Tour de France 2024: five things to know about the 111th edition, turned upside down by the Paris Olympics and the legislative elections

A Tour de France with Mediterranean accents. The 111th edition of the most famous cycling race in the world will start on Saturday from Florence, in Italy, to arrive in Nice, on the Côte d’Azur, on July 21. This year, the race has new features at all levels. Unprecedented and disrupted course due to the Paris Olympic Games, favorites amid uncertainty, consequences of the legislative elections… The race promises to be hectic. What does the competition have in store for us this year? TF1info takes stock.

A unique and exciting journey

For the first time in its history, the Grande Boucle will therefore start from Italy. Three stages will be entirely contested in the transalpine peninsula. With the key, for the first two of them, particularly uneven routes. On Saturday and Sunday alone, the riders will already have to climb 12 climbs of 2nd, 3rd or 4th category. “The Florence-Rimini [lors de la première journée, ndlr]its 3700 meters of altitude difference, the crossing of the Apennines… there can be a terrible fight from the first day“, rejoiced Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, on Monday.

Once past these hilly stages, the race will once again offer an atypical route compared to previous years. On the program: a double dose of the Alps, with first the crossing of the Col du Galibier to leave Italy on July 2; then a second passage in the south of the massif, at the very end of the race, during two stages announced as Dantesque, on July 19 and 20. The other highly anticipated day? Crossing numerous unpaved areas on vineyard paths, around Troyes, on July 7. Before returning to Provence, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees will also represent quite a challenge for the runners.

A final time trial that can change everything

At the end of the three weeks of racing, it is not the Arc de Triomphe which will welcome the participants of the Tour de France as every year, but the Promenade des Anglais, in Nice. The final arrival in the town of the Alpes-Maritimes will be the highlight of this 111th edition like no other. Above all, the last stage, which usually has almost no stake in the general classification, will this time have particular importance, since it will be a time trial. The 33 kilometers to be covered alone between Monaco and Nice will perhaps be decisive in deciding between the favorites if the gaps are not already too large. All while crisscrossing the grandiose landscapes of the Côte d’Azur.

Favorites more or less in the dark

With this time trial which could one last time upset the podium during the last day, the favorites of this 111th Tour will have to be attentive until the end to achieve the final victory. Obviously, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will try to keep his double title acquired in 2022 then in 2023. But the champion suffered a very serious fall in the spring during the Tour of the Basque Country, causing him to suffer more than About ten days of hospitalization and several fractures. Will he be able to defend his chances 100%? “To be honest, I don’t know, estimated the first concerned in The Team this week. I have worked a lot, and worked well, and I am not in bad shape. I have hope, I will fight for the victory, but we will see.”

Obviously, his duel with Tadej Pogačar (UEA Team Emirates) will be scrutinized. Last year, the Slovenian tried to put the Dane in difficulty on several occasions, without success. And he finally broke down during a mountainous time trial in Passy and Combloux, flown over by Vingegaard. But Pogačar, winner of the event in 2021 and already winner of the Tour of Italy this year, this time seems to be in the form of his life. In addition to these two men, a few other contenders could compete for the final victory: the climber Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), the experienced Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) or the rising star Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Team Grenadiers ).

Stage victories, the French objective

For the French cyclists, the prospect of a top 5 seems very difficult to achieve. 9th last year in the Grande Boucle, David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) is not in the form of his life, after an average performance in the Critérium du Dauphiné, finishing in fifteenth place. His teammate Lenny Martinez, 20 years old, crowned with the best young rider jersey last year in the Vuelta, will be able to try to win one or more stages. For his last Tour de France, Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) will also aim for a one-day win. His partner Warren Barguil will also have a shot at the mountains.

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Legislative elections affecting the Tour

Finally, the dissolution of the National Assembly pronounced by Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of June will also have slight consequences on the organization of the race. On June 30, during the first round, the riders will still be in Italy to compete in the second stage of the race. No problem, therefore, with regard to the ballot. But on July 7, for the second round, the preparation for the stage around Troyes scheduled for that day was revised so as not to obstruct the voters’ vote because of deviations and blocked roads. “A whole series of shear points, places where people can cross“will be put in place,” promised Christian Prudhomme. Political news will also inevitably resonate with the Tour route this year, since it will stop on the eve of the second round… in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, the village of General de Gaulle.