Paris cannot be, as tradition dictates, the scene of the arrival of the Tour de France in 2024 – Olympic Games oblige -, the organizers of the Grande Boucle took the opportunity to propose an unprecedented final around Nice and which will grand announcement. On paper, anyway.
We already knew that the very last stage would be an individual time trial linking Monaco to Nice, 35 years after Greg LeMond’s victory by eight small seconds against Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysées in 1989. The route remained to be discovered. Presented this Monday, it is top notch since it will climb to La Turbie (8.1 km at 5.6%) then to the Col d’Eze by its shortest side (1.6 km at 8.1%) before finish place Massena in Nice, after 35.2 km of effort.
Everything could be decided on this time, but it will first be necessary for the favorites to emerge unscathed from the penultimate stage, which is by no means a walk in the park either. On the contrary, it’s even a hell of a rollercoaster ride that awaits the riders during a short (132 km) but quite dizzying stage with the successive ascent of the Col de Brais, the Col de Turini, the Col de La Colombine and finally the difficult Couillole pass (15.7 km at 7.1%), where the finish will be judged, as on Saturday in Paris-Nice.
Arrival five days before the start of the Games
With 4,400 meters of elevation gain, it is a “dense, collected stage, without a flat meter, where everything will be possible”, underlined the director of the Tour Christian Prudhomme.
This 111th edition decidedly like the others will leave Italy for the first time, in Florence. As is usually the case in an Olympic year, the start will be brought forward a week and the race will start on June 29 and arrive on July 21, five days before the start of the Olympic Games.