The next Olympic Games has forced Tour de France organisers to break with history, with the race to finish for the first-ever time away from Paris at the end of the 2024 edition.
Race organisers ASO confirmed the long-rumoured news on Thursday, saying that the final stage of the 2024 race will conclude in Nice on July 21st.
All editions of the Tour previously finished in or very close to Paris, with the Champs Élysées being the finishing location since 1975. All bar the 1989 editions were road race finishes, with the stage serving as an informal world championship for sprinters.
Ireland’s Sam Bennett triumphed there in 2020, winning the final gallop while wearing the race’s prestigious green jersey as points leader.
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Bennett will hope to take the final stage again next season but won’t be in the running in 2024 in Nice. Just as at the 1989 Tour de France when Greg LeMond overhauled Laurent Fignon in Paris to win by just eight seconds, the final stage will conclude with an individual time trial.
Nice has staged the conclusion of the prestigious Paris-Nice event since 1933. The penultimate stage of the 2024 Tour will also be in the same region, and is likely to take in the climbs of the Alpes Maritimes.
