Tour de France 2024 stage guide: Schedule and key dates as Tadej Pogacar battles Jonas Vingegaard for yellow

Kicking off in the beautiful Tuscan city of Florence and finishing with a time trial on the French Riviera between Monaco and Nice, the 111th edition of the Tour de France is unlike any other. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games means that for the first time in history the race will not finish in the French capital, while the legendary Col du Galibier is scaled as early as Stage 4 as the riders head onto French soil after three days in northern Italy.

A return of the brutal Plateau de Beille and towering Cime de la Bonette climbs, a first summit finish on the Col de la Couillole, and four further summit finishes feature on a demanding course that includes seven mountainous stages across four mountain ranges.

But a potential eight sprints – including four largely flat stages – will keep the sprinters happy as veteran Mark Cavendish comes out of retirement in pursuit of an historic 35th stage win. Two time trials for a total of 59km against the clock, 32km of white gravel roads, some classics-style hilly tests, and forays into San Marino and Monaco as well as Italy and France, complete a varied parcours that has a bit of everything.

Every stage of the Tour will be broadcast in its entirety on Eurosport 1, while you can watch ad-free on discovery+.

Just 34 days after he secured the maglia rosa in Rome, Tadej Pogacar returns to Italy to start his quest to become the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to do the Giro-Tour double. It’s apt, then, that the 26th foreign grand depart in Tour history is this hilly 206km stage that culminates in the seaside town where the late Pantani passed away just over 20 years ago.

Seven categorised climbs and more than 3,600 metres of climbing peppers the route as the race gets off with a bang on the hills of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. The final climb sees the riders enter San Marino ahead of a fast descent and flat run into Rimini. The sprinters will be long off the back and we could see a feisty battle for yellow at the earliest possible opportunity.

Will Pogacar start the Tour as he finished the Giro just over a month ago? He has all the attributes to put returning rival Jonas Vingegaard to the sword from the get-go, but he may keep his powder dry for fear of burnout further down the road. After all, the Tour is a marathon, not a sprint…

After another lumpy stage to Bologna and then what should be the first bunch sprint in Turin, the peloton bids arrivederci to Italy and bonjour to France – via the Alps and the iconic Col de Galibier. Pogacar won’t have the best memory of the Galibier, where he was forced to battle back against a barrage of attacks from Jumbo Visma in 2022 on the way to relinquish the yellow jersey to Vingegaard.

It’s uphill from the outset with a long 50km slog up to Sestrieres ahead of another Cat. 2 climb, Montgenevre, where the race enters France. After passing through Briancon, the riders will tackle the legendary Galibier via the Col du Lautaret before a downhill ride to the finish at Valloire. The prestigious Souvenir Henri Desgranges will be awarded over the summit of the Galibier on a day where there could be some real damage to the hopes of many GC pretenders.

A couple of days for the sprinters are followed by the race’s first time trial, then a potential breakaway day through the undulating Haute-Marne before something entirely new comes to the modern-day Tour de France: the white roads of the Champagne region near Troyes.

After featuring in the Tour de France Femmes last year, these gravel tracks are similar to those used in Strade Bianche each spring and offer a dusty and demanding obstacle as tough as the cobblestones of northern France. There are 14 sectors and 32km of white roads in total as well as four Cat. 4 climbs during the 199km loop to and from Troyes.

Cue the old cliché of the Tour not being won, but potentially being lost on the eve of the first rest day…

After the Apennines and Alps comes the third mountain range of the Tour: the majestic Massif Central. Cast your minds back to Stage 5 of the 2016 Tour when Greg Van Avermaet rode into the yellow jersey over the same series of climbs – and you’ll agree that this is a day the aerial camera crew will earn its crust and Google searches for rentals in central France will soar into overdrive.

While none of the six categorised climbs are particularly long, they certainly pack a punch with the Col de Neronne averaging 9.1%, the start of the Col du Perthus hitting double digits, and the final two kilometres of the infamous Puy Mary Pas de Peyrol rising at a consistent 11% to the summit. All in all, there’s a total of 4,350m of vertical gain during the rugged ride to the ski resort of Le Lioran.

