Three transalpine stages will launch the 111st edition of the Tour de France, which, for the first time since 1905, will not end in Paris, but in Nice.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The end of an “incongruity”. The Tour de France will leave from Italy in 2024 for the first time in its history more than a hundred years old, more precisely from the city of Florence, for an 111 e edition decidedly not like the others with a final arrival in Nice.
“The tour started from all the neighboring countries of France. He even left the Netherlands six times, which have no common border with France. But he has never left Italy. There is a kind of incongruity that will disappear, “explains the Director of the Tour de France to the France-Presse, Christian Prudhomme, who came to Italy to present this 26 e Departure from abroad, the third in a row after Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2022 and Bilbao (Spain) in 2023.
There will be three stages in Italy to launch the 2024 edition which, Olympic Games (OJ) in Paris oblige, will end exceptionally in Nice with, as the organizers had already announced, a last time trial Individual on July 21, five days before the start of the Olympic Games in the capital.
The first step, on June 29, will connect Florence to Rimini – “a medium mountain, even mountain stage, with a positive elevation of 3,700 meters”, according to Mr. Prudhomme. The second, carved for the Punchers, will leave from Cenatico and end on a final circuit in Bologna after having passed by Imola, where Julian Alaphilippe won his first title of world champion, in 2020. The third, promised to sprinters, Plaisance in Turin. The fourth step should also take off from Italy and then arrive on French territory.
“Obvious link with the legend of Italian cycling”
“Starting from abroad, not only I assume it but I claim it. The French security forces will be enormously requested in 2024, so a great departure from abroad can help,” insists Mr. Prudhomme. For the Tour, it is also an opportunity to celebrate Italian cycling, so rich, while 2024 will mark the centenary of the first Italian victory in the Great Loop, that of Ottavio Bottecchia.
“At the zero kilometer after Florence, we will pass the museum [of cycling] Gino-Bartali [winner of the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948]. We will also pass in front of the place where Fausto Coppi rests [winner of the tower of France in 1949 and 1952]. There will be a start departure from CENENATICO, where Marco Pantani is buried. There is an obvious link with the legend of Italian cycling and his champions, “said the director of the Tour.
This departure from Italy, seventy years after the first launch of the foreigner (Amsterdam in 1954), will therefore repair a fairly inexplicable anomaly for two neighboring countries also in love with cycling. The case almost ended several times, but for various reasons, has always been delayed.