Tour de France 2024 to start in Italy for first time in history of race (+ video)

Three road stages, one of them starting in 1998 Tour de France champion Marco Pantani’s home town of Cesenatico, will open the 2024 edition of the race as it heads to Italy for the first ever Grand Départ there in the history of the race.

😍 Here are the first 3 stages of the #TDF2024 and its Grand Départ from Florence!

😍 Voici les 3 premières étapes du #TDF2024 avec un Grand Départ depuis Florence ! pic.twitter.com/NAp6KFspmG

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) December 21, 2022

What will be the 111th edition of cycling’s biggest race will begin in Florence on Saturday 29 July and conclude on the French Riviera in Nice three weeks later – the first time it will not have finished in Paris, with the country’s capital hosting the 2024 Olympic Games days after the Tour de France ends.

20 years after Pantani was found dead in an apartment hotel room in Rimini – which will be the arrival city of the opening stage – the choice of Italy to host the Grand Départ also marks 100 years since Ottavio Bottechia became the first Italian rider to win the race.

The three stages announced today on Italian TV by race director Christian Prudhomme are as follows:

Saturday, 29 June — Stage 1: Florence to Rimini, 205 km
Sunday, 30 June — Stage 2: Cesenatico to Bologna, 200 km
Monday, 1 July – Stage 3: Piacenza to Turin, 225 km

The opening stage from Florence to Rimini includes no less than 3,700m of climbing – including a visit to San Marino, the world’s oldest republic, which will become the 14th country to have hosted the race, with a climb that should make a selection before a fast run down to the finish on the Adriatic Coast.

Stage 1 / Etape 1

🤩 A snapshot of the Grand Départ in Florence, a tribute to Gino Bartali in his birthplace of Ponte a Ema before the finish on the Adriatic seafront.

🤩 L'écrin de Florence, l'hommage à Bartali à Ponte a Ema avant les plages de l'Adriatique.
#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/pqtY8xfN3T

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) December 21, 2022

There will be more punchy climbs on the second day, with a finale including with the ascent to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca that overlooks Bologna and which provides the climax each autumn to the Giro dell’Emilia.

Stage 2 / Etape 2 #TDF2024

🏴‍☠️ From Marco Pantani's hometown to Bologna via the 666 arches of San Luca, another magnificent scenery.

🏴‍☠️ De la patrie de Marco Pantani à Bologne en passant par les 666 arches du sanctuaire de San Luca, un nouveau cadre d'exception. pic.twitter.com/XpI9hBwrFw

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) December 21, 2022

The third and final stage entirely in Italy will be tailor-made for the sprinters as the peloton heads across the flat plain flanking the River Po and then into the Langhe ahead of a finish in Turin, the most French of Italy’s cities, which has welcomed the race on three previous occasions.

Stage 3 / Etape 3

🇮🇹 Last stage in Italy, with a visit to Tortone where Fausto Coppi died, and a romp through the Langhe.

🇮🇹 Dernière étape du triptyque italien, avec un passage par Tortone, où le Campionissimo Fausto Coppi s'est éteint, et les vignobles des Langhe.#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/TTEBTEh5Qz

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) December 21, 2022

In all, 23 Tour de France stages have either started or finished in Italy, all crossing the border in one direction or the other – and bar the first, in the Ligurian resort of San Remo which hosted the finish of a stage in 1948 that had begun in Marseille, all have been in either Val d’Aosta or Piedmont, meaning that Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy will be welcoming the race for the first time.

The last stage to finish in Italy saw Team Sky rider Edvald Boasson Hagen take a stunning solo win in Pinerolo, which also hosted the start of a stage the following day that will live long in the memory as Andy Schleck of Leopard-Trek won on the Galibier with a long-range lone attack.

Besides Pantani and Bottecchia, who retained his title in 1925, five other Italians have won the yellow jersey, including Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, both of whom won the race twice.

Gastone Nencini took victory in 1950, with the two most recent winners, Felice Gimondi and Vincenzo Nibali, being among the seven cyclists to have won all three Grand Tours.

It will be the third year running that the Tour de France has started abroad. This year’s race began in Copenhagen, which had originally been due to host the Grand Départ in 2020, while next year’s edition gets underway in the Spanish Basque Country, with the opening stage starting in Bilbao.