2024 Tour de France Route: Here's what we know ahead of the Route Presentation

Tributes to Marco Pantani and Fausto Coppi, some more gravel, the highest paved pass in the Alps and a final time trial

Photo: The Col de la Bonette is a high mountain pass in the French Alps, near the border with Italy. It is situated within the Mercantour National Park on the border of the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The road over the col is the seventh highest paved road in the Alps at 2,802 metres (9,193 ft)

The 2024 Tour de France route is set to be announced in Paris this Wednesday 25th October. 

We already know, the Grand Départ is in Gino Bartali's hometown of Florence, which is one of five stages known in its completeness even before the final course presentation. Finish 205 kilometers later in Rimini, after a stage with no less than seven categorized climbs.

On day two the procession heads from Cesenatico - as a tribute to Marco Pantani - to Bologna, over 200 kilometers. This stage also has some hills and a spectacular finale with the famous San Luca, while the third stage from Piacenza to Turin (over 225 kilometers) will be one for the sprinters. So far we are sure of the course of these stages, as the A.S.O. already made them public at the end of 2022.

From day four we still have to guestimate the route with rumours and updates from various French cities and local newspapers:

The start and finish location of stage 4 seems to be more or less confirmed from the Italian town of Pinerolo we will start a mountain stage towards Valloire, with climbs like Sestrières and the Télégraphe. On day five we would then start again in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, to head north from there.

That eastern corner of France would feature sprinters and time trialists, but the gravel roads near Troyes are also likely to be hit. This could provide the same spectacle in the Champagne region as last year's Tour de France Femmes, when Marlen Reusser mightily took victory in that gravel stage.

After a rest day in Orléans, the peloton looks set to get ready for a sprint stage to Saint-Amand-Mortrond, where a truly epic fan stage took place in 2013 starring Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Bauke Mollema, Laurens ten Dam, Niki Terpstra and Alberto Contador, among others. The day after, they will presumably race to Le Lioran, where Greg Van Avermaet managed to win in 2016 after a fike sprint.

Then the caravan slowly works its way into the Pyrenees, with Pau as the well-known finish and start place. Climbs of Pla d'Atet where Rafal Majka last won in 2014 and Plateau de Beille won by Joaquim Rodriguez in 2015 would appear as heavy finish spots in next year's Tour de France route.

After another rest day in the Narbonne area, the sprinters will presumably have another go at Nimes, then presumably head to Super Dévoluy on day seventeen. That's where Steve Cummings managed to win another stage in the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2016, just after the Col du Noyer. Via a transition stage from Gap, they then face the leaden final weekend on the final Friday.

This will presumably begin on Friday with a stage from Embrun to the top of Isola 2000, referring to the altitude level at which that finish should be. This climb is 15.5 kilometers long at about seven percent average, but along the way the peloton would also have to cross the Col de la Bonette. That's the highest paved road in Europe, taking the peloton over 2,800 meters. This climb was last tackled in 2008.

Then the final weekend, which was already unveiled in mid-March by A.S.O.

The Paris Olympics,means the Tour will not arrive in the French capital for the first time in history. The A.S.O. threw an extra sauce on top of that with a 35-kilometer hilly final time trial, while the final Saturday stage with the Col de Braus (10 km at 6.6%), Col de Turini (20.7 km at 5.7%), Col de la Colmiane (7.5 km at 7.1%) and finish on the Col de la Couillole (15.7 km at 7.1%) is also anything but easy. On that last climb, Tadej Pogacar won a stage in Paris-Tours early this year.

So we finish (for the first time since the Fignon-LeMond-Tour in 1989) with a time trial, which also includes the Turbie and Col de l'Eze. All in all, a feast for the eyes, with some things that immediately catch our eye: the first Italian start, with immediately two stages in which everyone has to bare their buttocks. Then a very early passage in the Alps and some potential guerrilla stages, with the stage through the Champagne region standing out. Then of course the Pyrenees and then of course the leaden triptych at the end, with the hill time trial as the finale. 

We'll find out sure enough!