Tour de France will begin in Florence in 2024, marking the first time in history the race will begin in Italy

Updated 21/12/2022 at 18:43 GMT

The Tour de France will begin in Florence in 2024, marking the first time in the race's 120-year history that it will begin in Italy, race director Christophe Prudhomme has revealed. "It's an incongruity that will disappear," Prudhomme remarked of the quirk that had seen Italy excluded so far from hosting a 'Grand Depart'. It will be a Tour of firsts for another reason too, as it will end in Nice.

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The Tour de France will begin in Florence in 2024, marking the first time in the race's 120-year history that it will begin in Italy, race director Christophe Prudhomme has revealed.

It was seen as a strange quirk of the race that Italy had been excluded from hosting a 'Grand Depart' for so long but no longer, with the race set to roll out of Florence on June 29.

Stage 1 will be a mid-mountain jaunt ending up in Rimini after a trek along the Adriatic coast.

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"The Tour has started from all the countries bordering France," said Prudhomme, in Italy for the announcement.

"It has even started six times from the Netherlands, which has no common border with France. But it has never started from Italy.

"It's an incongruity that will disappear."

As well as that first stage, days two and three will also be in Italy, and they will contain - at various stages - commemorations to previous titans of Italian cycling, including the likes of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali, both two-time Tour winners.

"There is an obvious link with the legend of Italian cycling and its champions," Prudhomme added.

There will be another first in the 2024 Tour, with the race set to end in Nice, rather than it's customary finale on the Champs Elysees as a result of the concurrent Paris 2024 Olympic Games.