This Wednesday 25th of October, the parcours of the Tour de France 2024 has been revealed in the Palais des Congrès in Paris in presence of Jean-François Bourlart, Maxime Segers, Aike Visbeek, Hugo Page and Adrien Petit.
For the seventh Tour in its history, Intermarché-Circus-Wanty will participate to an unprecedented Grand Départ and final. Because for the first time, this 111th edition will start in Italy on 29th of June from Florence for three days in the country. And for the first time, the Tour de France will not finish in the capital but in Nice with a time trial along the Côte d'Azur on 21st of July.
The 21 stages through Italy, San Marino, Monaco and France are divided in two time trials, eight flat stages, four hilly stages among which one containing gravel roads, and seven mountain stages. Next to the stages in the Appennines and the Massif Central, four finish on a mountain top in the Pyrenees or the Alps.
The opening stage between Florence and Rimini is the Grand Départ with the highest amount of climbing meters in the history of the Tour, namely 3600 meters. The second day, a double ascension of the Madonna di San Luca promises a difficult final towards Bologna, on the eve of a first opportunity for the sprinters in the longest stage of this edition towards Torino.
The peloton will head to the French Alps on the fourth day, with a finish after the descent of the Col du Glibber. The first time trial occurs on the seventh day with 25 kilometer until Gerry-Chambertin, preceding a spectacular ninth stage with 32 kilometer of unpaved roads around Troyes, divided in fourteen sectors.
After the first rest day, the peloton will cross the open fields between Orléans and Saint-Amand-Montrond to reach the Massif Central on day eleven with more than 4300 climbing meters in this stage. After two transition stages, two big days in the Pyrenees come up. The first mountain top finish on Pla d’Adet follows the ascensions of the Col du Tourmalet and Hourquette d’Ancizan. The next day ends on top of Plateau de Beille, which is preceded by five other climbs.
The third week brings the peloton back towards the Alps for three decisive uphill finishes. An explosive final towards Superdévoluy awaits the riders on day seventeen. In the nineteenth stage, three summits higher than 2000 meter will have to be conquered: the Col de Vars, Cime de la Bonette (the highest paved road in France at 2802m) and the final climb towards Isola 2000.
The final mountain stage contains the Col de Turini and la Colmiane in the direction of the finish on top of Col de la Couillole, preceding the final time trial of 34 kilometer between Monaco and Nice, passing the Col d’Èze.
"In broad outline, this nice parcours of the Tour de France 2024 is composed of a solid opening weekend in Italy, sufficient opportunities for sprinters and a very difficult closing weekend in the Alps. Our ambition is to make our colours shine from the Grand Départ in Florence to honour our numerous Italian partners. At first sight, the opportunities for the sprinters from day three could lead to ultra rapid finals, but we'll analyse each kilometer of all these stages in details to determine the best strategy. Because I'm also convinced that this route offers opportunities for teams with an aggressive style of racing, which is not displeasing to us." "From the perspective of a good final classification for Louis Meintjes I'm also satisfied with the mountain stages in the Pyrenees and the Alps. The numerous climbing kilometers in the beginning of the stages are beneficial for him, especially to closer we get to the end of a Grand Tour. A long road has to be accomplished before this rude closing weekend. To reach it in good conditions, we for example have to handle an exciting ninth stage with 32 kilometer of gravel roads. Numerous opportunities will be presented to the riders of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty between Florence and Nice, I'm convinced that we will seize them to win our first stage in the Tour."
