Paris 2024 Olympic Games | The cycling route will pass by the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles and Montmartre

Playground for many cycling enthusiasts, the Chevreuse valley will serve as a more than promising appetizer after a start in the streets of Paris. Both men and women will have the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro behind them for a pretty postcard at the start. We will have to take advantage of it because the rest is scary on a very hilly profile with no less than 14 bumps for men for 2,800 meters of elevation gain (over 273 km in total) and 9 for women for 1,700m of vertical drop (over 158 kilometres).

An arrival in front of the Eiffel Tower

After this Parisian departure, the men will take the direction of Yvelines to pass in front of the Château de Versailles then that of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Later, they will pay homage to Jacques Anquetil, five times winner of the Tour de France and to whom a stele is dedicated at the top of the Côte de Châteaufort, then pass in front of the National Velodrome, located in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, which will host the track events during the Olympic Games before returning to the capital to take the direction of Montmartre. Shorter, the women’s route will be “satisfied” with the Chevreuse.

On the Montmartre hill, so dear to tourists, you will have to climb to the Sacré Coeur via an 18.4 kilometer circuit, technical and muscular, culminating in a cobbled hill (1 km at 6.5%). Both men and women will cross it three times but will do two laps of the circuit before plunging towards the Pont d’Iéna where the finish will be judged, facing the Eiffel Tower, ten kilometers after the top of the last climb for the women, nine for men. Beware of errors in the descent.

The same time course for men and women

The course of the time trial (July 27) will be the same for both categories. 32.4 kilometers long, it will be almost flat, and will notably visit the Bois de Vincennes with a new tribute to Jacques Anquetil via the Cipale, legendary velodrome, but also a passage in front of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and of performance (INSEP). The start will be on the Esplanade des Invalides, the scene of the archery events at the Olympic Games, while the finish will be judged opposite, on the Pont Alexandre III after passing through the Place de la Nation and that of the Bastille.