The clock is ticking with three days to go before the historic first Grand Départ in Italy on Saturday. Florence is the beautiful setting for start of the 111th Tour de France and the excitement is building in the Tuscan capital.
2022 World Champion Remco Evenepoel is all set for his Tour de France debut, whilst Italian Champion Alberto Bettiol will proudly represent his home region of Tuscany on Saturday, as one of eight Italian riders at this year’s Tour.
Italy has a deep relationship with the Tour de France and Ottavio Bottecchia was the first Italian winner of the Tour, one hundred years ago.
Before the real action commences, the riders will meet the Italian public tomorrow at the teams’ presentation ceremony in Piazzale Michelangelo.
FROM SCIARDIS TO BOASSON HAGEN: 12 TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE FINISHES IN ITALY
This year’s edition of the Tour de France marks the longest visit to Italy in the history of the race, with four stage starts, three finishes and a total of 684.8 km to be covered in competition on Italian roads (plus the 21.8 km that the first stage will cover in the microstate of San Marino). The first time that Italy hosted a finish of the Grande Boucle was in its 35th edition, held in 1948, with a celebrated victory in San Remo by Gino Sciardis who went solo for the win. Sciardis would win one more stage in the Tour, in 1950, though by then he had changed nationality from Italian to French. He became a naturalised Frenchman as an adult after his family had left Italy when he was 13 to settle in Bondy, on the outskirts of Paris, where Gino lived until his death. Of the other 11 times that the Tour has visited Italy, six ended with victory for Italian riders. Two of those stage wins were secured by Fausto Coppi: one in Aosta, in 1949, as he snatched the yellow jersey from Gino Bartali in one of the most memorable chapters of their iconic rivalry; the other in Sestrières in 1952, the day after Coppi conquered Alpe d'Huez, thereby becoming the winner of the first mountaintop finish in the history of the Tour. Claudio Chiappucci also triumphed in Sestrières in 1992, with an epic effort over more than 200 km. Two stages of the Tour de France have ended in Italy so far this century, both producing breakaway victories: one in 2008, with the finish line in Prato Nevoso and a win for Simon Gerrans; and another in 2011, ending in Pinerolo with Edvald Boasson Hagen raising his arms. Four cyclists from that peloton from 13 years ago will ride in the 2024 Tour de France: Jakob Fuglsang (then at Leopard-Trek; now with Israel-Premier Tech); Geraint Thomas (Team Sky; Ineos Grenadiers); Mark Cavendish (HTC-High Road; Astana Qazaqstan); and Rui Costa (Movistar Team; EF Education-EasyPost).
REMCO’S TOUR DE FRANCE ARRIVAL
Remco Evenepoel is about to step onto the biggest stage in cycling, as he finally makes his Tour de France debut at the age of 24, having already won the Vuelta a España in 2022, just before he became World Champion. His credentials make him a very serious contender for the final podium, which will be decided in Nice on 21st July, which is the Belgian national holiday. In terms of the overall win it’s clear who Evenepoel is looking at. “I expect Tadej (Pogacar) to be unreachable almost, what he showed in the Giro was really impressive and he looked like he didn’t have to go deep to get the win. Tadej is the man to beat at this year’s Tour de France.” The Soudal-Quick Step leader has had mixed experiences in Italy, where this year’s Grand Départ takes place. He experienced one of the worst moments of his career there, when he had a heavy crash in the Tour of Lombardy in 2020 which left him out of action for a lengthy period. Italy has also provided Evenepoel with moments of glory, such as his two victories in the 2023 Giro (including one just a few km from Rimini), though he later had to leave the race due to a positive Covid test when he was leading the GC. “There have been ups and downs in my relationship with Italy,” Remco concedes. “However, I am not going to fall into superstitions or carry the past in my head at the start of the Tour de France.”
LA SQUADRA: EIGHT ITALIANS GUNNING FOR GLORY
Few riders will appreciate this year’s Grand Départ as much as Alberto Bettiol. The EF Education-EasyPost rider is the only man on the start list of 176 participants in this year’s Tour de France to be from Tuscany and still residing in Castelfiorentino, around 40km from Florence. Making the occasion even more special for Bettiol, the winner of the 2019 Tour of Flanders was proclaimed Italian national champion last Sunday in nearby Sesto Fiorentino, so he will proudly wear his red, white and green national jersey at the Tour. Debutant Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) will also enjoy a unique sensation in familiar territory, as the third stage will go through his home town (Alba) at km 165. Another Italian to make his Tour debut this year is the super quick Michele Gazzoli, accompanied at Astana Qazaqstan by the experienced Davide Ballerini. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), wearer of the Yellow Jersey for two days in 2019 and winner of the polka dot jersey in 2023, has clear intentions of further glory, while the powerful Luca Mozzato (Arkea - B&B Hotels), climber Davide Formolo (Movistar Team) and classic specialist Gianni Moscon (Soudal-Quick Step) are also credible candidates for a bouquet. Their collective challenge will be to win a stage for Italy, five years after Vincenzo Nibali's last Tour stage victory in Val Thorens in 2019.
