a unique route for a 111th edition disrupted by the Paris Olympics – Libération

A Tour de France of the South-East quarter. We exaggerate a little, but not much when discovering the large arrowed poster of the Tour version 2024, presented this Wednesday, October 25 in a packed Palais des Congrès at Porte Maillot (17th arrondissement), by Thierry Gouvenou, the technical director of the events. ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, holder of the Tour) and great leader of the route.

As usual, the triumphant announcements of certain local elected officials, hotel reservations and other observations from witnesses who were able to meet Tour officials during their scouting had already made it possible to sketch the broad outlines. The fact remains that the route of this 111th edition remains unprecedented in more than one way.

The two main attractions (departure and arrival) had already been made official months ago, linked to the holding of the 2024 Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11) which influences both the dates and the route of this Grande Boucle of 3,492 kilometers. The Tour will therefore start a few days earlier than usual (June 29), from abroad for the 26th time in history, the third in a row after Copenhagen in 2022 and Bilbao 2023. Decision “assumed and claimed” by the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, to relieve the police already mobilized by the Games.

The route map of the Tour de France 2024, unveiled on October 25 in Paris. (ASO/AFP)

Departure from Florence, arrival in Nice

Top start from Florence, which will put an end to an anomaly in history, since it will be the first time that Italy will experience a big start, a hundred years after Ottavio Bottecchia’s victory. In total there will be three full stages in Italy. The inaugural which will bring the riders to Rimini, where Marco Pantani died in 2004, is one of the most demanding of the Tour: 3,600 meters of positive altitude difference, seven listed difficulties to overcome including a small gap by the Republic of Saint- Marine.

Before entering French territory with a first and brief foray into the Alps, which we will find at the end of the route with the unprecedented arrival in Nice on July 21. Choice dictated again by the Olympics, since Paris will be in full preparations. A revolution all the same, because the Tour has always ended on the Champs-Elysées, without exception since 1975. To crown this historic departure, the last stage will offer, instead of the friendly procession to the Champs, a counter -the potentially decisive individual watch between Monaco and Nice, thirty-five years after the victory, with an eight-second gap, of Greg Lemond against Laurent Fignon in 1989. And this time promises to be a real justice of the peace since he will go up to La Turbie, then to the Col d’Eze, before finishing at Place Massena in Nice after 35.2 km.

But there is no doubt that there will already have been trouble between Italy and the Promenade des Anglais. It’s difficult to be more mountainous than the 2023 route, but the 2024 route should be pleasant for attackers, even if it promises to be a little less mountainous than that of the last edition. Several legendary summits appear on the map: the Galibier, the Tourmalet, the summit of Bonette (2,802 m) to balance the return of a second individual time trial which serves as a call for the Belgian Remco Evenepoel , world champion and winner of the 2022 Vuelta.

Budding furrowers

After the first transalpine act, it’s time for a very Burgundian stroll, between the slopes of Beaune and the vineyards of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin. A focus was placed on the 11th stage: a steep journey from Evaux-les-Bains, in the Creuse, to the small ski resort of Lioran, in the Cantal mountains. A vibrant ode to the mid-mountains and its hazards, that’s at least what the duo of budding trail runners Prudhomme-Gouvenou, who have set their sights on this central-west route, hope for. The spectator will watch the World Tour teams string together four climbs listed in the last fifty kilometers with the passes of Néronne (3.8 km at 9.1%), Pas de Peyrol (5.4 km at 8.1%), du Perthus (4.4 km at 7.9%) and Font de Cère (3.3 km at 5.8%), all planted between 1,200 and 1,600 m above sea level.

Sometimes subalpine landscapes, especially in the Pas de Peyrol leading to Puy Mary, a vestige of the largest strato-volcano in Europe and classified as a Grand Site de France, where the Colombian Daniel Martínez won in 2020 in the midst of Covid. “It’s the crazy stage: the first 150 kilometers are winding, it goes up, it goes down, it’s tiring. And then boom: a series of walls. It’s perfect for a Jarnac shot,” enthuses Christian Prudhomme.

The Great West still shunned

A third week facing south, where the runners will parade in the Gard, will compete near the Arènes de Nîmes where the risk of “edges” in the event of strong Mistral could salt the race. What remains of the peloton at this time will then set off to conquer the Hautes-Alpes, where there will be a succession of stations (Super-Devoluy, Isola 2000 as recently announced by the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi). Before treating yourself to one hell of a roller coaster ride with a short (132 km) but dizzying (4,400 meter difference in altitude) stage to the top of the Col de la Couillole as the penultimate stage.

Another notable first, more saddening: the Grande Boucle abandons the Grand Ouest for the third time in a row. No stage will cross Normandy, Brittany or Pays-de-la-Loire. Out of the question for the organizers to let the wave of interest and the cumulative audience peaks of July fall with soporific flat races, they say in high places. “Today, laughing, I often say to people who criticize: ‘Would you be ready for me to tie you to a chair to watch a Nantes-Bordeaux stage, completely flat, all afternoon? And let us do this several days in a row… No one is ready to endure this today,” said Thierry Gouvenou in Ouest-France on Wednesday.

A Franco-Dutch women’s tour

It has also become a habit: we know the route of the women’s version of the Tour, also influenced by the Olympics. In 2023, the peloton left Clermont-Ferrand for an eight-stage journey including the Tourmalet. Previously placed as an extension of the Men’s Tour, the race will this time start on August 12 due to the Paris Games which will end the day before, with an arrival scheduled for August 18, at the summit of the legendary Alpes-d’Huez. . And for their third August odyssey, the riders will take their first pedal strokes from Rotterdam. A “Tour de France-Netherlands” (three of the eight stages will take place abroad), including two on the same day (!), including a time trial to compensate for the fact that the race will count one day less.