Tour de France

Making a tribute to Bartali, Coppi and the enormously rich Italian cycling culture, the 2024 Tour de France will cover in its ‘Grand Départ’ no less than four days on the other side of the Alps. Imitating what has been the case for already decades in La Vuelta, routes will be tough from the very start, with the opener including seven rated ascents (+3,600m) over its 206km course -with a 17km neutralised start- towards Rimini (Saturday 29th). The last climb, San Marino (Cat-3), will be crested with 27km to go.

Less hard, yet more intense, will be stage two (Sunday 30th), with a dual final ascent to San Luca – where Enric Mas won at the 2022 Giro dell’Emilia – in Bologna. Following the first bunch sprint of the race (Monday 1st July) in Turin, the ‘Grande Boucle’ will cross the Alps for the first time this year on Tuesday 2nd, with Sestriere (Cat-2), Montgenèvre (Cat-2) and the long Galibier (HC), this time through the Lauraret, on the way to Valloire. A second test for the climbers between sprinter finishes, as the next two days, to Saint-Vulbas (Wednesday 3rd) and Dijon (Thursday 4th) will be suited to bunch finishes.

Day seven of this year’s TDF (Friday 5th) marks the first individual time trial, not a long one at 25km, with a two-kilometer, 5% slope halfway through the route towards Gevret-Chambertin. It should be the first gap-creating stage in this year’s race, two days before the ‘gravel race’ of the Tour (Sunday 7th), with no less than 17 white road sections around Troyes – not with great elevation (+2,000m) but still nervous and potentially decisive.

Abundant sprints over the first half of the Tour mean that the first mountain-top finish of the race won’t come until stage 11 (Wednesday 10th July), or not even so, as the four climbs – including the Pas de Peyrol (Cat-1) – over the last 50km towards Le Lioran end with three kilometers to go. That first real, tough mountain finish will have to wait until stage 14 (Saturday 13th): the Pyrenees start with Tourmalet (HC) + Hourquette d’Ancizan (Cat-2) + the ending Saint-Lary (HC). A day later (Sunday 14th), a huge second effort, with +4,800m and classical climbs, will take the riders over Peyresourde (Cat-1), Menté (Cat-1), Portet d’Aspet (Cat-1), Agnes (Cat-1) and the finish at the Plateau de Beille (HC).

To compensate for the short Pyrenees and that over abundance of sprints, the last week is designed as ‘Alps extra’, also taking advantage from the fact that, for the first time in 121 years of history, the TDF will not end in Paris, rather than Nice, due to the Olympic Games starting just five days after the conclusion. On Wednesday 17th, we will get to Superdévoluy (Cat-3) via the Col du Noyer (Cat-1); on Thursday 18th, five Cat-3 climbs and a total +3,100m towards Barcelonnette offer perfect terrain for a breakaway; on Friday 19th, we will finish atop Isola 2000 (Cat-1) after climbing Vars (HC) and La Bonette (HC), the highest point of this year’s race at over 2,800m above sea level; and on Saturday 20th, before the brutal, final ITT to Niza -over the Col d’Eze and La Turbie-, we will overcome +4,600m with Braus (Cat-2), Turini (Cat-1), La Colmiane (Cat-1) and the La Couillole finish (Cat-1).