A Historic First for Italy Hosting the Beginning of the Race
The Tour de France, the esteemed cycling race that brings professional bicyclists from across the world to compete in thousands of kilometers of intense biking, will begin its 111st edition in Florence on Saturday, June 29th. This is the first time Italy has hosted the start of the race, known in the tournament as the Grand Départ.
The first of the 21 stages ends in Rimini, a city on the Adriatic Coast. This stage is 206 kilometers long with multiple mountain passes over the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. This stage is in remembrance of the late Italian cyclist Gino Bartali, who won the Tour de France in 1938 and died in Florence at 85. After the first stage leaves the Tuscany region, it continues through Italy reaching Emilia-Romagna, where Rimini is located.
From its first tournament in 1903 until the 1950s, the Grand Départ and conclusion of the Tour de France was always held in Paris. It branched out in 1954 when Amsterdam held the first Grand Départ outside of the race’s home country. Since then, 55 towns and cities have introduced the cyclists, offering a unique cultural and social ambiance with each annual Grand Départ.
On Wednesday, June 26, the Teatro del Maggio opera house will open for meet and greets with the cycling teams and press conferences for over 600 international journalists to report on the event. The Piazza Santa Croce will also host promotional and advertising groups that day. From Thursday, June 27 to the day of the race on the 29th, fans can gather and celebrate the upcoming excitement at the Piazza Santa Croce. The cycling teams will be presented there before heading to the Palazzo Vecchio for photo shoots and a briefing on the route. From there the racers will bike through the streets of Florence to the Piazzale Michelangelo for the beginning of the worldwide broadcast.
Last year 42.5 million people tuned in from home to watch the broadcast of the Tour de France. Viewers in the U.S. can stream the edition through NBC’s Peacock. For many fans in Europe, though, some can simply step outside their door.
Florentine fans can find the cyclists beginning the race at the Villaggio alle Cascine, at approximately 12 PM on June 29th, in a non-competitive mode and will head towards Piazza della Signoria, where it will stop for an official start.
The route is as follows:
Villaggio – 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 (partenza ufficiale) – Via Vacchereccia – Via 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 starting) – Rimini.