One day after the riders tackle the Col du Tourmalet, Hourquette d’Ancizan and Pla d’Adet in the second half of the opening Pyrenean stage, the difficulty levels are ramped up a few notches with a brutal Bastille Day bonanza that features four first-category climbs ahead of one of the toughest summit finishes in the sport: Plateau de Beille.

Featuring for the first time in nine years, the unforgiving HC ascent to Plateau de Beille is a climb that takes no prisoners. Almost 16km long at an average gradient of 7.9%, the road’s lack of hairpin bends make it a gruelling test as psychological as it is physical. What’s more, it comes after the Col de Peyresourde (6.9km at 7.8%), the Col de Mente (9.3km at 9.1%), the Col de Portet-d’Aspet (4.3km at 9.6%), the Col d’Agnes (10km at 8.3%) and the back end of the Port de Lers. It’s as if Carlsberg did cycling cruelty.

With almost 5,000m of vertical gain, Stage 15 has a good case for queenly status were it not for what’s still in store at the end of the third week…

The first of a trilogy of tests that will probably decide the fate of the yellow jersey is this 144.6km punch to the stomach that has all the hallmarks of a queen stage. The riders will head above 2,000m on no fewer than three occasions, starting with the HC ascent of the Col du Vars (18.8km at 5.7%).

Next up, the mighty Cime de la Bonette (22.9km at 6.9%) returns for just the fifth time in Tour history and the first time since 2008 when leader John-Lee Augustyn dramatically went over the edge on the descent before sliding down the steep scree slopes along with a bike that was probably never recovered.

This time, the riders will approach the Bonette from the north side and finish in Isola 2000 to mirror the finale only once used before – when Robert Millar took the spoils in 1993.

The final climb is 16.1km at 7.1% and is the same ascent where Vincenzo Nibali seized the Giro d’Italia title in 2016 in the wake of Rein Taaramae’s stage win. Standing 2,802m tall, the Bonette is the highest point of the 111th edition of the Tour and promises to play host to a thrilling battle on all fronts. Just don’t go bandying around the false claims of it being the highest paved route in Europe…

The penultimate stage of the Tour has a distinctively Paris-Nice feel to it with four climbs often used in the Race to the Sun in what promises to be a barnstorming 132.8km test of endurance. The iconic hairpin bends of the Col de Braus (10km at 6.6%) and Col de Turini (20.7km at 5.7%) are followed by the Cat. 1 Col de la Colmiane (7.5km at 7.1%) ahead of the final ascent of the Col de la Couillole (15.7km at 7.1%).

Pogacar pipped David Gaudu and rival Vingegaard on the Couillole in Stage 7 of Paris-Nice last year and the climb features for the first time as a summit finish on the Tour. It previously featured during the infamous stage where Eddy Merckx cracked on the road to Pra Loup to hand Frenchman Bernard Thevenet the yellow jersey in 1975. That’s quite a precedent, to be fair.

If the outcome of the Tour has not already been decided prior to Stage 20, then this sumptuous succession of peaks in the Alpes Maritimes could prove crucial.

Given the lofty precedent of a final-day time trial – last seen 35 years ago when Greg LeMond came from behind to deny Laurent Fignon by just eight seconds – it’s perhaps no surprise that the organisers have shied away from a repeat.

With sprint finishes on the Champs-Elysees now synonymous with the last day of the Tour, the fact that the 2024 race cannot finish in the French capital has given ASO a prime opportunity to roll the die and hope it lands on six. A final day time trial is always a bit of a gamble, but Christian Prudhomme will be banking on there still being something to play for in the GC showdown.

Regardless of the stakes and outcome, the 33.7km race of truth should make for spectacular viewing as the route looms over the picture postcard French Riviera. The riders will climb out of Monaco via La Turbie (8.1km at 5.6%) before tackling the back of Paris-Nice regular, the Col d’Eze, then dropping down for a blast along the Promenade des Anglais ahead of a finish in the historic Place Massena.

For sure, 1989 will take some beating. But this race against the clock has the hallmarks of a fitting finale to a Tour of innovation, unpredictability and excitement from first to last. So, it’s over to you, the riders…

Eurosport and discovery+ is the streaming home of the Tour de France this summer, with live coverage running June 29 to July 21.