The 2024 Tour de France will depart from Florence and visit four countries (Italy, San Marino, Monaco and France) during the 21 stages of the race, which will cover a total of 3,498 kilometres until the finish in Nice on July 21.
This will be the 26th edition of the ‘Grande Boucle’ that starts abroad and the first in history that the finish line will not be in Paris, but in Nice, a change necessitated by the celebration of the Olympic Games in the French capital.
Of the 21 stages, there are eight flat stages, four hilly stages, eight mountain stages, four with a mountain finish and two individual time trials. There will also be two rest days.
The first stage of the Tour de France already promises strong emotions
The first stage of the Tour de France 2024, this Saturday, already promises the first moments of cycling battle with at least seven climbs on the 206-kilometer route between Florence and Rimini, in Italy.
“With more than 3,600 meters, it is the first stage with the greatest positive gradient in the history of the Tour de France,” said Thierry Gouvenou, the ‘architect’ of the route, in statements to AFP.
This is due less to the organisers’ desire to make the start of the ‘Grande Boucle’ more difficult than to the characteristics of the terrain.
“You have to cross the Apennines. We don’t reach very high, but even at 900 meters there are climbs that are hard,” adds the Tour’s technical director.
The rollercoaster-like route of the first stage resembles a ‘mini Liège-Bastogne-Liège’, which may appeal to some big names such as Dutch world champion Mathieu Van der Poel and his Belgian rival Wout Van Aert.
Van der Poel however considers that it is “a little too tough” for him, while Van Aert feels in his “worst shape” due to his recent injuries.
The name of the Dane Mads Pedersen is also pointed out by several names in the peloton as the man to follow in this first stage.
Will the favorite of this Tour, Tadej Pogacar, take advantage of this to give a stroke of authority from the first day, knowing that the last climb is 25 km from the finish line? Or will the Slovenian perhaps wait for the second stage and the San Luca climb to begin to set the tone for this edition?
Saturday’s stage will also pass through the home town of the legendary Gino Bartali, near Florence, before crossing Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. It will also pass through the microstate of San Marino, which thus becomes the 13th foreign country through which the Tour de France has passed.
The goal is set in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, where Marco Pantani died twenty years ago from an overdose.
Departure from Florence at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT), arrival in Rimini at 5:49 p.m. (3:49 p.m. GMT), according to a schedule estimated by an average of about 40 km/h
The stages of the Tour de France-2024:
- June 29: 1st stage Florence (Italy) – Rimini (Italy), 206 km
- June 30: 2nd stage Cesenatico (Italy) – Bologna (Italy), 199.2 km
- July 1: 3rd stage Piacenza (Italy) – Turin (Italy), 230.8 km
- July 2: 4th stage Pinerolo (Italy) – Valloire, 139.6 km
- July 3: 5th stage Saint Jean de Maurienne – Saint Vulbas, 177.4 km
- July 4: 6th stage Mâcon – Dijon, 163.5 km
- July 5: Stage 7 Nuits Saint Georges – Gevrey Chambertin (individual time trial), 25.3 km
- July 6: 8th stage Semur en Auxois – Colombey les Deux Eglises, 183.4 km
- July 7: 9th stage Troyes – Troyes, 199 km
- July 8: day of rest in Orléans
- July 9: 10th stage Orléans – Saint Armand Montrond, 187.3 km
- July 10: 11th stage Evaux les Bains – Le Lioran, 211 km
- July 11: 12th stage Aurillac – Villeneuve sur Lot, 203.6 km
- July 12: 13th stage Agen – Pau, 165.3 km
- July 13: 14th stage Pau – Saint Lary Soulan-Pla d’Adet, 151.9 km
- July 14: 15th stage Loudenvielle – Plateau de Beille, 197.7 km
- July 15: rest day in Gruissan
- July 16: 16th stage Gruissan – Nîmes, 188.6 km
- July 17: 17th stage Saint Paul Trois Châteaux – Superdévoluy, 177.8 km
- July 18: 18th stage Gap – Barcelonnette, 179.5 km
- July 19: 19th stage Embrun – Isola 2000, 144.6 km
- July 20: 20th stage Nice – Col de la Couillole, 132.8 km
- July 21: 21st stage Monaco – Nice (individual time trial), 33.7 km
