2024 Tour de France Avoids Paris Finish Because of Olympics

The final stage of the 2024 Tour de France will be held outside Paris for the first time since 1905 because of a clash with the Olympic Summer Games, moving instead to the French Riviera and concluding in Nice on July 21, five days before the Games open.

The race will start in Italy for the first time with a stage that includes more than 3,600 meters of climbing. High mountains will be on the 2024 schedule as soon as the fourth day in a race that features two individual time trials and four summit finishes.

There are a total of seven mountain stages on the program, across four mountain ranges, according to the route released Wednesday. There are eight flat stages, plenty of opportunities for Mark Cavendish to try to become the outright record-holder for most career stage wins at the sport’s biggest race.

The race will kick off in the Italian city of Florence on June 29 and will take riders to Rimini through a series of hills and climbs in the regions of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Riders will first cross the Alps during Stage 4, when they will tackle the 2,642-meter Col du Galibier.

The total vertical gain of the 111th edition of the Tour reaches 52,230 meters. There should be suspense until the end because the last stage, traditionally a victory parade in Paris for the race leader until the final sprint takes shape, will be a 34-kilometer (21.1-mile) time trial between Monaco and Nice.

The last time there was a time trial for the final stage was in 1989 when Greg LeMond rallied for an eight-second win over Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Elysees. Next year in Nice at the Place Masséna, a stone’s throw from the Promenade des Anglais, the winner will be presented with a trophy in a new format featuring the yellow jersey to be shared with his teammates.

The route for the third edition of the women’s Tour will take riders from the Dutch city of Rotterdam, starting August 12, to the Alpe d’Huez resort. The race will feature eight stages and a total of 946 kilometers.