The Olympic Games would be one of the most important events ever to take place in France. So much so that, for the first time since 1903, the Tour de France will end outside Paris. That's right. In 2024, after 110 editions, the Tour will end in Nice so as not to clash with the preparations for the Paris Olympic Games. Why not? The race will be different, as it will end with a thrilling final time trial, with a total of 53,230 metres of climbing, crossing four countries - Italy, San Marino, Monaco and France - and leaving no mountain unclimbed. Oh, and 59 kilometres of time trials which, despite all the climbing, could prove to be decisive. The race starts on 29 June and finishes on 21 July. This is the stage, but the actors can make the film great if they want to. And it seems they do.

2024 is everyone's duel against Tadej Pogacar. After his dominance in the Giro d'Italia, which he won by almost 10 minutes over second-placed Daniel Felipe Martínez (Bora), he is the real favourite for the final victory. He won six stages and even gave gifts to the crowds on the climbs. Superior. However, he is the favourite because his main rival, the current winner and 2022 winner, Jonas Vingegaard, comes with the uncertainty of being 100% after a serious crash that left him with broken ribs, a collarbone and a pneumothorax. Some even feared for his career as a cyclist, but extraordinary people tend to overcome adversity.

In France, Vingegaard beat Pogacar decisively in the last two editions (2022 and 2023). He brought him to his knees. However, destiny has made the Slovenian want to achieve the feat of winning both the Giro and the Tour, while the Dane's condition remains very uncertain. He has confirmed his presence at the start, but in what condition?

All the stars will be at the start on 29 June: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic for the GC, and Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert, who will be going all out because they can do it all. The spring was difficult for everyone, with crashes for Vingegaard, Roglic, Van Aert and Evenepoel.

There are doubts on paper. What level will Vingegaard be at? What level can Remco Evenepoel reach in the Tour de France after last year's bad day cost him his chances? Can he cope with the high mountains? Then there is the chance for Primoz Roglic, who missed out on the 2020 Tour on the final day against Pogacar himself.

Only seven riders in the history of the sport have achieved the double that Pogacar is aiming for, and they all belong to the cycling of yesteryear: Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Roche, Indurain and Pantani. They all belong to the old school because modern cycling has changed. Cyclists are no longer just winners of the Tour, nor are they just preparing for the French race. Now they start by winning the classics in the spring, win the grand tours and end up in the world championships. Some are even able to win both the road and cyclo-cross world championships. This was unthinkable in the last century. Van der Poel has done it and will be there.

This year's Tour crosses the Alps twice, at the beginning and at the end. Naturally, because it starts in Florence and passes by. The Pyrenees will not be missed. The first stage has a difference in altitude of more than 3,400 metres, which is also unusual. On the fourth day, they climb the Galibier (2,642 metres). That's something. The seventh stage, between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin, features the first time trial over 25.3 kilometres.

The next day, the Tour will pass through Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises. In 1960, Jacques Goddet, who was in charge of the Grande Boucle after the Second World War, stopped the race to pay tribute to President Charles de Gaulle. In Troyes, on the ninth stage, the riders will have to negotiate 14 sections of gravel that could prove a trap for the unwary.

The Pyrenees arrive on 13 July with the stage between Pau and Pla d'Adet. The first hors-catégorie climb is the legendary Tourmalet. The finish will be at Saint Lary Soulan at an altitude of 1,669 metres (10.6 kilometres with an average gradient of 7.9%). On Sunday 14 July, the national holiday, the finish will be on the Plateau de Beille, with four first-category climbs: Peyresourde, Menté, Portet d'Aspet and Agnes.

The last week is full of traps, with another Alpine pass, including climbs such as Noyer and Superdévoluy. But the last three days are the grand finale. A stage between Embrun and Isola 2000 with the Vars and Bonette climbs, the Tour's highest point at 2,802 metres. Then a very short stage of 132.8 kilometres with four first-category climbs and, on the final day, a 34-kilometre time trial in Nice that could be the end of a film script. The Apennines, the Alps, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, all to fight against the clock. Pogacar and Vingegaard know, with all due respect to the others, that anything can happen.

The last time a Tour ended with a time trial was, of course, in Paris in 1989. This Tour had it all, from the first day to the last. On the first day, the favourite and previous year's winner, Pedro Delgado, got lost during the warm up for the prologue. He arrived at the ramp 2 minutes and 40 seconds late. And on the final day, just as Fignon was celebrating his third Tour victory, Greg LeMond invented the alien handlebar. With an incredible average speed of 54.545 km/h, LeMond sealed Fignon's fate. He won by 8 seconds, the smallest gap in Tour history between the winner and runner-up.

Fignon couldn't take defeat at home and in front of his neighbours. He cried, and his tears moved even his enemy. LeMond invented something nobody could have imagined. The Tour de France 2024, with a script by Alfred Hitchcock, is born this year with so many actors and so much scenery.