The routes of the 2024 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be presented in Paris on Wednesday, ending the rumours, reports and speculation about the courses of the sport's biggest races.
The Velowire website and local French media have revealed many of the key stages and details of the Tour de France, but many details remain concealed even so close to the official presentation. There are still some 'known unknowns', Donald Rumsfeld the former US Secretary of Defense would have said if he was studying the race routes.
For the men, will there be a first week individual time trial or will it be a team time trial? How many kilometres of gravel roads will be included through the Champagne vineyards? What climbs will be included in the two expected mountain finishes in the Pyrenees?
The Alps will dominate the final week before the men's final time trial to Nice but how long will the mountain stages be and what legendary climbs will be included?
We have tried to work out the details and understand the possibilities before Wednesday's big reveal.
Race organisers ASO have already revealed the stages of the Grand Départ in Italy, with the three days of racing starting with two hilly road rides to Cesenatico and Bologna, followed by a flat ride and probable sprint finish in Turin.
The final stages around Nice are also known, with the Mediterranean city hosting the finish of the Tour for the first time due to the 2024 Olympic Games occupying Paris.
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Stage 20 is short at 132 kilometres but heads into the tough climbs of Alpes-Maritimes and ends atop the Col de la Couillole, a 15.7km climb. The final stage is no parade stage, with the 35km hilly time trial from Monaco to Nice expected to create a thrilling and testing finish to the 2024 Grand Boucle.
It is the first time in Tour de France history that the race will end outside of Paris and the first time that the Tour ends with a time trial since Greg LeMond dramatically defeated Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysées in 1989.
Time trial or team time trial on stage 7?
The first week of the Tour de France leaves Italy via the Alps with an early climb of the Col du Galibier and a descent to the finish in Valloire. It could be a chance for Tom Pidock (Ineos Grenadiers) to repeat his breathtaking Col du Galibier descent of 2022.
The race then heads northwest towards Dijon for the first time trial on stage 7 around the Bourgogne Côte d’Or vineyards. Velowire and local media reports suggest the stage will be held between Gevrey-Chambertin and Nuits-Saint-Georges but the road between the two towns is just 11km long in a flat valley. The final stage route is likely to climb into the vineyards and be significantly longer.
If it is an individual time trial, the stage distance could be around 25 to 30km. Combined with the final Monaco to Nice time trial, the 2024 Tour de France could include a total 60 to 65km of hilly time trialling. That is a lot for modern-day editions of the race, sparking suggestions that the stage could actually be a team time trial.
The last TTT in the Tour was in 2019, with a fast 27.6km ride around Brussels on stage 2. ASO reduced and then removed team time trials in an apparent move to help the French riders and teams, who lost significant time in recent years and to generally reduce the time losses between all the overall contenders.
However, a short team time trial of just 15km, with a climb into the vineyards could be a way to shake up the Tour de France after a week of racing.
Julian Alaphilippe attacks on the gravel section of La Planche des Belles Filles on stage 6 of the 2019 Tour de France (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Through rural France profonde to the Pyrenees
Week two of the 2024 Tour de France includes two consecutive finishes in the town of Troyes, the capital of the Champagne region, with a likely sprint finish on stage 9 and then a hilly stage in the Champagne hills via several gravel roads. It will be fascinating to see the impact of the gravel roads on the stage and the 2024 Tour de France.
The first rest day in Orléans is followed by a long ride south to the Pyrenees via central France, with finishes expected in Le Lioran, Villeneuve-sur-Lot and then Pau before two mountain stages.
The two days in the Pyrenees are expected to finish at Pla d’Adet and Plateau de Beille, both tough mountain finishes, but little is known of the climbs to be included on the routes.
Stage 14 will start in Pau and so include a valley ride into the Pyrenees. The stage will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Raymond Poulidor’s famous victory there in 1974 when he dropped Eddy Merckx. Previous stages to Pla d’Adet have included the Col du Portet, but little is known of the 2024 stage route.
It is a similar story for stage 15, which will be held on July 14 and so Bastille Day in France when the whole nation is on holiday. Plateau de Beille returns as a mountain finish but what road will the ride through the Ariège Pyrenees take?
In 1998, when Marco Pantani won the 170km stage, it included the Col de Menté, the Col Portet d'Aspet and the Col de la Core. There are few valley roads across the Pyrenees but which route will the stage take? Will it be tough enough to test the overall contenders or more suited to a breakaway?
Into the high Alps
The second rest day is expected to be in Narbonne, with a flat stage along the crosswind-exposed Mediterranean coast to Nîmes to kick off the third week.
The Alps will be decisive in the 2024 Tour de France but little is yet known about how and why. That will become clear on Wednesday, as teams also analyse the route and work out if it suits their team leaders.
Stage 17 is expected to finish in the little known ski resort of Super Dévoluy, with the climb to the line a shakedown for the days to come.
Stage 18 is from Gap to Barcelonnette but little is known of the stage route and climbs. With more climbing to come before the finish in Nice, it could pass through the hills south of Gap and be a chance for a breakaway. How about a nerve-wrecking descent from La Foux d'Allos to the finish?
The high southern Alps will come on stage 19 from Embrun to Isola 2000. The stage should climb the Col de Vars early on, before tackling Europe's highest road, the Cime de la Bonette (2,802m) mid-stage It will be the highpoint of the 2024 Tour de France and so award the prestigious Souvenir Henri Desgrange.
The stage should be short but could also face a multi-climb route to the Isola 2000 ski resort.
Members of Team SD Worx celebrate at podium as best team winners after stage 8 in Pau at Tour de France Femmes 2023 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
Like the men’s race, we know the details of the Grand Départ in the Netherlands and a possible finish on L’Alpe d’Huez on the final stage, but few other details have emerged of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes.
The Grand Départ will kick off on August 12 in Rotterdam, one day after the conclusion of the Paris Olympic Games. It will be the first Grand Départ of the Tour de France Femmes on foreign soil.
After the opening stage from Rotterdam to The Hague, ASO has confirmed a double day of racing on August 13 with the potential of a stage 2a road race that starts in Dordrecht and a stage 2b time trial in the afternoon in Rotterdam.
The final two stages of the eight-stage race are expected to be in the Alps but little is known of how the Tour de France Femmes will ride south from the Netherlands. A visit to Belgium is possible and even likely, with perhaps a first hilly stage in Vosges mountains in the east of France.
French newspaper Republicain Lorrain have suggested that Amnéville, north of Metz, will host the finish of stage 4, the first in France. Stage 5 could go deep and high into the Vosges, while stage 6 looks set to start in Remiremont and finish in Morteau not far from the border with Switzerland.
With just seven days of racing it will surely be impossible to visit the Pyrenees in 2024 and so the Alpine finale seems most likely terrain for the decisive mountain stages.
According to a Dauphiné Libéré, the final two days of the Tour de France Femmes will end with mountain climbs, first at the ski station of Le Grand-Bornand and then with the final stage climbing the famous 21 switchbacks to the ski resort of the legendary l’Alpe d’Huez.
It would be a spectacular mountain finish to the Tour de France Femmes and to a long French summer of racing.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
