29/06/2024
Grazie a Michele Merlino dell’ufficio stampa Tour de France
For the 26th time the Tour starts from abroad:
• It’s the first start from Italy, 11th country to host a Grand Départ;
• For the first time in history the Tour starts from abroad in 3 consecutive
years (2022 Denmark, 2023 Spain, 2024 Italy).
• It’s the 70th anniversary of the first start from abroad: up to 1953 the Tour
had always started from France; in 1954 the start was from Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Both Firenze (Florence) and Rimini are new towns for the Tour.
• Up to now, the Tour in Italy had never gone more South than Sanremo, in
the Marseille – Sanremo of 1948 (11th) won by Giuseppe Sciardis.
The start from Firenze is a homage to Gino Bartali, on the 110th anniversary of his birth, on the 18th of July 1914, in Ponte a Ema (Firenze). Bartali won the Tour in 1938 and 1948.
• Bartali won two Tours distanced by 10 years, a unique feat. His best rivals are Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault which won Tours separated by 7 years.
From the Toscana region (Tuscany) was also Gastone Nencini (1930-1980), winner of the 1960 Tour: he was born in Barberino del Mugello.
The last time.....a rider won solo the opening stage: 2021, Julian Alaphilippe won with 8 seconds over Michael Matthews...the first stage was decided by a bunch sprint: 2020: Alexander Kristoff in Nice...a national Road champion won the opening stage: Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) in 2011 in Mont des Alouettes... the winner of the last stage of the previous edition won the first stage: Marcel Kittel in 2013-2014... the Giro d’Italia winner won the opening stage of the Tour: 1993, Miguel Indurain. It happened only 8 times, but only in Time Trial opening stages of the Tour... a former Tour winner won the opening stage: Miguel Indurain in 1993, which is also the last time the previous year’s winner won the opening stage. That was a
Time Trial though: to find a former Tour winner who won the opening road stage we have to go back to 1948, with Gino Bartali in Trouville.
1st stage
The Tour had his final winner being the leader after the first stage on 4 occasions: 1903 (first edition), 1924, 1928, 1935.
• Ottavio Bottecchia was the first rider wearing the Maillot Jaune from the first to the last stage, 100 years ago (1924).
• In 1961 the Tour was decided on the first day, but not on the first stage: Jacques Anquetil won the second “half-stage” of the day, holding the Maillot Jaune for the remaining stages of that edition.
Pogacar and the double
Tadej Pogacar won the Giro d’Italia and is targeting to become the first rider since 1998 to score the prestigious Giro-Tour double.
• The last Giro winner to be in yellow after the first stage of the Tour is Miguel Indurain in 1993 (the same happened also the year before). Before him: Bernard Hinault in 1980, 1982 and 1985; Eddy Merckx in 1970, 1972, 1974.
• The last rider wearing both the Maglia Rosa and the Maillot Jaune on the same year is Cadel Evans in 2010: he was in “Rosa” after the 2nd Giro stage (Utrecht) and in “Jaune” after the 8th at the Tour (Morzine Avoriaz).
• Pogacar would score the double at 25 years and 10 months, and would be the second youngest of the 8 (himself included) to record it after Eddy Merckx, that in 1970 recorded it at 25 years 1 month and 2 days.
• He would score the double in the Italian and French races in the first year the French race starts from Italy, and he would do it on the 75th anniversary of the first double ever, scored by an Italian rider, Fausto Coppi, in 1949.
• Even if he fails to win the Tour, being on the final podium of both races would be an achievement, as the last recorded instance was in 2018, when Chris Froome won the Giro and was 3rd at the Tour and Tom Dumoulin was 2nd in both.
• Also finishing in the top-10 would be something unseen in this decade. The last to do it is Mikel Landa in 2019: 4th at the Giro and 6th at the Tour.
Vingegaard and the hat-trick
Jonas Vingegaard is in to score his 3rd consecutive win at the Tour.
