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While the Tour de France has previously started in a bunch of countries that aren’t France, somehow, before this year, it had never started in Italy. With the exception of a brief visit to San Marino on stage 1, the entirety of the first three days of this year’s Tour were held in Italy. Stage 4 started in Italy too, before the race finally made its way into France, en route to a rendezvous with the legendary Col du Galibier.
As you’d expect, the Italian leg of this year’s Tour offered a great combination of large crowds and beautiful scenery. And so, as the race begins its trek through France proper, let’s take a moment to look back at the first four days of racing, as Italy (and the Galibier) set the stage for the 17 days that follow.
The photos that you see below come courtesy of Ashley and Jered Gruber and Kristof Ramon, with a couple of images from Cor Vos thrown in as well. Enjoy!
It’s only fitting that the new Italian champion, Alberto Bettiol, is at this year’s Tour.Having won the Giro a month or so back, Tadej Pogačar comes to the Tour as the favourite.Escape’s own Dane Cash has Remco Evenepoel as a third-tier favourite at this year’s race.Huge crowds turned out in Florence to see the start of the 2024 Tour … … which took the riders past the stunning Duomo di Firenze.It was a hot and hilly day to kick off the Tour, with riders facing temperatures of around 34 ºC (93 ºF).Dropped early on, Mark Cavendish battled in the heat, eventually finished in second-last place, 39:12 behind the stage winner.The stage win would come from a pair of riders who managed to just hold off the peloton.Romain Bardet (right) attacked from the bunch around 50 km to go, bridging across to teammate Frank van den Broek (left), who’d been part of the early break. The pair built a lead that extended to nearly two minutes at one point, but steadily came down before the finish.In the end, the pair held off the chase, with Bardet taking the win ahead of neo pro and Grand Tour debutant Van den Broek.Ben Healy mounted a late chase, but wasn’t able to bridge across. He ended up finishing just behind the main peloton.That’s Tour de France stage win number four for Bardet, seven years after his last.As Escape’s Jonny Long wrote, Cavendish made headlines with his spirited ride at the back of the field.The heat took its toll on a lot of riders on the day.Van den Broek led the points classification after his impressive ride in the break.The yellow jersey, though, went to his older teammate, Romain Bardet. It was the first time in 11 visits to Le Tour that Bardet has worn the maillot jaune.Stage 2 begun in Cesenatico …… with plenty of young fans excited to see the world’s best.A breakaway would form in the early kilometres of another warm day, and would ultimately go the distance.If that looks a lot like the Imola motor racing circuit that hosted the 2020 Road Worlds, well, that’s because it is.Visma-Lease a Bike led on to the steep, late climb setting up leader Jonas Vingegaard.Wout van Aert drops back, his turn done.Not the best day at the office for Johannes Kulset.Fabio Jakobsen (left) and teammates settled in to save their energy for another day.Pogačar tosses a bottle away.After being part of the early break, Kévin Vauquelin attacked with around 14 km to go …… and powered off in search of Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ first Tour de France stage win.Jonas Abrahamsen, in the break two days in a row, would ultimately ride to second place on the day.As many predicted, Pogačar tested his legs (and his rivals’) on the final ascent of the steep Côte de San Luca, and when he did, Vingegaard had seemingly no problems in following. Richard Carapaz and Evenepoel set off in pursuit of the two pre-Tour favourites.Bardet couldn’t handle the pace and would ultimately get just one day in yellow.It was another warm one in northern Italy.Vauquelin’s win into Bologna is easily the biggest victory of the 23-year-old’s career to date.Down to fifth overall for Bardet who has six GC top-10s at the Tour in his career so far.Another tough day in the grupetto for Cavendish who, after just two stages of the Tour, is already an hour behind the overall lead. Not that it matters in the slightest, but it’s an unusual statistic after an unusually hilly start to the Tour.One of the GC contenders, Primož Roglič, couldn’t follow Pogačar and Vingegaard when the pair made their big acceleration. Roglič ended up losing 21 seconds by the finish.With Vauquelin’s win, that’s two French victories in two days of the Tour.Evenepoel moved into the white jersey of best young rider …… and Tadej Pogačar took yellow. Would he lead from stage 2 through to the end of the Tour, just like he did at the Giro?In case you forgot we were in Italy. Stage 3 began in Piacenza and headed to Torino for what was expected to be the first sprint of the race.I’ll let Kristof Ramon’s suggested caption do the work here: “Dylan Groenewegen plus nose-cap interviewed by Matt Stephens at the race start of stage 3”.Pogačar had climbed to the top of the GC on stage 2 but was locked on time with three other riders. Staircase pun? ✅ Foreshadowing? ✅ Simply stunning.A sprint-finish crowd in two parts: those banging the advertising boards …… and those reaching over to get the perfect shot. In the sprint that decided the stage …… Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay took the win ahead of Fernando Gaviria, Arnaud De Lie and others …… much to the delight of ‘Bini’s ardent fans. Girmay is the first Black African stage winner at the Tour de France.The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on his teammates. EF Education-EasyPost had reason to celebrate, too, with Richard Carapaz – one of the riders on the same time as Pogačar pre-stage – moving into the overall lead.As Escape’s Jonny Long wrote, it wasn’t a fluke that Carapaz ended up in yellow.Yellow bar tape for the first Ecuadorian to wear yellow at the Tour …… followed by a speech to his teammates and colleagues.One hour after stage 3, the heavens opened in Torino.The Italy x Tour de France collab would come to a close on stage 4 with the day starting in Italy before heading across into France.Tadej Pogačar has plenty of fans.See above.With a visit to the Col du Gailbier late in the day, stage 4 would not be Mark Cavendish’s day.Stage 4 was a UAE Team Emirates masterclass, with the all-star squad shredding the bunch on the Col du Galibier. Note how they have three of the eight remaining riders at this point.João Almeida didn’t have time to take in the scenery …… neither did Carapaz who battled hard after losing contact with the GC favorites, dropping more than five minutes on the stage.Pretty.Mathieu van der Poel had a bit more time to enjoy the view.If I’m not mistaken, that’s an Ashley Gruber in her natural habitat.Meanwhile on the descent off the Galibier, Pogačar was riding his way back into yellow. He attacked around 900 metres from the summit, dropped everyone but defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, then dropped him too …… before barrelling towards the finish in Valloire.Vingegaard battled to limit his losses …… as did Remco Evenepoel.By the time he offered up this wonderful victory salute, Pogačar had put 35 seconds between himself and his nearest rival, Evenepoel. Vingegaard dropped another two seconds, plus time bonuses.And thus, order was restored to the universe. Pogačar back in yellow, now with a healthy 45-second lead after just four stages. Has the maillot jaune changed hands for the last time in this year’s Tour?
