On Saturday, June 29, the Tour de France, the world’s most prestigious cycling race, will start in Italy for the first time with the Florence-Rimini stage.
For the first time in its 111-year history, the Tour de France will begin in Italy, with three initial stages crossing through Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. The start of the race, known as the Grand Départ, will take place on Saturday, June 29 in Florence. The first stage will wind its 206-kilometre way, including a 3,700 metre climb over the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines to Rimini on the Adriatic coast. This opening stage will be dedicated to the memory of the great Italian cyclist Gino Bartali.
The Grand Départ in Florence
Starting in the 1950s, the Tour de France began to organize its start in places other than Paris, where the race almost always ends (this year’s Tour, for instance, will finish in Nice, given the Olympics already being held in Paris), and from 1954 onwards even outside of France. The first non-French Grand Départ was in Amsterdam in 1954. Since then, 55 towns and cities have experienced the excitement of the final preparations and the arrival of the teams, giving each edition a special atmosphere. The Grand Départ is an event within the event, in which the charm and fame of the Tour de France blend with the history, traditions and atmosphere of the host cities and regions.
On Wednesday, June 26, the Teatro del Maggio opera house will open as operational HQ, meet-and-greet centre and a multi-purpose press centre for over 600 accredited journalists from all over the world, while promotional and advertising stands will be set up in piazza Santa Croce. Two days before the Grand Départ on Thursday June 27, excitement will build as the teams are presented. The technical briefing and photo shoots will take place at the Palazzo Vecchio before each team sets off through the city streets on their way to piazzale Michelangelo for the worldwide broadcast.
The caravan will set off in a non-competitive way in the Cascine park at around midday on Saturday, June 29 before riding to piazza della Signoria for an institutional start. The cyclists will wind their way along the city’s viali (avenues), while the official competitive start will take place in Bagno a Ripoli.
After the Florence-Rimini stage, the Tour will continue its exploration of Italy with a second 200-kilometre stage between Cesenatico and Bologna on Sunday, June 30 and a third 229-kilometre stretch between Piacenza and Turin on Monday, July 1.
The Tour de France route in Florence
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 di 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 – 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 (Official Start) – Rimini
For more information, see www.comune.fi.it/tour-de-france (in Italian) and www.letouritalia.it (in English, French and Italian). Follow letour_it on Instagram.
