In 2024, for the first time in history, the Tour de France will begin in Italy with three first stages: Florence-Rimini, Cesenatico-Bologna, and Piacenza-Turin. Symbolic in nature, these stages will honor the legends of Italian cycling. The announcement was made by race director Christian Prudhomme, who referred to the fact that the famed cycling race had never begun in Italy as "inconsistency" that will be rectified in 2024, the centennial year of the first Italian triumph, that of Ottavio Bottecchia in 1924. The Tour will start in Florence and end in Nice instead of Paris for the first time since 1905, because the Olympics will be going on in the capital at that time. On June 29, the group will go from Florence to Rimini on the first stage, which is medium mountain and has a vertical drop of 3,700 meters. The second one will leave from Cesenatico and go to Bologna via Imola. The third stage goes from Piacenza to Turin and is for sprinters. Also, the fourth stage will begin in Italy and end in France. It will be a great time to celebrate Italian cycling, as the first stage will pass by the Gino Bartali museum, which is dedicated to the winner of the Tour in 1938 and 1948. The riders will also go by the grave of Fausto Coppi, who was another great Italian champion. And of course, the departure from Cesenatico will be a chance to remember Marco Pantani, who won the Tour de France in 1998.
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