NICE – For the first time since 1905, the Tour de France will not have its usual finish in Paris in 2024, closing instead with a time trial in Nice, organisers announced on Thursday.
Although the race has been brought forward one week to avoid clashing directly with the Olympic Games, which will be hosted in 2024 by Paris, it will still finish on July 21, just five days before the opening ceremony.
Hence the decision to move the finish to Nice on the Mediterranean coast. The city has hosted the Tour 37 times, with two starts, in 1981 and 2020.
“Nice is a city that shines. It’s known around the world,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. “There is the beauty of the setting and the mountains nearby. The city offers an exceptional setting and a great course.”
As with Paris, Nice also has iconic avenues, with the race likely to culminate on the Promenade des Anglais.
The race will conclude with a potentially decisive individual time-trial, instead of the traditional sprint finish over eight laps of the Champs-Elysees.
A last-day time-trial produced a breathtaking finale in 1989 when American Greg Lemond took the overall leader’s yellow jersey from stunned Frenchman Laurent Fignon, winning the Tour by just eight seconds.
Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard won the 2022 race. The 2024 edition starts in Florence with three days in Italy expected, but as yet no route details have been confirmed.
Prudhomme was cagey about the 2024 time-trial length, suggesting it would not be short.
“It would be a shame if the time-trial was completely flat too,” he said, suggesting the hills surrounding Nice could provide a dramatic backdrop to the finale.
The first two Tour de France races in 1903 and 1904 concluded in Ville d’Avray, just outside Paris, but every edition since 1905 has ended in the capital.
Since 1975, that has meant a grand showpiece along the Champs-Elysees. The race is already slated to return there in 2025.
“We will be delighted to return to Paris and the Champs-Elysees for the 50th anniversary of the first arrival on the Champs in 2025,” said Prudhomme. AFP
