Tour de France 2024, historic grand finale in Nice: it had never happened before

Tour de France and Paris grand finale are practically synonymous. There is no one without the other and vice versa, because it has never happened that the Boucle – first edition in 1903 – has not ended in the French capital. This explains the extent of the news that will probably be official on Thursday: the 2024 Tour de France will not end in Paris but in Nice, as the Gazzetta had already anticipated in June.

HISTORY – The factual reason is easily identifiable: in 2024 the Olympic Games will take place in Paris and the beginning, on July 26, would fall on the calendar a few days after the conclusion of the Tour itself. Hence, above all for safety reasons, the choice of the Aso organizers to move south: Nice also obviously hosts the conclusion of the Paris-Nice in March and recently – in 2020 – had instead welcomed the great start of a Tour exceptionally postponed to late August-early September due to the pandemic, with the first two stages and the start of the third. While the complete route of the Tour de France 2023 was unveiled on October 27: away from Bilbao, conclusion in Paris.