Christian Prudhomme says 2024 Tour de France route remains undecided

This article originally appeared on Velo News

Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme said there are no officials plans yet for the start of the 2024 edition.

Last week, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the 2024 edition will start in Italy and end in Nice, in part to avoid conflict with the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris that summer.

In an interview with AFP, Prudhomme said no final decisions have been made.

“As of today, we haven’t decided anything yet,” Prudhomme said. “Placing the Tour de France and the Olympic Games side by side is a possibility, but we still have to work on it.

“In any case, nothing is certain yet.”

Also read: A Tour start in Italy? Maybe

The Tour is already slated for back-to-back foreign starts, with Copenhagen next month and Bilbao, Spain, in 2023.

Last week, the Italian newspaper reported that the Tour would start in Rimini, with another between Marco Pantani’s hometown at Cesenatico and Bologna. Another stage would push west to Pinerolo before entering France for the fourth stage.

Prudhomme said that ASO is working closely with the mayor’s office of Paris to work out details, and denied the Olympics and the Tour are incompatible.

The Tour’s finished every year on the Champs-Elysees since 1975.

The 2024 Games are scheduled in Paris from Friday, July 26 to August 11.

That would mean the Tour would conclude on the Sunday on the same weekend as when the Games would open in Paris.

The race also could be moved ahead by one week, or end in a different place if officials determine that the Tour and the Olympics could be too complicated in terms of security and logistics.

Prudhomme insisted conversations are still ongoing.

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