In 2024, the programme for the first three stages offers a majestic panorama of the Italian cities and countryside while opening the hostilities with an exceptional sporting challenge. After leaving the gorgeous Florence, the trek through Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna leading to the seaside finale in Rimini will pit the peloton against a total altitude gain of 3,700 metres from day one — fortune will really favour the bold. Along the way, the San Marino climb will add the microstate to the list of 14 countries that have hosted the Grande Boucle.
The next day, starting from the station in Cesenatico, the final resting place of Marco Pantani, the riders will tuck into another hefty serving of climbs on the road to Bologna, where punchers have long traded blows on the ascent to San Luca in the Giro dell’Emilia-Romagna. It will then be time for the super-speedsters of the peloton to step on the gas pedal in Turin, the capital of Piedmont, which has also become a prestigious sprint finish from all the Giro d’Italia stage finishes it has hosted.
“Florence had been talking to us about it for a very long time, Emilia-Romagna nurtured its burning desire, and then Piedmont came on board,” Prudhomme says in the press release. “Italy truly raised its ambitions to the power of three to host the Grand Départ. Their ardour and synergies will right a historic wrong as the Tour de France gets under way on the Italian Peninsula for the first time and the riders take their first pedal strokes in this true blue cycling nation.
“Exactly a century after Ottavio Bottecchia became the first cyclist from the other side of the Alps to win the Tour, the peloton will go from the birthplace of Gino Bartali, a champion Righteous Among the Nations, to that of Marco Pantani, the unforgettable Il Pirata, worshipped without measure, before paying tribute to the campionissimo, Fausto Coppi.
“These three stages will take us through majestic landscapes in which the leaders will be forced to take matters into their own hands from the opening weekend. It is going to be magical.”
The first three stages of the 2024 Tour de France:
- Saturday, 29 June — Stage 1: Florence > Rimini, 205 km
- Sunday, 30 June — Stage 2: Cesenatico > Bologna, 200 km
- Monday, 1 July – Stage 3: Piacenza > Turin, 225 km
The seven Italian winners of the Tour de France:
- Ottavio Bottecchia (1924 and 1925)
- Gino Bartali (1938 and 1948)
- Fausto Coppi (1949 and 1952)
- Gastone Nencini (1960)
- Felice Gimondi (1965)
- Marco Pantani (1998)
- Vincenzo Nibali (2014)
Tour stages in Italy:
1948 :
- Marseille > San Remo (won by Gino Sciardis)
1949 :
- Briançon > Aoste (Fausto Coppi)
- Saint-Vincent-d’Aoste > Lausanne (Vincenzo Rossello)
1952 :
- Le Bourg-d’Oisans > Sestrières (Fausto Coppi)
- Sestrières > Monaco (Jan Nolten)
1956:
- Gap > Turin (Nino Defilippis)
- Turin > Grenoble (Charly Gaul)
1959:
- Lautaret > Saint-Vincent, Aosta (Ercole Baldini)
- Saint-Vincent, Aosta > Annecy (Rolf Graf)
1961:
- Grenoble > Turin (Guy Ignolin)
- Turin > Antibes-Juan-les-Pins (Guido Carlesi)
1966:
- Briançon > Turin (Franco Bitossi)
- Ivrea > Chamonix (Eddy Schutz)
1992:
- Saint-Gervais > Sestriere (Claudio Chiappucci)
- Sestriere > Alpe d’Huez (Andrew Hampsten)
1996:
- Le Monêtier-les-Bains > Sestriere (Bjarne Riis)
- Turin > Gap (Erik Zabel)
1999:
- Le Grand-Bornand > Sestriere (Lance Armstrong)
- Sestriere > Alpe d’Huez (Giuseppe Guerini)
2008:
- Embrun > Prato Nevoso (Simon Gerrans)
- Cuneo > Jausiers (Cyril Dessel)
2011:
- Gap > Pinerolo (Edvald Boasson Hagen)
- Pinerolo > Col du Galibier (Andy Schleck)
