Colossal passes and a muscular time trial as the ultimate justice of the peace: the last two stages of the Tour de France 2024 which will arrive, Olympic Games oblige, in Nice promise to be particularly crisp.
We already knew that the last stage would be an individual time trial linking Monaco to Nice, 35 years after Greg LeMond's eight-second victory over Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysées in 1989.
To discover
Tour de France 2023: the map and ten things to remember on the route
The general classification of the Tour de France
It remained to discover the route, presented Monday by the organizers of ASO in Nice.
And it is gratin since it will climb to La Turbie (8.1 km at 5.6%) then to the Col d'Eze by its shortest side (1.6 km at 8.1%) before finishing at Place Massena in Nice, after 35.2 km of effort.
Everything could be decided on this time, far from the usual procession of the last Sunday towards Paris where the champagne is often released during the stage, except for the sprinters magnetized by a prestigious success on the Champs.
Read alsoTour de France 2024: Florence, land of flight for a romantic edition
The penultimate stage in 2024, the outlines of which were also unveiled on Monday, is not a walk in the park either.
On the contrary, it's even a hell of a rollercoaster ride that awaits the riders during a short (132 km) but quite vertiginous stage with the successive ascent of the Col de Brais, the Col de Turini, the Col de La Colombine and finally the difficult Couillole pass (15.7 km at 7.1%), where the finish will be judged as last Saturday on Paris-Nice.
With 4400 meters of elevation gain, it is a “
dense, compact stage, without a flat meter, where everything will be possible
”, underlined the director of the Tour Christian Prudhomme.
This 111th edition decidedly like the others will leave Italy for the first time, in Florence.
