Prudhomme talks of decision to start 2024 Tour de France in Florence: "This Grand Départ will be like a romantic journey"

The Tour de France has had it's 2023 route presentation recently, however details about the 2024 edition thicken. The start and finishing locations are already known, in what will be an abnormal edition. Race director Christian Prudhomme has shared his thoughts behind the Italian Grand Depart decision.

“What we experienced in Denmark in July shows what an enthusiasm the Tour de France can bring. Going to these countries will help us find new fans," Prudhomme recently said. "But no Copenhagen or Bilbao is possible without Castelnau-Magnoac and Lacapelle-Marival. The Tour means visiting major cities abroad, but also our own French villages. It is this interaction that makes the Tour so powerful.”

The recent editions that have begun abroad have proved a success and often very popular, and 2024 will be no exception. The opening two stages will be very hilly with it's start in Florence, and finishes in Rimini and Bologna. It will, like next year, be suited to the climbers and puncheurs, before slowing down in the days following.

“I said at the presentation of the 2023 Tour that the start from Bilbao would be very difficult, but that is even more true for the start of the 2024 Tour. When we chose Italy, it was certainly not because of the difficult avoid terrain," he continued. 2023 will be a particularly climber-focused route. Although the same lack of time-trialing isn't expected the following year, the fourth stage will see the riders cross the Alps already.

He explained that the Italian city was actually set to host the Grand Depart already a decade ago, but plans had been changed last minute. “Florence was the big favorite at the time. But in 2012 Bradley Wiggins won Paris-Nice and the Tour de France," he explained. "At the London Olympics, we saw three characters: the Queen, James Bond and Wiggins, in yellow t-shirts. That convinced us to leave from Great Britain in 2014.”

“Italy is the cradle of cycling with its Campionissimo, Fausto Coppi, and all other campionissimos. This Grand Départ will be like a romantic journey to the heart of the country that has left its mark on cycling history."

“Remembering memories is essential for me, but that doesn't mean we have to go back to the past completely. The Tour is as much about discovering new places as it is about respecting the history of the champions of the past and the legends they wrote," Prudhomme concluded.