OTTAVIO BOTTECCHIA - THE ITALIAN PIONEER
The history of the Tour de France dates back to 1903, with the victory of the ‘little Italian chimney sweep’ Maurice Garin. Although Garin was born in Italy in the Aosta Valley, he already had French nationality when he became the first winner of the event. The role of Italian pioneer in the Tour was therefore taken up by Ottavio Bottecchia, who left a major mark on the race in just four participations. In 1923, he began by winning the second stage and wearing the Maillot Jaune for six days, before finishing the race in second place in the general classification behind Henri Pelissier. The following year, Bottecchia was even more impressive as a winner from the first day, wearing the Yellow Jersey from start to finish, a feat that has only ever been repeated by Nicolas Frantz (1928) and Romain Maes (1935). “The Bricklayer of Friuli” sealed his first Tour de France triumph in style in the Parc des Princes velodrome. Similarly dominant in 1925, Bottecchia increased his stage win tally to nine and sealed his second title by almost 55 minutes ahead of Belgian rider Lucien Buysse. His 1926 Tour ended with a mid-race retirement and he sadly died at the age of 32 in 1927 in mysterious circumstances. Bottecchia laid the foundations for a succession of subsequent Italian winners of the Tour: Gino Bartali (1938 & 1948), Fausto Coppi (1949 & 1952), Gastone Nencini (1960), Felice Gimondi (1965), Marco Pantani (1998) and most recently Vincenzo Nibali (2014).
THREE FLORENTINE RAINBOWS IN THE TOUR PELOTON
Tuscany is a cycling hotbed and proof of this are the numerous champions who have emerged from the region: among them, two winners of the Tour de France, 'Il Leone' Gastone Nencini (a native of Mugello, on the outskirts of Florence) and 'Il Piadoso' Gino Bartali (born in the Florentine district of Ponte a Ema). The historic Firenze-Pistoia race first run on the Tuscan roads in 1870 was the first cycling race ever held in Italy, though it was later converted into an individual time trial held every October. In the modern day there are two major races hosted in Tuscany, the Premondiale, a women's race, and the Giro della Toscana, a semi-classic, the last winner of which, Pavel Sivakov, is set to take part in the 2024 Tour de France, riding for Tadej Pogačar with UAE Team Emirates. The last top-level cycling event hosted in Florence was the 2013 UCI Road World Championships and the three winners of the men's races from that occasion are on the start list for this Saturday’s Grand Départ. Those riders are Mathieu Van der Poel, who won the junior race ahead of Mads Pedersen; Matej Mohoric, who became U23 champion beating Louis Meintjes; and Rui Costa, who won the Rainbow jersey in the elite men's race. “It was a perfect day,” recalls the Portuguese rider. “Since I was a child I had dreamed of being world champion, but even that morning the possibility of achieving it did not cross my mind. However, all the circumstances fell in my favor and my legs responded.” This week, the three time Tour de France stage winner will therefore enjoy reliving one of the most memorable days of his sporting career.
BETTIOL AND MOZZATO, INSPIRING CHILDREN: “ALL OF YOU CAN BE CYCLISTS”
A hundred children from the Florence area gathered in the Eddy Merckx Room at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale, the headquarters of the Tour de France at the Grand Départ in Florence, for a special press conference on Wednesday. The children were able to ask all the questions they wanted, with two participants of the Grande Boucle, Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) and Luca Mozzato (Arkea-B&B Hotels), as well as the former cyclist and television commentator Davide Cassani, providing the answers. There were as many girls as boys in the auditorium, and the first question was: “Can women ride the Tour de France?” Cassani was in charge of explaining to the excited audience that yes, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift has existed since 2022 and this year it will be held in August. The children asked questions about tactics ("What happens if the team leader crashes?"), about nutrition ("How many bottles do you drink on each stage?"), and even about regulations ("Is there any movement that is prohibited on the bike?”). Mozzato acknowledged that of all the food that is usually off limits to him due to his job as a cyclist, the one he misses the most is tiramisu. Bettiol, for his part, said that he lost a stage win of the Giro d'Italia by checking the distance left to the finish line on his bike's computer instead of trusting the course signage. “That day I learned that, instead of looking at the screen so much, I should look at the road!” he said. One of the last questions was from a girl who asked: “Do you think that being small will prevent me from becoming a professional cyclist?” To which Mozzato responded by explaining that he himself is relatively short compared to other riders: “Don't worry about your height, because you can all be cyclists.”
SANTINI’S HOMECOMING CELEBRATIONS
Since the 2022 edition of the Grande Boucle, Santini have been entrusted with making the distinctive Tour de France jerseys and special collections produced for specific stages. The Bergamo-based equipment manufacturer are celebrating the first ever Grand Départ in Italy with three unique jersey designs highlighting the cities which will be visited in the first days of this year’s Tour. A Renaissance tone has fittingly been given to the “Firenze” jersey, which is decorated with a fleur-de-lys, the symbol of the Tuscan capital. The jersey dedicated to Bologna draws on the colors of its football club, the seven-time Italian champions, whilst also including the trident of the Fountain of Neptune and a subtle nod to Bolognese tagliatelle. For the third stage, the Turin jersey recalls the historical grandeur of the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy, represented by the Mole Antonelliana Museum, an emblem of the city. The back of the jersey, meanwhile, proudly displays the Torino bull. Several other jerseys have been designed by Santini for the 2024 Tour, naturally ending with a Nice jersey, which features parasols and the sun in its design. The entire Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift collections from Santini can be found here: Santini Cycling Wear
