Despite not winning the Tour in three years, Tadej Pogacar has been hailed as the favorite due to his recent domination of the Giro race in May. Belga

Tour de France 2024 starts in Italy for first time ever

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Jun 29, 2024 9:26 AM ET

For the first time in the event's 121-year history, the Tour de France will begin in Italy.

The 111th edition of the race, which kicks off on Saturday, will go through three full road stages on the Italian peninsula and a fourth in the Italian countryside before heading over the Alps and into France (2,173m route).

An estimated 800,000 cycling fans are expected to gather in Florence, Tuscany, where the Tour's opening weekend — the legendary Grand Depart — will feature one of the hardest and most challenging road stages in the history of the big race. The opening stage will feature an arduous 128-mile road race from Florence to Rimini with an incredible 3,600m elevation gain spread over seven categorized climbs.

Stage 1. A day for history. Tour de France starts for the first time from Italy and this is probably the hardest opening stage ever. 206 km and 3600m of climbing from beautiful Firenze to Rimini. Everyone expects UAE to go ballistic on the climbs and test Vingegaard's fitness… pic.twitter.com/TLNfnrwkxN
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) June 29, 2024

The seven categorized climbs on Saturday will provide riders plenty of opportunities to rack up points, especially in the Tour's King of the Mountains competition. Many analysts have predicted a fast start to the opening stage as riders fight and claw to create separation on the roads outside of Florence.

The 2024 Tour de France will feature a 176-strong peloton from 22 teams, headlined by Jonas Vingegaard, the reigning back-to-back champion, and Tadej Pogacar, who won the event in 2020 and 2021. One of those two will cement their legacy as the best of their generation by clinching a third Tour de France title.

Despite not winning the Tour in three years, Pogacar has been hailed as the favorite in light of his recent domination at the Giro race in May. Groupama FDJ team manager Marc Madiot has predicted that Pogacar could "kill" the race in the opening weekend and separate himself from Vingegaard.

"The Tour will be over in three or four days," Madiot told The Guardian. "Pogacar will break things apart and blow out Vingegaard. In his place, that's what I'd do, to be sure Vingegaard doesn’t get back on top form."

The 2024 Tour de France will culminate with the 21st and final stage, from Nice, France, to Monaco, on July 21. Five days later, the Paris Olympics will get underway.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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