Route Rumours 2024 - UPDATE
With only 2 weeks to go before the 2024 Route Announcement (happening on 25th October in Paris), there’s lots of conjecture, information and rumour available. Reliable details (in the form of tweets from big-mouthed mayors or local newspaper articles) have been building for a while so here are our key 5 points …
The 5 most exciting facts and rumours
- Stage 5 will start from St Jean de Maurienne (we think!). It’s a small town know as the gateway to the high Alpine climbs (eg. La Madeleine) but rather than the obvious, it looks like this stage will be classed as “Middle Mountains” and will take us out of the Alps to the smaller (easier?!) hills to the west. This means we could see climbs like col de l’Epine and col de la Crusille (only 3.5km at 4%) which are easy to overlook on paper but will make for the most beautiful cycling. Views of mountains, melt water lakes and cow-packed pastures… contender for most beautiful stage!
- The Wine Tour Time Trial on stage 7… a time trial (time to rest) just when we need it! Time to stock up on Burgundy wines, eat some Dijon mustard (!) and enjoy the shaded forests that will take us from Gevrey-Chambertin to Nuits-Saint-Georges. Spectacular!
- A short stay in the Loire Valley is the “breaking news” that we hadn’t expected. It looks like the first rest day will be in Orleans with stages either side finishing and starting in the area. Orleans is the easternmost of the Loire chateaux towns and one of the biggest. It’s has a charming old centre with plenty of half-timbered buildings, cafes, restaurants and, importantly (for a rest day), laundrettes!
- The Pyrenees shine in 2024 with plenty of rumours about which spectacular routes could be included. We’ve read promises of the Pla d’Adet, Col du Portet, Cold de Peyresourde, Cold de Menté and Plateau de Beille (but interestingly, not the Tourmalet this year). There’s a chance we’ll get to sleep in one of our favourite TDF towns, St Lary Soulan which would make this a Pyrenean spectacular. Cross your fingers these rumours come true!
- Before Nice… the southern Alps look increasingly likely for a couple of stages in and around Gap. Just to the east of Gap is the Lac de Serre-Poncon, the most photogenic lake in France (due to the incredible blue colour and mountains all around). We may be treated to the 20km climbs on the Col de Vars or Col de la Bonette, or we may be surprised by a few first-time-Tour-climbs.
We can’t wait for the route to be announced. As soon as we have the details, we’ll start designing our Loops and our website will be full of information and excitement by the end of this month.
Don’t just watch it; ride it!