PARIS (AFP) -- The Tour de France cycling race will begin in London next year following an agreement by city mayor Ken Livingstone and race organizers ASO, the Lettre de l'Expansion economic journal reported on Monday.

The most prestigious cycling race in the world has never started in London though it twice visited England, in 1974 and 1994. In 1998, the tour started in Dublin before immediately going back to France.

Tour de France organizers, questioned by AFP, did not comment.