• The last rider with such a hat-trick is Chris Froome in 2015-2017, while the
first was Louison Bobet in 1953-1955.
• Vingegaard would go up to 3 wins at the Tour and he would be the 9th rider
with such a score after Philippe Thys, Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil (5), Eddy Merckx (5), Bernard Hinault (5), Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain (5), Chris Froome (4).
• Vingegaard so far has conquered 27 yellow jerseys and stands at the 15th all-time spot. He gained 11 in 2022 and 16 in 2023. With 8 more he would go
up to the 10th all-time spot, equalling André Leducq (35).
• Vingegaard starts the Tour after an absence from racing of 85 days: his
injury in the Iztulia Basque Country was on the 4th of April. Since WWII, no one won the Tour without racing in the 85 days before the start of the Grand Boucle. Before WWII data is not complete to further investigate this statistic.
Cavendish for the record
Mark Cavendish is chasing is 35th stage win, which would give him the edge as the all-time stages winner from Eddy Merckx.
• If he wins a stage, he would be the 2nd oldest stage winner: he will be 39 years and 39 days at the start; Pino Cerami won in Pau in 1963 at 41 years 2 months and 3 days.
• On the first stage of the 2024 Tour, it will be 15 years 11 months and 20 days since his maiden win in Chateauroux in 2008; a win will thus give him the record for the longest interval between two stage wins, a record now belonging to Jean Alavoine: 13 years 11 months and 22 days from Toulouse 1909 to Nice 1923.
• Despite 34 stage wins so far, Cavendish wore the Maillot Jaune only after the first stage in 2016.
The starters
• 27 countries are represented in the 111th edition of the Tour de France, the same as last year. France has the highest number of riders in the race at 32 (again, same as last year), followed by Belgium at 28, the largest number for the country since 1989 (36).
• The youngest rider at the start is Johannes Kulset: 20 years and 76 days. He is the youngest ever for Norway, beating the record of Sondre Holst Enger (22 years and 198 days in 2016). The oldest is Jakob Fuglsang at 39 years and 99 days.
• There are 45 debutants on the startlist, taking the total of Tour entrants throughout history to exactly 5400 riders. This year’s debutants list includes the likes of Pascal Ackermann, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Remco Evenepoel, Derek Gee and Ben Healy.
• The rider with most participations is Mark Cavendish, at his 15th Tour. The all-time record is Sylvain Chavanel at 18. When Cavendish rode in his first Tour in 2007 this year’s youngest rider Kulset was just three years old.
• In this year’s peloton we have 158 riders with at least one professional win, and 73 that have already won this year. Featuring in the race, the most successful rider of 2024, Tadej Pogacar (14 wins).
• Behind 34-time Tour stage winner Cavendish in terms of riders with most stage wins at this year’s Tour are Tadej Pogacar (11 wins), Wout van Aert (9), Jasper Philipsen (5) and Dylan Groenewegen (5).
• The Road Race World Champion (Mathieu Van der Poel) features in the race for the first time since 2021 (Julian Alaphilippe). It’s the first time a Dutch
World Champion features in the race since 1986 (Joop Zoetemelk).
• Going into double figures in this year’s edition, at their 10th participation,
are: Warren Barguil, Jonathan Castroviejo, John Degenkolb, Luke
Durbridge, Ion Izagirre, Michal Kwiatkowski, Christophe Laporte.
• The youngest team in the race is Lotto – Dstny with an average age of 26
years and 124 days, while the oldest is Team Jayco AlUla at 32 years and
309 days.
• The team with most nationalities is Red Bull – BORA – Hansgrohe: all their 8
riders come from different countries.
• There are 39 riders contesting the White Jersey this year, the oldest of
whom is Javier Romo of Movistar at 25 years and 175 days of age.
• There are nine national road race champions in this year’s race and eight
national time trial champions on the startlist, including South Africa’s Ryan Gibbons who holds the national titles in both disciplines.