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. 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.
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.
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.
Thursday, June 27
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 parade will begin at 6pm and end at 8pm. Some roads will be closed to allow the event to take place. See the road closures here. A free bus shuttle service organized by Autolinee Toscane will enable access to piazzale Michelangelo from 4 to 9pm, leaving every 10 minutes from piazza Vittorio Veneto and viale Michelangelo.
Saturday, June 29
The peloton will set off in a non-competitive way in the Cascine park at around 12 noon on Saturday, June 29 before riding to piazza della Signoria, where it will stop for an institutional start. The cyclists will wind their way along the city’s viali (avenues), while the official competitive start will take place by Viola Park in Bagno a Ripoli at 12.40pm before continuing to Pontassieve, Rufina, Dicomano and San Godenzo up into the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, through San Marino, before reaching Rimini at around 5.30pm.
To facilitate the athletes, all roads along the route will be closed to traffic (including parking) from 8pm on Friday, June 28 to 2pm on Saturday, June 29.
The Tour de France route in Florence
Piazzale delle Cascine (Team Base) – 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
Tour de France Fan Park in piazza Santa Croce
Don’t miss the Fan Park in piazza Santa Croce on June 27, 28 + 29 for family fun and gadgets!
Other related events
Becycle, the new Pitti Immagine event, is dedicated to bikes and cycling in the lead up to the Tour de France. The three-day exhibition event (June 26-27) at Stazione Leopolda brings talks, interviews and presentations, in collaboration with the international magazine Rouleur.
Join the BiciParty in San Francesco (Pelago), one of the town along the cycling route, as piazza Verdi comes alive ahead on June 27 from 7.30pm onwards. Expect food trucks, live music, Chianti Rufina wine, yellow gin from Peter in Florence and yellow vermouth from Fattoria Lavacchio.
Manifattura Tabacchi hosts the Bicycle Film Festival on June 28 and 29, with free film screenings and more to celebrate cycling. This is my moment will be shown on June 28, a film about Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay, as well as a film about a family who gives up everything to travel by bike across Europe, and many more.
France Odeon and Institut Francais Italia host “readings on a bicycle” in piazza Ognissanti at 6.30pm on June 26, followed by a book presentation and film screening of the Lithuanian film Wonderful Losers: A Different World in the presence of director Arūnas Matelis, producer Algimantė Matelienė and cycling champion Edita Pučinskaitė.
The Florentine Civic Museums and MUS.E have organized a series of themed events. Workshops for little ones and guided tours take visitors deeper into the history of cycling at the Gino Bartali Museum, which will be open to the public for free from June 17-30. It will also be possible to watch the departure of the tour via a video projection on June 29. Special free cycling routes have been organized, starting from Torre della Zecca and arriving at Torre del Serpe near Porta a Prato, with a second itinerary starting from piazza Bartali, near where the Deportations Memorial will be holding free guided tours. For info and booking contact info@musefirenze.it or call 055 2768224.
