As the Tour de France got underway in Copenhagen over the weekend, Luxembourg cycling fans were given a boost in their hopes of the race coming to the grand duchy in the near future. Minister for sport Georges Engel on Friday published a reply to a parliamentary question from Mars di Bartolomeo asking whether there were any plans to apply for a future Grand Départ or a stage finish in the coming years.

Engel said that considering that the last time the Tour was in the grand duchy was in 2017, he would seek a mandate from cabinet “to approach the organisers of the Tour de France” to ensure a future visit of the Tour to the grand duchy.

A Grand Départ, a stage finish or a stage departure is an opportunity to showcase the economic, cultural, sporting, tourist and political influence of Luxembourg throughout the world, Engel wrote.

The minister cited the occasions on which the Tour has been in Luxembourg, beginning with a stage finish in 1947. Since then the grand duchy has hosted the world’s most famous cycle race seven times, including Grand Départs with a prologue in both 1989 and 2002--the former also included two stages while in 2002 there was one stage entirely within the grand duchy.

The 1989 race has been dubbed one of the greatest Tours of all time with eventual winner Greg LeMond triumphing in Paris in a dramatic final day time trial to beat Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds overall. In Luxembourg, at the prologue time trial, they finished second and fourth respectively, but defending champion Pedro Delgado placed last after missing his start time--a mistake that would cost him over two-and-a-half minutes, and contributed to him finishing only third overall.

 The 2002 prologue was won by Lance Armstrong, who would end up finishing first in Paris but has since had his Tour record expunged because of doping.

Despite doping controversies, the Tour remains one of the most televised annual sporting events with broadcasts beamed to over 200 countries.