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Giro d'Italia stage 5 Live - Will Jonathan Milan win again?

Jonas vingegaard wins the 2023 tour de france.

Meeus takes final stage in a photo finish with Philipsen

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) sailed through the final stage of the 2023 Tour de France to be crowned overall champion for the second year in a row.

Pogačar added to his reputation as the ' people's champion ', attacking multiple times in the final 40 kilometres but the sprinters teams shut down the cheeky moves. As the rain started to fall on the Champs Elyseés, the race judges decided to take the general classification times with one lap to go.

After a heated and seemingly even battle with Pogačar, Vingegaard put his mark on this edition of the Tour with his dominant performance on stage 16 time trial then twisted the knife on the Col de la Loze .

He tops the final podium by 7:29 ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in a duel that will go down in the history books. Pogačar’s teammate Yates finished third overall at 10:56 back.

“It's a feeling of being proud and happy - we're winning it for the second time now. It's really amazing. Today with all the Danish people here was really amazing. I have to say thanks not only to my team and family but to the whole of Denmark. They support me and I'm really grateful for this.”

“It's been a long journey but it also went by so fast. We race every day and one day takes the other. It's been a super hard race and a super good fight between me and Tadej. I enjoyed it all the way.”

Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) sprinted to victory on the Champs-Elysées, beating Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) to the line on stage 21 to take his first stage victory of the Tour de France.

Alpecin-Deceuninck may have led the way around the final corner, but Meeus was well positioned, surfing wheels. The neophyte Tour rider, edged out the green jersey at the line by less than a wheel length to win after a chaotic sprint.

“I knew in the previous sprints that there was more possible than the result I showed so far. Today everything went perfect and I'm super happy to finish it off,” said Meeus who finished top ten in three of the previous sprint stages this year.

“I felt quite good all day. The beginning was easy obviously but from the moment we went full gas my legs felt incredibly good. Then Marco Haller did a perfect job with positioning and he was also there. I had the wheel of Pedersen and I could come out of the slipstream and catch it on the line.”

“It's my first Tour and it was a super nice experience so far. To take the win today is just an indescribable feeling.”

For the third year in a row, Pogačar swept up the white jersey, with Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) finishing as runner-up in the young rider's classification.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) claimed the polka-dot jersey beating Felix Gall (AG2R Citroen) by 14 points to the climber's award.

Philipsen had nonetheless secured the green jersey before the final stage, beating Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) by 119 points at the top of the points standings. Finally, Jumbo-Visma won the team competition ahead of UAE Team Emirates, and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) claimed the super-combativity award after an aggressive three weeks of racing.

How it unfolded

In what is effectively a two-wheeled photo shoot on the 115.1-kilometre stage starting from the velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a nod to the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games, to the usual finish on the Champs-Élysées, team after team took their turn on the front of the slowly pedalling bunch for the cameras.

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) jumped off the front at the flag drop to celebrate being awarded the super-combativity trophy. He quickly sat up with a smile and rejoined the peloton.

The opening 60.6 kilometres saw the peloton pass in front of the Château de Versailles before heading to Paris via Meudon and Issy-les-Moulineaux, tackling the final climb of the race, the fourth-category Côte du Pavé des Gardes, after 42.8 kilometres.

Celebrating his polka-dot jersey, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) received a slow lead out from his Lidl-Trek teammates to take to the lone KOM point of the day.

After that – the final 54.5 kilometres of the stage once the riders pass through the finish line for the first time – the racing began in Paris, with eight laps of the finishing circuits left to decide the winner of stage 21.

The Jumbo-Visma team rode on the front gradually amping the pace as the peloton made its way to the final circuits.

The first two laps of the Champs-Élysées circuit saw a flurry of attacks from the peloton. First up the road was Pascal Eenkhoorn then his Lotto Dstny teammate Frederik Frison as each took their chance to escape.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked multiple times in the final 40 kilometres. The first time, he was joined by Nathan Van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) who sat on his wheel, refusing to work. More riders tried to jump across to the Slovenian's wheel but the lack of cooperation doomed the moves.

Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) launched the next big move, at 30 kilometers to go. He was soon joined by Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) and Frison. Working well together, the trio pushed their gap up to 18 seconds before being reeled in 20 kilometres later.

No organisation at the front of the peloton led to more short-lived attacks in the final lap, with speeds hitting 64 km per hour. The Jumbo-Visma team sat up to celebrate their overall victory with three kilometres to go, leaving the sprinters' teams to fight out the stage victory.

