A tasty appetizer before a very rich lunch: the 111th edition of the Tour de France experienced its first official act yesterday afternoon with the presentation of the 176 riders divided into 22 teams. The event was organized by the Cesena-based group Pubblisole and took place in Florence under the supervision of Stefano Bertolotti and Paolo Mei with the extraordinary participation of Justine Mattera, a true trait d’union with the many foreign fans who followed the event live or online. Today, however, things will get serious straight away: the 2024 edition of the Grande Boucle has its starting point at Viola Park in Florence and consists of a 206 km long stage that will end this afternoon in Rimini. Already in the first stage there is no shortage of second and third category climbs to tackle, such as the Valico Tre Faggi, the Passo delle Forche, the Passo del Carnaio and the feared Passo del Barbotto, then passing through San Leo, Montemaggio and San Marino to create a route that will immediately put the riders at the start to the test. The race will cross Emilia-Romagna tomorrow with the second stage between Cesenatico and Bologna, the one dedicated entirely to the great Pirate Marco Pantani, and then leave our region on Monday with the Piacenza-Turin, before finally heading towards France. First approaches of a Tour that, strictly speaking, will propose the duel between the multi-titled Vingegaard and Pogacar, with the Dane who will go hunting for the hat trick after the last two victories and the Slovenian who will try to do the same after the seals of 2020 and 2021. In the latter case it would also be a historic Giro-Tour double: the last to succeed was Marco Pantani in 1998.
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