The Tour de France is changing, starting in Italy and not ending in Paris

111. the 2024 edition of the Tour de France will unconventionally start in Florence, Italy, on Saturday 29 June and finish three weeks later in Nice on Sunday 21 July. This is the first time the Tour will start in Italy and the first time it will finish in Nice, rather than the traditional Paris.

The ASO organisers want to avoid having to prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, which start just a week later than when the Tour de France is scheduled to end.

The route of the world’s biggest race this coming year measures a total of 3,492km with a total elevation gain of 52,320 metres and passes through four countries – Italy, San Marino, France and Monaco. It includes two individual time trials covering a total of 59km, four mountaintop finishes, a series of gravel sections on stage 9 and a final hilly time trial to Nice.

Twenty-seven-year-old reigning Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, riding in the colours of Dutch stable Jumbo-Visma, won his second consecutive Tour de France title last year and will be back to defend his title against top rival Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia (UAE Team Emirates), who finished second overall last year.

Vingegaard is likely to face a huge challenge not only from Pogačar, but also from 23-year-old Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and another Slovenian, former junior world champion Primož Roglič. The latter will appear in the German stable for which Peter Sagan and his brother Juraj, or our Leopold König and Slovak Erik Baška, raced for a long time, i.e. in Bora-Hansgrohe.

The 2024 Tour de France includes 52,230 metres of elevation gain over 3,492km of climbs, sprints and time trials from Italy to France, with fewer high climbs than in the past and shorter stages. Organisers say it’s a balanced three weeks of racing that includes eight flat stages, four mountaintop finishes and two individual time trials.

Florence, Italy, will host the team presentations, with the first stage starting from Piazzale Michelangelo and kicking off the Grand Tour for the first time. Stage four takes riders into the French Alps. The second week of the 2024 Tour begins with a four-day ride south into the Pyrenees through the Massif Central and rural France. After a second rest day in Gruissan on the Mediterranean coast near the border with Spain on Monday 15 July, the final week leads back to the Alps.

Thirty-eight-year-old experienced Briton Mark Cavendish said it may be the toughest Tour de France route he has ever seen.

Race director Christian Prudhomme, on the other hand , let it be known after the 2024 Tour de France route was revealed that the sprinters might be unhappy: “The fast riders would undoubtedly prefer some more opportunities in the sprint, but each of the four favourites for overall victory (Vingegaard, Roglič, Evenepoel and Pogačar) can point to elements on the overall route that they could use to their advantage.”

Source: Cycling News, Tour de France