A TOUR OF FIRSTS

With a start in Florence and finale in Nice, the 2024 Tour de France is embracing change

- Peter Cossins

This is the 111th Tour de France, and for race director Christian Prudhomme those three ones have real significance. He describes it as a race of firsts, breaking new ground by having its Grand Départ in Italy, the huge ascent of the Col du Galibier in its opening week, a sortie onto the gravel roads bisecting Champagne's vineyards, and, what's undoubtedly the most extraordinary innovation of all, a finish away from Paris, the finale taking place far to the south, in Nice.

The race gets under way on 29 June in Florence, the home city of two-time Tour winner Gino Bartali, one of the sport's great climbers. He would surely have approved of the opening stage to Rimini. Featuring 3,600 metres of vertical gain, it's arguably the toughest opener the race has ever seen and sets the tone for the three weeks ahead. Day two, for instance, features two ascents of the San Luca climb in Bologna, with its magnificent roadside colonnade that's the finale for the Giro dell'Emilia. Forty-eight hours later, the riders will cross the 2,642-metre Galibier before that Tom Pidcock descent into the finish at Valloire.

The sprinters should get three opportunities before the first time trial linking the illustrious Burgundy vineyards of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin. Once past this test, the next big hurdle for the GC favourites will be in the vineyards of Champagne, where the peloton will tackle no fewer than 14 sections of white gravel road, amounting to 32.2km in total.

Massif attack