"I think that the arrival in Nice won't remain unique" - Tour director hints towards another arrival outside Paris

The 2024 edition of Tour de France brought a unique aspect by finishing outside Paris for the first time in decades. Aligning with the Paris Olympic Games last year, the arrival of Tour was moved to Nice where race concluded with a time trial for the first time since 1989 when the hearts of French fans were broken as Bernard Hinault lost yellow by 8 seconds.

The finish Nice certainly seemed to be a one-time anomaly, but it doesn't have to stay that way: "I think that the arrival in Nice, outside of Paris, won’t be unique. We were delighted with Nice," Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told Cycling Weekly. "But what’s crucial for me is to always keep a really strong relationship with the city of Paris. That’s crucial for me."

"The only real question is, if one year we don’t go to Paris, what do we do? You can’t get angry, and we certainly don’t want to fall out with the Mayor of Paris, but there are municipal elections next year in March in all of France’s big cities. Naturally we’ll have to work with a new team because Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, isn’t running. We’ll see how all that goes."

"The fundamental question for me – because we could easily have the finish elsewhere – is what’s going to happen the year after [in 2027]? It’s clear that Paris can’t be closed off for the Tour de France. That’s impossible for me. Paris is Paris."

"There are tons of factors that are taken into account. Of course people saw Nice and are going to say, 'You can come and finish here'. Yes. When we chose Nice, there was another big French city that was also put forward. I won’t tell you which one, but there was another big French city that was a candidate to host the final day of the Tour de France."

This year will bring a novelty with a Montmartre circuit on the final day of Tour, which has polarized the community since. Some welcome more thrilling finale of the race which won't be only about sprinters now, others are unhappy with the risks that this change bears for riders.

"The Champs-Élysées is splendid, but the people are under the trees, so you get the beauty of Paris, but you don’t get the impression of the mass [of people]. On Rue Lepic in Montmartre you can see the mass," Prudhomme justifies.