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TOUR DE FRANCE 2024: GRAND DÉPART FROM FLORENCE, ITALIAN DEPARTURE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY

On 29 June 2024, the prestigious Tour de France will start from Italy for the first time with the Florence-Rimini stage and will pass in front of the Gino Bartali Museum.

The most important of cycling's Grand Tours, the Tour de France 2024, will start from Italy for the first time in history, and more precisely from Florence! The most famous Grand Départ in the world will take place on Saturday 29 June with a route from the Cascine to Piazza della Signoria, where there will be a ribbon cutting and institutional start. It is the 25th time that the Tour starts from outside France (the first time in 1954 from Amsterdam) and for the first time in 121 years of history it starts from Italy.

The teams will be presented on Thursday 27 June in Piazzale Michelangelo. The headquarters of the Grand Depart of the Tour will be at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Program June 29th and official start of the race


While the official presentation of the teams will be held at Piazzale Michelangelo on 27 June, the start of the Tour will instead be on 29 June. The cyclists will depart, in a parade, from the Cascine Park around 12.00 to reach the historic center (Piazza Duomo, Piazza Signoria, Ponte Vecchio) then climbing towards Piazzale Michelangelo; from here the descent along Viale dei Colli, passing through Piazza Gino Bartali until reaching Viola Park (Bagno a Ripoli) from where the actual race will begin. The route in Tuscan territory continues touching the following municipalities: Pontassieve, Pelago, Rufina, Dicomano and San Godenzo (in Mugello, in honor of the champion Gastone Nencini). From the Tre Faggi hill the Grande Boucle borders on Emilia Romagna.

Here is the city route for 29 June in detail (departure at 12.00): piazzale delle cascine - viale degli Olmi - piazzale Thomas Jefferson - viale del Visarno - via del Fosso Macinante - via Luciano Berio - piazza Vittorio Veneto - viale Fratelli Rosselli - piazzale of Porta al Prato - Il Prato - via Curtatone - Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci - piazzale Carlo Goldoni - via della Vigna Nuova - piazza di San Giovanni - piazza del Duomo - via dei Calzaiuoli - piazza della Signoria (Institutional Start) - via Vacchereccia - va Por Santa Maria - Ponte Vecchio - via dei Guicciardini - piazza dei Pitti - piazza di San Felice - via Romana - piazza della Calza - piazzale di Porta Romana - viale Niccolò Machiavelli - piazzale Galileo - viale Galileo - piazzale Michelangelo - viale Michelangelo - via Carlo Marsuppini - via Coluccio Salutati - piazza Gavinana - viale Donato Giannotti - viale Europa - piazza Gastone Nencini - viale Europa - viale del Pian di Ripoli - Bagno a Ripoli in front of Viola Park (Official Start).

Tour de France 2024: Florence – Rimini opening stage


The famous men's road cycling multiple-stage race opening stage will be Florence – Rimini, in the beautiful Tuscan-Emilian region: "Florence and Emilia-Romagna are geographically united by mountains. The Apuan Alps, the most imposing part of the chain that surrounds Tuscany and whose marbles were masterfully sculpted by Michelangelo, extend towards the Emilia-Romagna Apennines, a place full of exquisitely preserved villages, full of charm and history, along the road that leads from Dante's birthplace to his tomb in Ravenna. ycling is the other bond that unites them, with three Tour-winning champions, Gino Bartali, Gastone Nencini and Marco Pantani, and so many other, so numerous that it is impossible to name them all. However, the legend holds a special place in the pioneer Alfonsina Strada, originally from Calstelfranco Emilia, the only woman to have participated in the men's Giro d'Italia in 1924. After all, this Grand Départ from Florence and Emilia Romagna will be like starting from home for the Tour de France ".

Grand Départ with tribute to Gino Bartali


The Grand Départ of Florence will symbolically pass in front of the Gino Bartali Museum in Ponte a Ema, where the champion winner of 3 Giri d'Italia and 2 Tour de France, becoming a true legend of cycling, was born. The museum is part of the Florentine Civic Museums and sees the exhibition of cycles, bicycles, jerseys, memorabilia, vintage newspapers, publications and films documenting the history of cycling, the exploits of Gino Bartali and other champions.
Over one thousand square meters spread over three floors: in the basement there is a bicycle depot from various eras which gives a glimpse of the technical evolution, on the first floor the actual museum, with an exhibition of bicycles that belonged to the great champions of the cycling, including a perfectly preserved Stucchi, the jerseys of past champions (Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Franco Bitossi, Alfredo Martini), the biographies and cups of Gino Bartali to whom an entire room has been dedicated, and also Bitossi's anecdotes , Boni, Chioccioli, Ciolli, Corrieri, Martini, Poggiali, Tognaccini.