Oh, boy, it’s Tour de France time again! On Saturday, June 29, the 2024 Grande Boucle will take off in Florence, Italy and get down to serious business straight away. The biggest race in the world is starting early, finishing outside of Paris for the first time ever as to not crowd the Olympic Games, and ending with a time trial for the first time since 1989 when Greg LeMond chrono-ed the title away from Laurent Fignon. Canadian Cycling Magazine takes a look at the 111th edition.
The Course
Week 1: On June 29, the Italian leg begins with a climby affair of 206 km from Florence to Rimini. The climbs are shorter the next day but the sprinters might not get their chance until Stage 3 into Turin. France arrives the next day with a bang, as the Col du Galibier crests 19 km from the finish line in Valloire. After two more stages that favour the fast men, Stage 7 is a 25-km time trial with a climb in the middle. Before the first rest day, Stage 9 offers up 14 sectors of gravel totaling 32.2 km along 199 km around Troyes.
Week 2 of the 111th edition heads south to take on the Pyrenees, with action in the Massif Central along the way. The first major summit finish is Stage 14, finishing on Pla d’Adet after climbing the Col du Tourmalet and the Hourquette d’Ancizan in just 152 km. Stage 15 before the last rest day keeps up the pressure with another summit finish after 198 km and five climbs, the concluding one Plateau de Beille, 15 km of 7.9 percent.
Week 3 will be all about the Alps. Stage 17 has three main climbs, including the 8.4 percent Col du Noyer cresting 12 km from the finish at Super-Dévoluy. Stage 18 is no pushover, but it doesn’t have a dynamite summit finish like Stage 19’s conclusion on Isola 2000, 16.1 km of 7.1 percent. The final mountain day sets four ascents evenly across 133 km, Col de la Couillole the summit finish. The concluding time trial on July 21 starts in Monaco, climbing the gradual La Turbie (8.1 km at 5.6 percent) and then the steeper Col d’Eze (1.6 km at 8.1 percent) before a long but technical descent to Nice.
The Contenders
Back in March the cycling world was squealing with anticipation of the Drawing of the Four, a battle royale between the best Grand Tour riders in the world: Jonas Vingegaard, his former teammate Primož Roglič, Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel. Giddyup!
But a crash in a corner of late-April’s Itzulia…
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