Christian Prudhomme, leader of the Tour de Franceappeared this Wednesday on the TG Sport de la Rai program to launch the official countdown of Tour de France 2024 Grand Depart. The first start of the race from Italy comes 100 years after Ottavio Bottecchia first carried the trophy across the Alps.
The show starts on June 29 with the opening stage from Florence to Rimini, on the Adriatic coast in Emilia-Romagna, followed by a crossing from Cesenatico to Bologna and a cross-country run in Piedmont, where the peloton will end its Italian tour in Turin on 1 July.
The Tour de France weaves stories between countries. The chapter that begins in 2024 in the first Italian ‘Gran Departe’ is an addition written in golden letters in a long poem full of heroism, twists of fate, career-boosting incidents and anecdotes that are burned into the mind of cycling enthusiasts and fans of all generations.
After all, the first pioneer, Maurice Garin, a native of Valle d’Aosta, had only held a French passport for two years when he won the inaugural edition of the Tour in 1903. Although the successful campaign of extraordinary champions, from Gino Sina Bartali and Fausto Coppi to Marco Pantani and Vincenzo Nibali, marking the century between Ottavio Bottecchia’s first victory and the start of the Tour in Florence in June 2024, the Italians have become one among the most creative riders in the peloton, always ready to put on a show on any terrain.
Although never striving to live up to the final race on the Champs-Élysées, Mario Cipollini became one of the most prolific stage winners of the 1990s, while Claudio Chiappucci clinched the polka-dot jersey twice (1991 and 1992). In recent years, it was Fabio Aru who raised his country’s flag by winning La Planche des Belles Filles in 2017 wearing the national champion’s jersey.
In 2024, the program of the first three stages offers a majestic panorama of Italian cities and countryside, while opening battles with exceptional sporting challenges. Leaving beautiful Florence, the course through Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna to the coastal end of Rimini will see the peloton tackle a total descent of 3,700 meters from the first day, so fortune favors the bravest. Along the way, San Marino’s ascension would add the microstate to the list of 14 countries hosting the Grande Boucle. Tomorrow, starting from Cesenatico station, Marco Pantani’s final home, the riders will face another good uphill boost on the way to Bologna, where fist bumps are replaced by hours of climbing to San Luca in the Giro dell’ Emilia-Romagna. It’s time for the best sprinters in the peloton to step on the accelerator in Turin, the capital of Piedmont, which has become a prestigious sprint finish line for all the Giro d’Italia stage finishes it has hosted.
The first three stages of the 2024 Tour de France:
Saturday June 29 – Stage 1: Florence > Rimini, 205 km
Sunday, June 30 – Stage 2: Cesenatico > Bologna, 200 km
Monday, July 1 – Stage 3: Piacenza > Turin, 225km
Source: La Verdad
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