Now it's official: in 2024 Italy for the first time will host the start of the Tour de France, the so-called Grand départ, between Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont.
The route of the first three stages of the 2024 Grande Boucle was unveiled today with an event in Florence by the director of the Tour de France of cycling, Christian Prudhomme; by the mayor, Dario Nardella, and by the president of the Emilia Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini. We will start with the Florence-Rimini, in the name of two winners of the Tour, such as Gino Bartali and Gastone Nencini: a 205-kilometre stage with a 3,800-metre difference in altitude, and the insidious climb of the San Marino hill with 7 kilometers to go . Cesenatico-Bologna will follow, a 200 km stage attractive for sprinters and with two passages from the San Luca climb (1.9 km with a 10.6% gradient) before the finish. The third stage, Piacenza-Turin, in its 225 kilometers through three regions will include some of the roads of the Milan-Sanremo, and will propose an arrival for sprinters.
"The Tour de France has never started from Italy in 120 years, and it was a kind of anomaly, an incongruity," said Prudhomme, underlining that "Italy is a great cycling country, a passionate country, a country magnificent, a country that will offer us very interesting sports grounds and the beauty of its landscapes. There will be places that are world heritage of humanity in the three days of the Tour de France in Italy: naturally, the historic center of Florence, the arcades of Bologna for example, or the vineyard landscapes of Piedmont».