A mixture of teams – including Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek, Jayco-AlUla and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty – were up front heading into the final two kilometres, with no one team able to wrest control and establish a full lead out at the front.

Not done with racing, Pogačar led the final sprint onto the Champs Elysées. He was overtaken by Mathieu van der Poel leading out Philipsen. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) went early and hit the front, forcing Philipsen to go along the barriers.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), meanwhile, went down the middle but Meeus was on his wheel and came late with a perfect bike throw to the line. He rode it perfectly, with a bike throw, while Philipsen was forced to come late and from behind.

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Lyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing. She founded Podium Insight in 2008, quickly becoming a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world. She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans. She is proud to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site. Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites. 

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The Birth of the Tour de France

By: Christopher Klein

Updated: May 8, 2023 | Original: June 28, 2013

On July 1, 1903, 60 men mounted their bicycles outside the Café au Reveil Matin in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron. The five-dozen riders were mostly French, with just a sprinkle of Belgians, Swiss, Germans and Italians. A third were professionals sponsored by bicycle manufacturers, the others were simply devotees of the sport. All 60 wheelmen, however, were united by the challenge of embarking on an unprecedented test of endurance—not to mention the 20,000 francs in prize money—in the inaugural Tour de France.

At 3:16 p.m., the cyclists turned the pedals of their bicycles and raced into the unknown.

Nothing like the Tour de France had ever been attempted before. Journalist Geo Lefevre had dreamt up the fanciful race as a stunt to boost the circulation of his struggling daily sports newspaper, L’Auto. Henri Desgrange, the director-editor of L’Auto and a former champion cyclist himself, loved the idea of turning France into one giant velodrome. They developed a 1,500-mile clockwise loop of the country running from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes before returning to the French capital. There were no Alpine climbs and only six stages—as opposed to the 21 stages in the 2013 Tour— but the distances covered in each of them were monstrous, an average of 250 miles. (No single stage in the 2013 Tour tops 150 miles.) Between one and three rest days were scheduled between stages for recovery.

The first stage of the epic race was particularly dastardly. The route from Paris to Lyon stretched nearly 300 miles. No doubt several of the riders who wheeled away from Paris worried not about winning the race—but surviving it.

Unlike today’s riders, the cyclists in 1903 rode over unpaved roads without helmets. They rode as individuals, not team members. Riders could receive no help. They could not glide in the slipstream of fellow riders or vehicles of any kind. They rode without support cars. Cyclists were responsible for making their own repairs. They even rode with spare tires and tubes wrapped around their torsos in case they developed flats.

And unlike modern-day riders, the cyclists in the 1903 Tour de France, forced to cover enormous swathes of land, spent much of the race riding through the night with moonlight the only guide and stars the only spectators. During the early morning hours of the first stage, race officials came across many competitors “riding like sleepwalkers.”

Hour after hour through the night, riders abandoned the race. One of the favorites, Hippolyte Aucouturier, quit after developing stomach cramps, perhaps from the swigs of red wine he took as an early 1900s version of a performance enhancer.

Twenty-three riders abandoned the first stage of the race, but the one man who barreled through the night faster than anyone else was another pre-race favorite, 32-year-old professional Maurice Garin. The mustachioed French national worked as a chimney sweep as a teenager before becoming one of France’s leading cyclists. Caked in mud, the diminutive Garin crossed the finish line in Lyon a little more than 17 hours after the start outside Paris. In spite of the race’s length, he won by only one minute.

“The Little Chimney Sweep” built his lead as the race progressed. By the fifth stage, Garin had a two-hour advantage. When his nearest competitor suffered two flat tires and fell asleep while resting on the side of the road, Garin captured the stage and the Tour was all but won.

The sixth and final stage, the race’s longest, began in Nantes at 9 p.m. on July 18, so that spectators could watch the riders arrive in Paris late the following afternoon. Garin strapped on a green armband to signify his position as race leader. (The famed yellow jersey worn by the race leader was not introduced until 1919.) A crowd of 20,000 in the Parc des Princes velodrome cheered as Garin won the stage and the first Tour de France. He bested butcher trainee Lucien Pothier by nearly three hours in what remains the greatest winning margin in the Tour’s history. Garin had spent more than 95 hours in the saddle and averaged 15 miles per hour. In all, 21 of the 60 riders completed the Tour, with the last-place rider more than 64 hours behind Garin.

