Here is the Tour de France in Plasaince. Who would have ever thought? The Grande Boucle which passes through our city, or rather, which sees a stage departure from Piacenza. Among the six hundred kilometers that the Tour will cycle in Italy, we are also there. The date to mark on the calendar and in the diary is that of July 1stbecause we will host a more unique than rare event. So there are 150 days left to the biggest Piacenza event of 2024.
THE PIACENZA STAGE
The Piacenza-Turin will be 229 kilometers, a completely flat stage for pure sprinters. The starting point has not yet been made official, but it should be the parking lot on Viale Malta (behind the Police Headquarters). It is impossible to host the entire organization in Piazza Cavalli, as already happened for the 2021 Giro d’Italia. The hypothesis of the parking lot of the “Garilli” stadium has also been discarded. In addition to the meeting point, however, the thing that the municipal administration led by Tarasconi wants to focus on is to take advantage of the great media exposure to showcase our historic center.
After the footbridge to Piacenza, the caravan will cross i Piacenza municipalities of Rottofreno, Sarmato and Castelsangiovannibefore moving to Lombardy and Piedmont.
THE NUMBERS OF THE TOUR
The “Grand Départ”, the grand departure of the most important cycling competition in the world, will start on June 29 right from Italy. The other stages will be Florence-Rimini, with meeting on June 26 and departure on the 29th; then Cesenatico-Bologna on June 30 and finally, Piacenza-Turin on July 1st. A mega sporting event, but not only, whose numbers give the measure of its importance and the induced effects it can generate in the territories it passes through: about 4 thousand workers, 2,300 vehicles, 200 trucks, 7 helicopters for television filming and equipment, 3 planes and an advertising caravan with over 100 vehicles.
«THE OBJECTIVE IS TO SHOW PLEASURE»
“We will have extraordinary media coverage. The goal is to show the rest of the world as many of Piacenza’s beauties as possible,” says Mayor Katia Tarasconi, very excited about the great event, but aware that it entails a considerable amount of responsibility. The Tour is the third most important sporting event in the world in terms of spectators and induced, after the Olympics and the World Cup, which are organized every four years.
A unique opportunity for international promotion for Italy, for Emilia-Romagna and for Piacenza, which will not be a simple territory of passage but will be a “stage city”, with the best cyclists in the world who will arrive the evening before in Piacenza with the teams and staff and who on July 1st will ride through the city streets before launching into the race towards Turin. The image of Piacenza will be relaunched throughout the world, among newspapers, websites, television and social networks, with all that this entails in terms of visibility.
According to a study commissioned by the Region, there will be approximately 1.8 million spectators in Italy for the first three stages of the Tour, of which over 730 thousand in Emilia-Romagna alone, including Piacenza. And again: 130 thousand estimated presences in hotels, half of which in our region. The expected economic impact is significant: 59 million euros of which 29 in Emilia-Romagna, without considering a further 47 million in induced and indirect benefits at a national level and another 13 million just for the cycling industry, which includes numerous established businesses in Piacenza.
“The Tour represents a unique opportunity for international visibility and tourist attraction for the entire country – adds the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini – and for our region in particular, a further, precious opportunity for the rebirth of those territories so severely hit by the floods in May, many of which will be crossed by this prestigious competition”.
THE THREE ITALIAN STAGES DEDICATED TO BARTALI, PANTANI AND COPPI
The three Italian stages, from Florence to Turin, for over 600 kilometers of route, will touch some of the “noble” territories of Italian cycling, namely the native lands of three Italian winners of the Tour: the Tuscan Gino Bartali, the Romagna Marco Pantani and the Piedmontese Fausto Coppi.
Exactly one hundred years after the victory of Ottavio Bottecchia, the first Italian to conquer the Tour podium in 1924, the 111th edition of the Grande Boucle will pay homage to the Italian landscape. And Emilia-Romagna with a primary role, with dozens of locations that will be crossed by the yellow caravan, in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena, Rimini, Ravenna, Bologna and Piacenza, in an area where cycling boasts great traditions and popular roots .
But the link between the Tour and Italy includes many other champions. Seven names to be included in the palmares with ten victories: Bottecchia the first to climb onto the podium in 1924 and then in 1925; Gino Bartali, champion among the Righteous, winner in 1938 and 1948. And with him the great champion Fausto Coppi, first in 1949 and 1952. And then Gastone Nencini in 1960 and Felice Gimondi in 1965. Up to Marco Pantani, the beloved ‘pirate’, best young rider of the Tour in 1994 and 1995, winner in 1998 in the same year in which he had won the Giro d’Italia and Vincenzo Nibali, the last Italian to triumph in 2014.
THE OTHER TERRITORIES TOUCHED BY THE TOUR
The countdown has begun. It will start on Saturday 29 June with the 206 km between Florence and Rimini. From Piazzale Michelangelo, passing in front of the Museum dedicated to Gino Bartali in Ponte a Ema, where he was born, to the Adriatic Sea, between the Tre Faggi pass, still in Tuscany, up to Monte Barbotto and Colle di San Leo, in Emilia-Romagna, the two hardest climbs. A challenging route that in Emilia-Romagna will touch the municipalities of Premilcuore, Galeata, Santa Sofia, Bagno di Romagna, Sarsina, Mercato Saraceno in the province of Forlì-Cesena; Novafeltria, Talamello, San Leo, in the province of Rimini, and after a passage in the Republic of San Marino, the arrival in the capital city.
Cesenatico-Bologna on Sunday 30 June. From the town on the Emilia-Romagna coast where Marco Pantani was born, to whom the stage is dedicated, to Bologna with the challenging hairpin bends of Colle di San Luca, passing through Cima Gallisterna and the Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola, two places linked to the 2020 Cycling World Championships. A route that will cross the municipalities of Cesenatico, in the province of Forlì-Cesena; Cervia, Ravenna, Russi, Faenza, Brisighella, Riolo Terme in the province of Ravenna; Imola, Dozza, Castel San Pietro Terme, Ozzano dell’Emilia, San Lazzaro di Savena, Pianoro, in the province of Bologna, as well as the capital municipality, the arrival point of the stage. Then, what we are all waiting for: the departure of Piacenza-Turin.
(To get closer to the big event, “IlPiacenza.it” will publish, on a weekly basis, an article dedicated to the history of the Tour de France, starting from Sunday 11 February).
