UAE Team Emirates XRG's Pogacar seeks century as Tour de France returns to its roots

The Tour de France embarks on Saturday with superstar Tadej Pogacar's hunger for wins sharing top billing with the magnificent 3,338-kilometre route in the first edition since 2020 not to venture abroad.

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After starts in Florence, Bilbao and Copenhagen, cycling's most prestigious race returns to its roots with an old school itinerary favouring climbers.

"We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts," said race director Christian Prudhomme.

Every inch of this year's 21-day course is on French soil, for the first time since the pandemic-delayed edition, with most of the country placed on a heatwave alert in the week leading up to the race.

Temperatures in the south of France topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Sunday, with large swathes of the country bracing for similar conditions in the coming days.