For Desgrange, the race was an unqualified success. Newspaper circulation soared six-fold during the race. However, a chronic problem that would perpetually plague the Tour de France was already present in the inaugural race—cheating. The rule-breaking started in the very first stage when Jean Fischer illegally used a car to pace him. Another rider was disqualified in a subsequent stage for riding in a car’s slipstream.

That paled in comparison, however, to the nefarious activity the following year in the 1904 Tour de France. As Garin and a fellow rider pedaled through St. Etienne, fans of hometown rider Antoine Faure formed a human blockade and beat the men until Lefevre arrived and fired a pistol to break up the melee. Later in the race, fans protesting the disqualification of a local rider placed tacks and broken glass on the course. The riders acted a little better. They hitched rides in cars during the dark and illegally took help from outsiders. Garin himself was accused of illegally obtaining food during a portion of one stage. The race was so plagued by scandal that four months later Desgrange disqualified Garin and the three other top finishers. It, of course, wouldn’t be the last time a Tour winner was stripped of his title.

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Die Tour de France - damals und heute

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Tour de France Geschichte

Die Tour de France bringt seit 1903 Mensch und Maschine an ihre Grenzen. Doch seit den Anfängen der Tour hat sich viel verändert: Von einer überwiegend nationalen Attraktion hat sie sich zum größten jährlichen mehrtägigen Sportereignis der Welt entwickelt und fasziniert Milliarden von Fans aus aller Welt. Auch auf der Straße ist vieles anders: sicherer, professioneller und etwas weniger chaotisch. Begleiten Sie uns auf eine Reise in die Vergangenheit, um mehr darüber zu erfahren.   

Was hat sich geändert? Die Geschichte der Tour de France

Die erste Tour de France fand 1903 statt – mit dem Ziel, mehr Zeitungen zu verkaufen.... Sie wurde von der französischen Sportzeitung  L'Auto  ins Leben gerufen und gesponsert, die hoffte, dass ein neues, hartes Langstreckenrennen durch das ganze Land die Aufmerksamkeit der Öffentlichkeit auf sich ziehen und die sinkenden Verkaufszahlen wieder steigern könnte.

Und sie lagen richtig. Das Rennen war ein Erfolg und Zehntausende versammelten sich in Paris, um die letzte Etappe mitzuerleben – ähnlich wie heute. Aber auch viele andere Dinge haben sich seit der ersten Tour im Jahr 1903 dramatisch verändert.

Geschichte der Tour

• Im Jahr 1903 führten die sechs monströsen Etappen der Tour de France über insgesamt 2.428 Kilometer, was bedeutete, dass einige Rennen bei Nacht über holprige, nicht asphaltierte Straßen stattfanden.
• Die Fahrer fuhren als Einzelpersonen ohne Teamunterstützung.
• Der erste Sieger der Tour de France, der Teilzeit-Schornsteinfeger Maurice Garin, nahm 3.000 Francs mit nach Hause, was heute etwa 12.000 Euro entspricht.
• Sein Vorsprung betrug fast drei Stunden – der größte aller Zeiten.
• Eine grüne Armbinde kennzeichnete den Gesamtführenden. Das berühmte gelbe Trikot wurde erst 1919 eingeführt. 

Die Tour heute

• Die Tour 2022 führt über 3.328 Kilometer in 21 Etappen.
• Keine Einzelkämpfer mehr: In diesem Jahr werden voraussichtlich 23 Profiteams mit jeweils acht Fahrern antreten.
• Im Jahr 2021 erhält der Gesamtsieger 500.000 Euro.
• Auf der letzten Etappe wird sein Vorsprung wahrscheinlich höchstens ein paar Minuten betragen. 
• Le Tour de France wird von rund 10-12 Millionen Zuschauern vor Ort verfolgt und mehr als zwei Milliarden weitere schalten weltweit ein. 

Von risikofreudigen Fahrern zu engagierten Sportprofis

Tour-de-France-Radsportler waren schon immer unglaublich fit und engagiert bei der Sache. Aber in den frühen Tagen des Rennens hatten die Teilnehmer eine etwas entspanntere Einstellung zu Training und Ernährung.

Alkohol war für viele Fahrer ein Grundnahrungsmittel, selbst während eines Rennens. Der Tour-de-France-Sieger von 1903, Maurice Garin, war ein Liebhaber von Wein und Zigaretten und legte unterwegs gerne Pausen bei verschiedenen Bars ein, um „aufzutanken“. Im Jahr 1935 hielt fast das gesamte Peloton an, um mit Einheimischen etwas zu trinken!

