Fans of the French Riviera are in for a treat in the finale of the 2024 Tour de France. The Grande Boucle will come to an end far from Paris for the first time in history as the French capital adds the final touches to its preparations for the Olympic Games. This once-in-a-lifetime occasion is also a chance to bring the riders of the Tour and TV viewers around the world another prestigious venue for the time trial held between Monaco and Nice on 21 July 2024.
Key points:
Ø The start ramp of the 21st and last stage of the 2024 Tour de France, an individual time trial, will be set up in Monaco for a climactic showdown between the Principality and Nice.
Ø Monaco will be hosting the Tour for the seventh time after several visits between 1939 and 2009.
Ø After 110 editions concluded at the Parc des Princes, the Cipale velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes or on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the Tour de France will finish far from Paris for the first time in 2024, with stage 21 in Nice on 21 July.
Ø For this exceptional final stage along the Mediterranean coast, a time trial will decide the title among the contenders. Thirty-five years after Greg LeMond stripped Laurent Fignon of the Yellow Jersey by eight seconds. The stage the day before will be run on the suspenseful roads of the Nice backcountry.
Those who pay attention to the details of the Tour de France’s history will point out that the winner of the first edition in 1903, Maurice Garin, although celebrated at the Parc des Princes, inaugurated the winners’ list of the race by crossing the final finish line in Ville d’Avray. The public gathered again at the velodrome to celebrate the heroes of the Grande Boucle in 1904 and 1905, whereas the race actually finished a few kilometres from the capital. However, the arrival of the 2024 Tour in Nice is a first, as the Tour’s peloton has never finished far from Paris. In any case, the riders will feel they are on familiar ground in Nice, a city which was already on the Tour’s programme in 1906, hosted the Grand Départ in 1981 and again in 2020, and has been hosting the world’s elite at the conclusion of Paris-Nice since 1933.
This new finish, conditioned by the logistical imperatives that will already block the Champs-Elysées just a few days before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is accompanied by a significant sporting challenge as the last stage will be an individual time trial. The sporting qualities of the riders likely to win mean that the Tour could remain undecided until the last few kilometres, as was the case in 1989, the last time the event offered a time trial to close the proceedings. On that day, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 58 seconds to win his second Tour by the narrowest margin in history, eight seconds.
It is said that records are made to be broken, and the context of a battle of mere seconds takes on a new dimension when looking at the final weekend in general. The riders will be on the region’s roads on Saturday, 20 July. They are all aware that the Nice backcountry lends itself to unbridled, high-intensity rides, almost systematically on the final stage of Paris-Nice. So, there could be opportunities just until the very end to rattle the Yellow Jersey.
Just like Nice, Monaco has long-standing ties with the Tour de France, starting in 1939 and continuing in the 1950s and 1960s, when the Stade Louis II hosted the riders for a joust on its cinder track, that has now disappeared. Wim van Est, Raphaël Géminiani and Jacques Anquetil made it their stomping ground long before Thierry Henry, David Trézéguet and Kylian M’Bappé scored their first goals here. The Tour de France has not visited the Principality since the 2009 Grand Départ, when Fabian Cancellara took the opening time trial, with Alberto Contador —who would go on to win the race three weeks later— second on the day. Next time round, it could decide the fate of the yellow jersey, in a final time trial. A premiere since 35 years and the LeMond-Fignon duel of 1989.
Tour de France stages in Monaco
1939
Stage 12b: Saint-Raphaël–Monaco (121.5 km), won by Maurice Archambaud (FRA)
Stage 13: Monaco–Monaco (101.5 km), Pierre Gallien (FRA)
Stage 14: Monaco–Digne (175 km), Pierre Clarec (FRA)
1952
Stage 12: Sestriere–Monaco (251 km), Jan Holten (NED)
Stage 13: Monaco–Aix-en-Provence (214 km), Raoul Rémy (FRA)
1953
Stage 16: Marseille–Monaco (236 km), Wim van Est (NED)
Stage 17: Monaco–Gap (261 km), Wout Wagtmans (NED)
1955
Stage 9: Briançon–Monaco (275 km), Raphaël Geminiani (FRA)
Stage 10: Monaco–Marseille (240 km), Lucien Lazaridès (FRA)
1964
Stage 9: Briançon–Monaco (239 km), Jacques Anquetil (FRA)
Stage 10: Monaco–Hyères (187.5 km), Jan Janssen (NED)
2009
Stage 1: Monaco–Monaco (ITT, 15.5 km), Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
Stage 2: Monaco–Brignoles (182 km), Mark Cavendish (GBR)
