Tour de France organizers confirm Nice time trial finish in 2024

Published December 1, 2022 04:36AM

The organizers of the Tour de France have confirmed that the 2024 race will conclude with a time trial in Nice.

ASO has been pushed to change the finish location, which has been on the Champs-Élysées since 1975, due to the Olympic Games in Paris that is scheduled to begin just a few days later.

It will be the first time that the race has not finished in or around Paris since the event was created in 1903 and the first time since 1989, when Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon to the overall title by eight seconds, that it will finish with a time trial.

“It is said that records are made to be broken, and the context of a battle of mere seconds takes on a new dimension when looking at the final weekend in general,” an ASO press release said. “The riders will be on the region’s roads on Saturday, 20 July. They are all aware that the Nice backcountry lends itself to unbridled, high-intensity rides, almost systematically on the final stage of Paris-Nice. So, there could be opportunities just until the very end to rattle the yellow jersey.”

There have been lots of rumors about the location of the 2024 finish, due to the logistical challenge posed by the Olympic Games in 2024. No information has been revealed about the time trial course, though the Nice location opens up the opportunity for a variety of parcours.

ASO will be hoping that reintroducing the time trial will deliver a dramatic finale, as it did in 1989. Fignon went into the final stage with a 50-second lead over LeMond, but he saw his advantage whittled down and ultimately overhauled by the American.

LeMond’s eight-second victory remains the closest GC finish in the Tour de France’s history.

Nice has been a regular host of the Tour de France over the years and it featured for the first time in the 1906 edition of the race. Since then, it has hosted the grand départ twice, in 1981 and 2020.

The 2024 race is also rumored to be starting in Italy with an Italian official in the Piedmont region saying recently that the race would pass through the area. The race is expected to start in Tuscany with visits to Florence, Bologna, and Romagna in addition to Piedmont.

ASO did not confirm if the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift would also finish in Nice in 2024, though it is a possibility that the two races could interlink once again. This year saw the opening stage of the women’s race coincide with the men’s, though next year will see the event head south as it heads for a visit to the Pyrenees.