Natürlich erfordert anstrengendes Training, dass Radfahrer viele Kohlehydrate und Kalorien zu sich nehmen, aber damals wurde wenig auf den Nährwert geachtet. Der Tour-de-France-Sieger von 1904, Henri Cornet, bevorzugte eine Diät, die viel heiße Schokolade, Tee, Champagner und Milchreis beinhaltete.

Im Vergleich dazu widmen sich die Profis von heute fast jeden Tag dem Ziel, fit und gesund zu bleiben. Die Radsportsaison läuft von Februar bis Oktober und die Teams planen akribisch alles für ihre Fahrer, um sicherzustellen, dass sie zur richtigen Zeit den Höhepunkt ihrer Fitness erreichen. 

Die Ernährung wird sorgfältig ausgearbeitet, während die Trainingspläne alles beinhalten, von Fitnessstudio und Yoga bis hin zu Massagen und Stretching, sowie viele Stunden im Sattel. Während der Tour, je nach Etappenschwierigkeit, können die Fahrer bis zu 7.000 Kalorien pro Tag zu sich nehmen – das Dreifache dessen, was ein Mensch normalerweise an einem Tag verbrennt.

Französische Anhänger und internationale Superfans

Begrenzte Reisemöglichkeiten bedeuteten, dass die Anfänge der Tour hauptsächlich von Einheimischen miterlebt wurden. Die französischen Fans, die zum Zuschauen gekommen waren, unterstützten ihre Lokalmatadore oft mit allem, was sie hatten. Im Jahr 1904 versuchten mehrere hundert Fans, Antoine Fauré zu helfen, indem sie Nägel und Glas auf die Straße warfen und seine Konkurrenten angriffen, und ein Fahrer wurde sogar bewusstlos geschlagen. Die Rennleitung musste schließlich mit Pistolen in die Luft schießen, um die Situation zu entschärfen.

Heute reisen Fans aus der ganzen Welt an, um sich die besten Radsportler der Welt anzusehen. In Anerkennung der breiten Anziehungskraft des Rennens startet die Tour nun regelmäßig auch außerhalb Frankreichs. Die Startetappe, oder  Grand Départ , wurde unter anderem bereits in Italien, England, Deutschland, Belgien und den Niederlanden ausgetragen.

Obwohl sich die Fans heutzutage im Allgemeinen besser benehmen, können sie dem Geschehen immer noch ein wenig zu nahe kommen. Übermütige Zuschauer haben leider schon zahlreiche Unfälle verursacht, vor allem auf engen Bergstraßen. Es ist nicht möglich, jeden Tag Hunderte von Straßenkilometern abzusperren, aber die Tour setzt nun Absperrungen ein, um die Fahrer auf dem letzten Abschnitt jeder Etappe vor Selfie-Jägern zu schützen.  

Geschichte der Ausrüstung

Der französische Radsportler Maurice Garin, der erste Tour de France-Sieger, fuhr auf einem Fahrrad, das sich von den heute verwendeten erheblich unterschied (und ohne Helm). Mit dem Stahlrahmen und den Holzfelgen brachte es sperrige 18 Kilogramm auf die Waage, deutlich mehr als doppelt so viel wie heutige Rennräder. Und die Fahrräder waren nicht nur schwer, sie hatten auch nur einen Gang, was das Klettern besonders anstrengend machte. Um die Sache noch schwieriger zu machen, fuhren die Radfahrer allein – ohne Teamwagen oder Ersatzräder. Sie wickelten sich Ersatzreifen und Schläuche wie Munitionsgürtel um die Schultern, um auf die unvermeidlichen Reifenpannen vorbereitet zu sein. 

In diesem Jahr werden die Fahrer jede Etappe der Tour de France auf modernsten Kohlefaser-Rädern in Angriff nehmen, die ca. sieben Kilogramm wiegen. Sie werden sogar eine Auswahl verschiedener Räder für unterschiedliche Etappen haben: Flach, Berg oder Zeitfahren. Helme sind jetzt Pflicht.

Jedes Team wird von einem Team unterstützt, das aus einer Gesamtleitung, mehreren Verantwortlichen, Mechanikern, einem Koch, einem Arzt und Masseuren besteht. Während sie unterwegs sind, stehen die Fahrer über Funk in ständigem Kontakt mit ihrem Team und haben Zugang zu Ersatzrädern, Kleidung, Essen und Getränken in Begleitfahrzeugen.

