The 2024 Tour de France is all but confirmed to start in Italy in 2024, with Alberto Cirio, the president of the Piedmont region, revealing that the first-ever Italian Grand Départ will conclude with a visit to Turin and Pinerolo, after stages in Tuscany and Reggio Emilia.
The 2023 Tour will start in the Basque Country, with race organisers likely to announce in January that the 2024 Grande Boucle will start in Italy.
The Tour has visited Italy a number of times and Italian riders have won the Tour ten times, but the race has never started in the Bel Paese. Race director Chirstian Prudhomme and his staff have visited Italy several times but have been careful to avoid confirming the Italian start.
After celebrating the success of the recent ATP tennis finals in Turin, the president of Piedmont could not resist confirming the 2024 Tour visit.
“I can say that the 2024 Tour de France will visit Piedmont with an important stage around Turin and Pinerolo. For now I can’t say much else,” Alberto Cirio said according to multiple reports in Italy.
Thanks to an estimated €10 million fee raised by the Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte regions, the 2024 Grand Boucle will include four stages in Italy before crossing the Alps into France.
With Paris hosting the 2024 Olympic Games between July 26 and August 11, that year's Tour is expected to start a week earlier than usual, taking place between June 29 and July 21. The finish could potentially be in Nice rather than in Paris.
Ottavio Bottecchia was the first Italian to win the Tour de France and 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of his victory.
The opening road stage is expected to be held between Florence and Rimini to celebrate Gino Bartali’s Two Tour victories, while stage 2 will start in Cesenatico, where Marco Pantani was born, and also climb into the hills before a finish in central Bologna. This stage could climb up to Barberino di Mugello to remember 1960 winner Gastone Nencini.
Stage 3 is now expected to start in the north of the Emilia region and then cross into Piemonte, perhaps visiting Fausto Coppi’s birth place in Castellania before a stage finish in Turin. Stage 4 would then start in Pinerolo and cross the Alps into France.
