The Tour de France announced the route of the 2024 edition this Wednesdayknown to start on June 29 in Florence and end with a time trial on July 21 in Nice, before touring the Alps twice, the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, and including another stage against the clock.
The celebration of the Paris Olympic Games forced the organizers to advance the Tour by a week and to move, for the first time in its history, its final outside the capital that six days later will host the cream of world sport.
The Tour will end its 111th edition in Nice and, as has not happened since 1989, the final winner will not be known until the last breath, because The final stage is a time trial that starts in Monaco, 35 kilometers with two mountain peaksLa Turbie and col d’Èze, which will measure the strength remaining in the platoon.
The last fireworks near Nice will also be marked by the famous climbs from Paris-Nicewith passes like the Col de Braus and Turini, before finishing in Couillole, and a few days before the peloton will make a second visit to the Alps, this time in its southernmost part.
Before, they would make the first visit to that massif, the northernmost placeshortly after the cyclists started an edition that will start for the first time in Italy, where it will host three complete stages, one hundred years after Ottavio Bottecchia became the first transalpine winner of the Tour.
The grand departure from Florence will give way to visits to Rimini, the end of the first day, Bologna, where the second will end, and Turin, the objective of the third, where the suburbs will begin the fourth, which marked the return to France.
It will be done through the shared alpine massif, with two mountainous stages and finals in Valloire and Saint-Vulbaswith promotions to classics such as Lautaret and Galibier, if the leaks are confirmed, before descending to Burgundy.
The wine region will host several days, including a possible time trial in the seventh stage, between Gevrey and Nuits-Saint-Georges, three days before the first break.
The caravan will head to the Loire, an appetizer of the trip to the Massif Centralupon arrival at Le Lorian, which already hosted the finish in 2016 with climbs to Pas de Peyrol, col de Perthus or Font de Cère.
Testimonial Pyrenees
On the way south, the pass through the Pyrenees will be more symbolic, with two days of high mountains and climbing Saint-Lary, on the westernmost side, and Plateau de Beille, on the easternmost side, before a second break at Narbonne.
Crossing Provence will be the appetizer of a new entry into the Alpsthis time to the south, arriving at the Super-Dévoluy ski resort and another in Barcelonette, in the landscapes designed by the famous Serres-Ponçon lake.
With no time for recovery, the cyclists head to the Mediterranean, reaching its most mountainous part: a finish at the Isola 2,000, unprecedented as a stage finish at the French round since Tony Rominger’s victory in 1993, although he failed to dethrone Miguel Indurain.
Only two days at the top of Nice remain to put the icing on the cake of the unique edition.
Source: La Verdad
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