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The 5-minute essential guide to the Tour de France

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Reading time: 0 min Published on 8 January 2024, updated on 18 April 2024

It is the biggest cycling race in the world: a national event that France cherishes almost as much as its Eiffel Tower and its 360 native cheeses! Every year in July, the Tour de France sets off on the roads of France and crosses some of its most beautiful landscapes. Here’s everything you should know in advance of the 2018 race…

‘La Grande Boucle’

In over a century of existence, the Tour has extended its distance and passed through the whole country. Almost 3,500 kilometers are now covered each year in the first three weeks of July, with 22 teams of 8 cyclists. The 176 competitors criss-cross the most beautiful roads of France in 23 days, over 21 stages. More than a third of France’s departments are passed through, on a route that changes each year.

A little tour to start

The first ever Tour de France took place in 1903. It had just six stages – Paris-Lyon, Lyon-Marseille, Marseille-Toulouse, Toulouse-Bordeaux, Bordeaux-Nantes and Nantes-Paris – and 60 cyclists at the start line. At the time, the brave cycled up to 18 hours at a stretch, by day and night, on roads and dirt tracks. By the end, they’d managed 2,300 kilometers. Must have had some tight calves!

Mountain events are often the most famous and hotly contested. Spectators watch in awe as the riders attack the passes and hit speeds of 100 km/h. In the Pyrenees and the Alps, the Galibier and Tourmalet ascents are legendary sections of the Tour, worthy of a very elegant polka dot jersey for the best climber…

The darling of the Tour

In terms of the number of victories per nation, France comes out on top, with 36 races won by a French cyclist. In second place is Belgium with 18 wins, and in third is Spain with 12. The darling of the Tour remains Eddy Merckx, holding the record of 111 days in the yellow jersey. This Belgian won 5 times the Great Loop as Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Michael Indurain.

‘Le maillot jaune’

The yellow jersey is worn by the race winner in the general classification (calculated by adding up the times from each individual stage). This tradition goes back to 1919. It has nothing to do with the July sunshine or the sunflower fields along the roads; it was simply the colour of the pages of newspaper L’Auto, which was creator and organiser of the competition at the time.

The Tour de France is the third major world sporting event after the Olympic Games and the World Cup, covered by 600 media and 2,000 journalists. The race is broadcast in 130 countries by 100 television channels over 6,300 hours, and is followed by 3.5 billion viewers.

The Champs-Élysées finish

Each year the Tour departs from a different city, whether in France or in a neighbouring country. Since 1975, the triumphal arrival of the cyclists has always taken place across a finish line on Paris’ Champs-Élysées. It’s a truly beautiful setting for the final sprint.

And the winner is…

Seen from the sky and filmed by helicopters or drones, the Tour route resembles a long ribbon winding its way through France’s stunning landscapes: the groves of Normandy, the peaks of the Alps, the shores of Brittany and the beaches of the Côte d’Azur. In 2017, it was the Izoard pass in Hautes-Alpes that was elected the most beautiful stage, at an altitude of 2,361 metres. Which one gets your vote?

Find out more on the official Tour de France site: https://www.letour.fr

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Tour-de-France-Sieger Jonas Vingegaard: Was die Presse schreibt

Pressestimmen zum Tour-Sieg : „Vingegaard fehlt es an Wärme und Menschlichkeit“

Der dänische Radprofi Jonas Vingegaard hat am Sonntag zum zweiten Mal die Tour de France gewonnen. Der 26-Jährige setzte sich nach 21 Etappen und rund 3400 Kilometern mit mehreren Minuten Vorsprung vor dem Slowenen Tadej Pogacar durch.

Dazu schreibt die internationale Presse:

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The arrival of the Tour de France 2024 in Nice

🚴🏼 nice will be hosting the finish of the tour de france 2024, on its beautiful promenade des anglais.

For the first time in its history, the Tour will finish somewhere other than Paris! This 111th edition will start in Florence, Italy, on 29 June and finish in Nice on 21 July 2024.

In the presence of the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, the organisers of the Tour de France have unveiled the details of the last 2 stages of the 2024 event.

• On Saturday 20 th July, the riders will set off from the Promenade des Anglais on a spectacular route up to the Col de la Couillole.
• On Sunday 21 th July, the 21 st and final stage will be contested as a time trial between Monaco and Nice.

💡 Did you know?

Nice Côte d’Azur is a destination par excellence for cycling enthusiasts!

