The 2024 Tour de France will start in Italy and end in Nice with further details of the race route are emerging before the full route presentation, via the ever-scrupulous Velowire.com website created by Thomas Vergouwen.
The French language website suggests next year’s Grand Boucle will enter France from Italy via the Alps and then head northwest to Dijon before passing down through the Massif Central towards the Pyrenees. The decisive mountain stages of the third week will be in the Alps before the time trial from Monaco to Nice on the final day.
The full route of the 2024 Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be revealed on 25th October at the usual presentation event in Paris.
The 2024 Tour de France will be held a week earlier than usual, between Saturday 29th June and Sunday 21st July, due to Paris hosting the Olympic Games which begin on July 26.
Security and logistical reasons mean the race will end away from the French capital for the first time in the history of the race, with Nice hosting the final stages. It will also be the first time that the Tour concludes with a time trial since Greg LeMond dramatically pipped Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysées in 1989.
Race organisers ASO have already revealed the Grand Depart stages in Italy, also a first in the history of the 111 editions of the Tour de France.
The opening stage will cover 205km from Florence to Rimini, with a stage in Emilia Romagna between Marco Pantani’s birthplace in Cesenatico and Bologna. Stage 3 takes the riders east from Piacenza to Turin.
Stage 21 on Sunday, July 21 is a hilly 35.2km test against the clock starting in Monaco and finishing in Nice with the climbs of La Turbie and the Col d’Eze lying on the route. The final 15km are on a long sweeping descent to Nice and then along the Promenade des Anglais to a finish on the Place Masséna.
Velowire has begun to plot the expected route of the race, using local media reports, sources and hotel bookings to work out the start and finish locations of stages. Details are still incomplete but Velowire usually predicts the full details of the route before the official presentation.
Information on the early stages in France after the Italian Grand Depart are still scarce but the riders could face an early day in the Alps and finish in Valloire.
The first rest day is expected to be held in the Côte-d'Or department region that encircles Dijon after several transition and sprint stages between the Alps and the area famous for Burgundy wines.
A 15-20km time trial could be held before the rest day, the short distance perhaps indicating the return of the team time trial, with a finish on the Prenois motor racing circuit a possibility.
Week two will likely begin with a stage to Troyes, one of the heartlands of French cycling and close to Paris. Velowire expects the route to then turn south via the Massif Central, with a finish in Lioran or on the Puy Mary climb. Stage 12 leads the race towards the Pyrenees with a finish celebrating the Roquefort cheese.
Pau has long been the central spot of the stages in the Pyrenees but Carcassonne seems more likely to host the second rest day in 2024 after a first mountain finish and a return to Plateau de Beille.
The third week will cross southern France to the Alps, with a mountain finish widely expected at the Super-Dévoluy ski resort. Stage 18 will also be in the Alps, between Gap and Barcelonnette, while stage 19 could climb the 2.715m high Col de la Bonette before a finish in Isola 2000, just 130km from Nice.
The final weekend will include a hilly road stage that starts and finishes in Nice, with Sunday’s final 35.2km time trial a very hilly and consequently very important stage. It will include the La Turbie and the Col d’Eze climbs, before a fast descent to the finish in Nice to crown the 2024 Tour de France winner.
