We already knew that the Tour de France 2024 would arrive in Nice, deserting Paris for the first time since 1905 and the cobblestones of the Champs-Élysées since 1975, due to the Olympic Games.
But the organizers had kept another surprise for the press conference held on Thursday.
And not least.
The last stage, which traditionally corresponds to a day with no stakes other than the prestige of winning the sprint on the Champs-Élysées, will this time be an individual time trial.
It will be the first time that the Tour has ended on a clock since the legendary outcome of 1989 when the Frenchman Laurent Fignon lost the yellow jersey by eight small seconds, the smallest gap in history, against the American Greg Lemond.
💛 #TDF2024: a finish @VilledeNice 💛
After 110 editions concluded near or in Paris, the Tour de France will finish far from Paris for the first time in 2024 with stage 21 in Nice on July 21. pic.twitter.com/QkyRbAPpmz
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) December 1, 2022
As is generally the case in an Olympic year, the start of this 111th edition, which should start for the first time from Italy and the city of Florence, will be brought forward by one week.
The race will therefore start on June 29 and arrive on July 21, five days before the start of the Olympics.
"Nice has hosted the Tour 37 times with two starts in 1981 and 2020", the latter "in a very difficult health context" with the Covid-19 pandemic, welcomed the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
"A final weekend of fireworks"
“Nice is a city that shines, known worldwide.
There is the beauty of the setting and the mountain next to it.
The city offers an exceptional setting and a formidable field of expression for the champions that we are going to use, ”explains the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, to AFP.
That the Tour de France arrives in Nice had been recorded for a while, while the Paris Games (July 26-August 11) will turn the summer sports program upside down that year.
It is nonetheless a small revolution since the most famous race in the world has, with the exception of the first two editions in 1903 and 1904 arriving in Ville d'Avray (Hauts-de-Seine), until then always finished in Paris.
First at the Parc des Princes (from 1906 to 1967), then at the Cipale velodrome (1968 to 1975) and since 1975 on the Champs-Élysées.
For this Tour like no other, the organizers are thus planning a "final weekend full of fireworks" with first, on Saturday, a "mountain-oriented" stage starting from Nice.
Then, the next day, therefore, as the ultimate justice of the peace, an individual time trial, 35 years after that between Versailles and the Champs Elysées in 1989, an edition that remains in everyone's memory.
In 2025, the return to normal is already scheduled, especially since we will have something to celebrate.
“We will be delighted to find Paris and the Champs-Élysées for the 50th anniversary of the first arrival on the Champs in 2025”, underlines Christian Prudhomme.
