams will be happy because they will benefit from seven days of competition in one small geographical area in the space of one week.”

According to La Provence, the organisers hope to attract 10 WorldTour teams to the race (there will be 20 in total) with priority given to French squads.