World
Tour de France shocks with first non-Paris finish in 120 years
By Jake Beardslee · October 25, 2023
In brief…
- The 2024 Tour de France will not finish in Paris for the first time since 1905 due to Olympics scheduling
- Route includes 7 mountain stages and 4 summit finishes in first 8 days for a uniquely challenging start
- Women's Tour de France announced from Rotterdam to Alpe d'Huez over 8 stages
- Final stage ends with time trial in Nice which could create dramatic battle for overall title
The 2024 Tour de France will break with over a century of tradition and not finish in Paris due to a scheduling conflict with the 2024 Summer Olympics, race organizers announced Wednesday. For the first time since 1905, the final stage of cycling’s biggest race will take place outside of the French capital.
Instead, the Tour will finish along the picturesque French Riviera in Nice on July 21st. Just five days later, Paris will host the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics. “Because of security and logistical reasons, the French capital won’t have its traditional Tour finish on the Champs-Elysees,” said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme of the change.
The 2024 Tour will also start outside of France for the first time in recent memory, kicking off with a mountainous stage in Florence, Italy on June 29th. In total, the 111th edition of the Tour will include seven mountain stages across four different mountain ranges. Riders will face particularly grueling days early, including four summit finishes in just the first eight stages.
“The Tour peloton has never climbed so high, so early,” remarked Prudhomme of the challenging 2024 route.
Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and his rivals will also face two individual time trials, including a mountain time trial on the penultimate stage finishing in Nice. This could set up a dramatic final day battle for the overall title.
“Everyone remembers the last occasion the Tour finished with a time trial, when Greg LeMond stripped the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysees in 1989, by just eight seconds,” recalled Prudhomme. “Thirty-five years later, we can but dream of a similar duel.”
The women’s Tour de France will also take place next summer over 8 stages and 946 kilometers starting in Rotterdam and finishing atop the famed Alpe d’Huez climb.