Thousands of enthusiasts, both Italian and foreign, gathered in the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florencemany on bikes, to attend the spectacular catwalk presentation of the 22 teams which from tomorrow will give life to 111th edition of the Tour of France. “The Tour has finally made up for a mistake, never having started from Italy”, said the race director, Christian Prudhomme, according to whom the Grand Départ from Florence “is the way to pay homage to the great champions who have made cycling and the Tour great”. Among them the greatest Florentine champion, Gino Bartali, winner of the Grande Boucle in 1938 and 1948: his granddaughter Gioia remembered him on stage. But Florence is also the land of other great champions who did themselves proud beyond the Alps, Gastone Nencini, winner of the Tour in 1960, and the ‘Lion of Flanders’ Fiorenzo Magni who wore the yellow jersey. For the new mayor Sara Funaro it is “an extraordinary occasion for our city”, while her predecessor Dario Nardella, who went up on stage with her amidst applause and some boos, wished everyone “three extraordinary days”, remembering Bartali and a legendary figure of Florentine and Italian cycling like the former coach of the Italian national team Alfredo Martiniwho “dreamed of the Tour from Florence”.
in-depth analysis
Tour de France 2024, the route and the stages. PHOTO
Pogacar is the big favourite
Nobody seems to have any doubts, the great favorite of the Tour de France which will start from Italy for the first time, touching Emilia Romagna and Piedmont after Florence, is Tadej Pogacarthe Slovenian champion who has just won the Tour of Italy and aims to make history by hitting the mark double as only seven runners have managed in the past: Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Roche, Indurain and Pantani, the last to succeed, in 1998. For the insiders and especially for his opponents Pogacar seems unbeatable as the 24 year old Belgian remarked Remco Evenepoelhis first participation in the Tour but already two victories in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a world title in the time trial in 2023 in Glasgow: ”Up to now Pogacar is unbeatable, it will be very tough, but obviously we will all fight”. And obviously the good Tadej is ready to take up the challenge even if, as he said in a conference today in Palazzo Vecchio, he comes from a complicated period, the death of his grandfather and the Covid he caught 10 days ago: ”But it was like a mild flu I’m fine now.” So here he is in search of the feat, the Giro-Tour double: ”It’s a great challenge but I really like challenges, nothing is easy in cyclingand, in any case, I’m ready, already after the first stages which are tough we’ll see who will have trained legs”. The most awaited duel will be with Jonas Vingegaardwinner in Paris in the last two editions However, he has just recovered from a terrible fall last April 4th at the Tour of the Basque Country, hence the uncertainty about his state of form. ”I am very proud to compete with him, we will try to give a great show toohe is an extraordinary athlete – said Pogacar – How will I try to beat him? By arriving first and avoiding making mistakes. I think that after the fourth stage, with very high mountains, big gaps could be created”. Vingegaard prefers not to commit himself for the moment: ”After the fall it’s already nice to be here, this is already a victory. I’m coming from the worst period of my career, I had to fight to get back into shape. For my part, I hope to find power again during the race, if I hadn’t crashed I would have been able to compete to win, I can’t say that now, I worked a lot, the accident was terrifyingI’ve been in bed for two weeks, everything that comes from now on will be a gift”.
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Pogacar for history: Giro-Tour like Pantani?
1970-01-01 00:00:00
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