Stunning coastal panoramas blend harmoniously with majestic Alpine peaks , offering an unrivalled diversity of landscapes. Between sea and mountains, Nice is much more than just a tourist destination; it’s a veritable playground for cycling enthusiasts , where every pedal stroke promises an unforgettable adventure.

⏱ A final time trial in Nice

From the coast to the mountain peaks, Nice Côte d’Azur is an exceptional playground for sports enthusiasts and professionals alike. The organisers of the Tour de France made no mistake when they chose Nice to crown the winner of the 2024 edition!

The final stage of the 2024 Tour de France will not be a traditional sprint on the Champs-Elysées, but an individual time trial between the Principality of Monaco and Nice. This will be the first time that the Tour will finish in a time trial since the 1989 victory of American Greg Lemond, who stole victory from Frenchman Laurent Fignon, then wearing the jersey, by eight seconds.

📍 The Tour de France route

The Tour de France 2024 is set to be an exceptional event, with a Grand Départ from Italy!

🔎 Focus on the 21 stages

• Florence ▸ Rimini – 206 km
• Cesenatico ▸ Bologne – 200km
• Plaisance ▸ Turin – 229km
• Pinerolo ▸ Valloire – 138km
• Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne ▸ Saint-Vulbas – 177km
• Mâcon ▸ Dijon – 163km
• Nuits-Saint-Georges ▸ Gevrey-Chambertin – 25km
• Semur-en-Auxois ▸ Colombey-les-deux-églises – 176km
• Troyes ▸ Troyes – 199km
• Orléans ▸ Saint-Armand-Montrond – 187km
• Évaux-les-Bains ▸ Le Lioran – 211km
• Aurillac ▸ Villeuneuve-sur-Lot – 204km
• Agen ▸ Pau – 171km
• Pau ▸ Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet – 152km
• Loudenvielle ▸ Plateau de Beille – 198km
• Gruissan ▸ Nimes – 187 km
• Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux ▸ Superdévoluy – 178km
• Gap ▸ Barcelonnette – 179km
• Embrun ▸ Isola 2000 – 145km
• Nice ▸ Col de la Couillole – 133km
• Monaco ▸ Nice – 34km

The Tour stage

The 32 nd stage of the Tour de France will take place on 7 July 2024 between Nice and the Col de la Couillole.

📍 A 138 km route with 4,600 m of ascent and four passes on the programme:

• Col de Braus – 1002m
• Col de Turini – 1607m
• Col de la Colmiane – 1500m
• Col de la Couillole – 1678m

Watch the Tour de France live

Download the free application to make sure you don’t miss a thing of the race, the Florence 2024 Grand Départ , prepare the stages with our experts, follow all the stages live, consult the official routes and rankings …

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Tour champion Vingegaard still hopes to be in ‘top shape’ for this year’s race after bad crash

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard pedals on his way to win the fifth stage of the Tirreno Adriatico cycling race, from Torricella Sicura to Valle Castellana, Italy, Friday, March 8, 2024. Two-time defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard is back on his bike a month after the bad crash that left him with a collarbone and several ribs broken, and the Danish rider aims to compete this summer at cycling’s biggest race. (Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse via AP, File)

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PARIS (AP) — Two-time defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard is back on his bike, just a month after a bad crash that left him several broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

And the Danish rider is still hoping to compete at this year’s Tour, which starts in seven weeks.

“I feel good, it’s improving day by day,” Vingegaard said in a video released by his team, Visma–Lease a Bike. “I still have some things to recover from, but it’s going better and better. Of course I hope to be there at the start of the Tour de France. We don’t know exactly how my shape and how my recovery will go, but I will do everything I can to get there in my top shape.”

Vingegaard was hospitalized in Spain last month following the crash that involved other top riders during a chaotic Tour of the Basque Country. He also sustained a broken collarbone and a pulmonary contusion during the accident, which came less than three months before the start of the Tour de France on June 29.

He was back in the saddle on Tuesday.

“This is the first time back on the bike for me riding outside, and it’s really nice to finally be able to ride like normal again,” Vingegaard said in the video, standing by his bicycle. “Finally to be able to ride on the road is really amazing and I’m really looking forward to taking the next steps.”

Before the crash, Vingegaard had been considered one of the top favorites at the Tour again alongside his rival Tadej Pogacar, who is aiming for a Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double this year.

Vingegaard was hardly moving when he was put into an ambulance wearing an oxygen mask and neck brace after the crash with less than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) remaining in the stage. The pileup also took out Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel, along with several other riders, many of whom needed hospital treatment.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports