July 20, 2024
From Monaco to Nice, this individual time trial is designed for those with strong climbing legs
Date: Sunday July 21, 2024
Distance: 33.7km ITT
Start location: Monaco
Finish location: Nice
Start time: 14:40 CET
Finish time (approx): 19:30 CET
The ancient Greeks who founded Nice named the settlement after Nike, the goddess of victory, and today it will determine definitely who shall be victorious in the 2024 Tour de France. Nice has for over a century lured visitors from over the continent, from Russian aristocrats in the 19th century, to European painters attracted by its soft seaside light, to English well-to-dos who inspired the name of the city’s famous Promenade des Anglais, as a place to seek pleasure and fortune, its notorious casinos promising riches to those who take a chance. Now, a similarly cosmopolitan Tour de France peloton will arrive in Nice having embarked upon three weeks chasing glory.
In a break from tradition, the victor of the yellow jersey won’t be known before this final stage in Nice. In fact, this will be the first time in Tour history that the race finishes outside of Paris, and rather than replicate the ceremonial stage around the Champs-Élysées, the organisers have designed an individual time trial to ensure the race will go down to the wire. It’s the first time since the famous duel between Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon in 1989 that the Tour will end this way, and the hope is for at least some of the drama that made that Tour what many still recognise as the greatest of all time.
Although a departure from Tour tradition, the stage borrows instead from the history of one of the Tour’s sister races, Paris-Nice, by featuring the Col d’Èze that is so synonymous with the climactic stage of that race. Rather than stick to the flat Côte d’Azur coastline from the start location of Monaco to Nice, the route will instead head inland towards Col d’Èze summit via La Turbie. Most of the route will therefore be spent either climbing that 8km climb that precedes the short, steep kick to the Eze summit, or descending the technical downhill that follows it.
Such a parcours means this is not a time trial for the specialists. The benefits of a perfected time trial position will be mitigated, while climbing speed and descending technique will be crucial. As such, the times…