Tour de France 2024 Route Announcement
The full route of the 2024 Tour de France was announced yesterday by the race organisers ASO.
Next year’s parcours is somewhat unusual due to the start and finish locations, which were already known.
The Grand Départ is in Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, Italy, and the final stage is in Nice rather than Paris, with the French capital avoided due to the Paris Olympics.
The result is an anti-clockwise loop from the Alps up tothe Champagne region, then back down through the Massif Central and the Lot to the Pyrenees. A stage near the Mediterranean coast takes the riders towards the southern Alps before the final stage between Nice and Monaco.
Grand Départ
The details of the Grand Départ in Italy are already available. Stage 1 is a Classics-type course with plenty of climbing over a distance of 206km. The General Classification could start to take shape already.
Stage 2 is for the puncheurs, with a finishing circuit featuring the climb to San Luca, in Bologna. Stage 3 is a flat stage, and the first opportunity for the sprinters.
Chances for Mark Cavendish to Win a Stage
Mark Cavendish has delayed his retirement by a year so that he can try and win a 35th Tour de France stage. The Stage 3 finish in Turin will be the first opportunity for him. This was his comment:
‘I think Torino should offer the chance for sprinters. It is a difficult Tour de France, you know, it could be more comfortable’.
mark cavendish reacting to the 2024 tour route and stage 3
There are plenty more flat stages that offer the sprinters a chance. They include:
- Stage 5 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Vulbas
- Stage 6 Macon to Dijon
- Stage 8 Semur-en-Auxois to Colombey-les-deux-Eglises
- Stage 10 Orléans to Saint-Amand-Montrond
- Stage 12 Aurillac to Villeneuve-sur-Lot
- Stage 13 Agen to Pau
- Stage 16 Gruissan to Nimes
At least one of them may be more suited to sprinters-who-can-climb (Stage 13). Crosswinds could play a role in others (Stages 10 and 16), but Cavendish may have the team to keep at the front and out of trouble.
That still leaves plenty of chances. Cavendish said:
‘It’s so hard, it is so hard. I am actually in a bit of shock. It is so hard.
There’s a few, but you’ve got to get to them, that’s the problem you know.
mark cavendish reacting to the 2024 tour de france route
Still, he wouldn’t be truly happy if he didn’t have something to complain about.
Mountains
Because of the way the race returns from Italy, the Alpine climbs start already on Stage 4 to Valloire, with the Col du Galibier among the ascents.
It is not until Stage 11 that the challenge of defying gravity is presented to the riders once more. The race organisers think Stage 11 to Le Lioran could be very significant, because of the amount of climbing (4,350m), and the steep gradients which provide multiple opportunities to attack.
The Pyrenees provide two summit finishes – Pla d’Adet on Stage 14 and Plateau de Beille on Stage 15.
Stage 17 is a mountain stage to Superdévoluy.
Stage 19 in the southern Alps to Isola 2000 includes the Cime de la Bonette, the highest road in France (2,802m). It’s followed up with another tough day in the mountains on Stage 20, finishing at Col de la Couillole.
Time Trialling
There are two individual time trials.
The first is a 25km effort in Burgundy, through the vineyards of Nuit-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin. The time differences among the GC contenders shouldn’t be too great but we’ll get an indication of who is on form.
The second ITT is 35km from Monaco to Nice on Stage 21. It could be a cakewalk if one rider has a big GC lead, or it could be close and exciting as in 1989 when Greg Lemonde won the overall title by 8s from Laurent Fignon.
There should be something for everyone in the 2024 Tour. There may well be a few doze-a-thons in the middle, but there will be plenty of excitement too.
Video
This is a video of the presentation of the route of the 2024 Tour de France by Christian Prudhomme.