The 2024 Tour de France will leave Florence and arrive in Nice, it will break a height record and will have ‘gravel’
BARCELONA, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The 2024 Tour de France, which in its 111th edition will begin on Saturday, June 29 from Florence (Italy) and will end in Nice (France) on Sunday, July 21, will feature a route full of surprises and unprecedented milestones, starting with the ‘ Grand Départ’ in Italy, a finale far from Paris and its Champs Elysées and with, among other novelties, a height record included at the top of the Bonnette and more than 30 kilometers of ‘gravel’, with great prominence of the Alps.
The 111th edition of the Tour de France, the most prestigious race on the cycling calendar, will undoubtedly be embraced by the Alps that will be the protagonists at its beginning and at its end, also speaking Italian and French. And Italy, in its great departure, offers stages of interest with an Alpine accent. And, with the finish in Nice, the Tour will return to the Alps, this time the French ones.
Beyond the Alps, the Apennines, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees – this time in the Alpine shadow – will also take center stage in a route, presented this Wednesday at the Paris Conference Center before 4,000 people, with 27 ports of mountain of 2nd, 1st and Special category in total that will make the Tour de France pass through Italy, San Marino and Monaco.
Among its peculiarities, the presence of two individual time trials with 59 kilometers in total. The first, 25 kilometers between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin, will take place in the seventh stage. And, the second, could be key since it comes in the 21st and final stage, with 34 kilometers between Monaco and Nice, the unprecedented grand finale of this French round, with climbs to La Turbie and Col d’Eze included. A time trial that will pay tribute to the first individual time trial of a Tour de France, in 1934, on its 90th anniversary.
The first stage, between Florence and Rimini over 206 kilometers, will be a ‘leg-breaker’ and with more than 3,600 meters of positive gradient it will break the record for accumulated slope in a first stage of the Tour. Furthermore, at the top of San Marino (second country visited on the first day), with 7.1 kilometers at 4.8 percent, interesting first movements could be seen.
Italy will have three stages and it will not be until the fourth when France ‘recovers’ its Tour. And, on Italian territory, the alpine prominence is shared with the historic Imola circuit, in a second stage with a double trap on the Cota de San Luca (1.9 kilometer wall at 10.6 percent). In the third, however, the prize will go to the sprinters (barring escape) in Turin.
The entry to France, in the fourth stage between Pinerolo and Valloire (138 kilometers), will be in style and with three colossi; Sestrières, the Col de Montgenèvre, the Col du Lautaret and, finally, the Col du Galibier with its 23 kilometers at 5.1 percent, crowned at 2,642 meters, before the descent to the finish line.
The sprinters, presumably with the finally not retired Mark Cavendish (present at the event) as a contender to win stages and break the record for partial victories in the Tour, and candidates for the green jersey will have a great double opportunity in Saint-Vulbas (stage 5 ) and Dijon (stage 6), before the first time trial of the seventh stage, and another flat finish in Colombey (stage 8).
On the ninth day comes another novelty, as the first week of the Tour will end with “white roads” already present in the Strade Bianche or in Paris-Tours, with up to 32 kilometers of ‘gravel’ – between dust and stones – along 14 sections, 6 of them in the final part.
And the climbers and ‘roosters’ of the corral will regain prominence with the arrival of the Pyrenees, starting with stage 14, starting in Pau, passing through the mythical Tourmalet, the almost unknown Hourquette d’Ancizan and the climb to Pla d’ Adet, with the finish line located in the place where Raymond Poulidor (grandfather of Mathieu van der Poel) claimed victory in the past.
The next day, after a marathon of 198 kilometers and 4,850 meters of accumulated positive slope, the cyclists will reach Plateau de Beille (15.8 kilometers at 7.9 percent average slope), with the climb to Peyresourde to whet their appetite and continue ‘enjoying’ the climbs to the Col d’Agnes and the port of Lers.
After the second day of rest, in Gruissan, the decisive week will begin with a flat stage 16 ending in Nimes that could be marked by wind and possible fans. Before the Alps, stage 18 has the smell of escape, with the Col Bayard, Col du Noyer (7.5 kilometers at 8.4%) and the final battle in front of the Superdévoluy station as the stage.
And the final triptych arrives. In stage 19, between Embrun and the summit of Isola 2000 after 145 kilometers, things must begin to become clearer in the general classification. The Tour classifies it as an “ultra-mountain stage” since in less than 150 kilometers the 2,000-meter altitude will be climbed three times, with a record at the top of the Bonette, the highest road in France at 2,802 meters. The final climb to Isola 2000 is 16.1 kilometers at 7.1 average gradient.
In stage 20, the penultimate stage, Nice hosts the start of a medium-mountain day with the Col de Braus and its typical hairpins, the Col de Turini, the Col de la Colmiane (common in Paris-Nice) and the tough finish. on the Col de la Couillole, with 15.7 kilometers and an average slope of 7.1%.
And, to finish, an individual time trial between Monaco and Nice to, if necessary, put everything in its place. In the first finish in the history of the Tour de France that does not take place in Paris, Nice intends to give value to this event with a high time trial, starting in the Monaco Principality, climbing La Turbie and Col d’Eze and descending to Nice, with its Place Masséna a couple of pedal strokes from the Promenade des Anglais.
There will be, in total, 3,492 kilometers of route – it will be one of the shortest Tour in recent times – with the usual 21 stages distributed as follows: 8 flat, 4 medium mountain, 7 mountain (with 4 finishes high in Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet, Plateau de Beille, Isola 2000 and col de la Couillole), 2 individual time trials and, in addition, two days of rest.