The 111th Tour de France will start on Saturday 29 June from Florence, a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Bottecchia’s first victory of the Grande Boucle (1924-1925) and the subsequent triumphs of Bartali (1938-1948), Coppi (1949-1952), Nencini (1960), Gimondi (1965), Pantani (1998) and Nibali (2014).
At 10:50 at the Parco delle Cascine the gathering for the 176 participating runners (22 teams) returning from a day of rest. The start at 12 on Viale degli Olmi for a catwalk in the center of the city passing through Piazza Duomo, Piazza della Signoria where at 12:10 the official starting ceremony will take place, then Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Pitti, Viale Galileo, Piazzale Michelangelo, Viale Giannotti, Piazza Nencini, Viale Europa, Viale del Pian di Ripoli. It is here, in front of Viola Park, the Fiorentina sports center, that at 12:40 there will be the official start of the first stage that will touch six municipalities in the province of Florence: Bagno a Ripoli, Pontassieve, Pelago, Rufina, Dicomano, San Godenzo, then the border crossing into Romagna crossing the Apennines. Everyone agrees, riders, insiders, fans: it will be the first day of the toughest race in the history of the Tour, 206 kilometers, 3,600 meters of altitude difference, many climbs, Valico Tre Faggi (12.5 km at 5.1%), Passo delle Forche (2.5 km at 6.2%), Passo del Carnaio (10.5 km at 4.6%), Passo del Barbotto (5.8 km at 7.6%), San Leo (4.6 km at 7.7%), Montemaggio (4.2 km at 6.6%), San Marino (7.1 km at 4.8%). A continuous up and down between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, up to the flat finish towards Rimini. These are seven second and third category mountain Grand Prix, already very demanding considering that it will be the first of a stage race that will last three weeks. The most anticipated champion, Tadej Pogacar, declared that “from the first stage we will see who is ready and has trained muscles”.
Sunday Cesenatico-Bologna. The Tour de France pays homage to Marco Pantani, the great cyclist from Romagna who won the Grande Boucle in 1998, the same year in which he won the Giro d’Italia. Last in chronological order to do so.
Those extraordinary days will be relived on Sunday 30 June, in the Cesenatico-Bologna stage: 200 kilometers in the name and memory of the beloved Pirate, the champion born by the sea, but who was able to give his best in the mountains, like the escape on the Galibier in 1998, now consigned to the history of cycling, confirms.
“These are days of celebration. A great popular celebration as it should be for a sport like cycling, so loved and followed, which takes place on the roads and among the people. And which has deep roots in Emilia-Romagna. And it is nice that the organizers of the Tour have chosen to dedicate a stage to Pantani, a champion who gave us unforgettable emotions – underlines the president of the Region, Stefano Bonaccini -. But this stage has another important meaning for us: tomorrow the cyclists will compete in the heart of those territories that were hit by one of the most serious floods ever just a year ago. My hope is that the great showcase of the Tour can also be an opportunity to give visibility to these places and their communities who have courageously risen again. They deserve it for the example of tenacity and solidarity they have offered to all of Italy.”
In the heart of Romagna and the arrival in Bologna
A stage in the heart of Romagna, therefore, in the places that have given cycling great champions. And among the many also Ercole Baldini, the train of Forlì, winner of a stage in 1959 who will be honored in Faenza, in the place closest to his birthplace, by the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme.
The departure from Cesenatico is scheduled for 12. With a passage also in front of the Spazio Pantani museum. But the entire stage will be a tribute to the unforgettable champion along the roads of Romagna where he trained. With a stop also at the Imola Autodrome and from the top of Gallisterna, which became famous at the 2020 World Cycling Championships, organized in record time in Emilia-Romagna during the covid emergency. To end with the double passage on the San Luca climb in Bologna.
The runners are expected to enter Bologna between 16:00 and 16:30, while the final arrival in Piazza VIII Agosto, in front of the Montagnola park, is expected between 17:00 and 17:30.
And to greet the arrival of the Tour, Bologna has dressed up for the party. There are 16 kilometers of fabric with which the city streets along the route have been decorated in recent days: bright yellow ribbons fixed between the buildings, between the trees, on the balconies, at the windows, under the porticos.
In Cesenatico on Sunday 30 June the inauguration of the evocative installation by the artist Simone Tribuiani: a blow-up of the pedaling Pirate, on the lawn of the municipal stadium where the starting village is located. A second installation by Tribuiani in the body of water in front of the free beach of Piazza Costa, created with the collaboration of the Cooperativa Stabilimenti Balneari: an enormous floating bicycle made up of buoys.
Among the other installations, the yellow sail created by the “Un Mare di Lana” Association and hoisted on the “Le tre fff” boat along the Portocanale, which joins the celebratory one of Pantani displayed on the façade of the Town Hall. “Tour Yellow” color also for the cycle path of Via Mazzini and Via Saffi, with the official stage logos to remember this important event for the city.
And a few days ago the Tende al Mare were inaugurated, a Cesenatico tradition which this year was dedicated to the Tour de France, in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna.
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2024-06-29 09:49:53
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