The 2024 Tour de France Grand Depart will be held in Italy for the first time in its 111th edition, with the first of three stages starting in Florence on June 29. The Tour de France has visited Italy many times before, but has never started in the country of "Stivale."

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme announced information about the three opening stages of the three-week Grand Tour on RAI's TG Sports broadcast Wednesday.

The opening stage is 205 km from Florence to Rimini on the Adriatic Sea in Emilia Romagna, and according to organizers, will have a total elevation gain of 3,700 m through Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.

Stage 2 will be 200 km from Cesenatico to Bologna, while stage 3 will run 225 km from Piacenza to Turin, with a sprint finish in the capital city of Piemonte.

The 2024 Tour will be held in Italy after the three regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Piedmont raised €10 million. The fourth stage will start in Pinerolo, and the race will travel through the Alps to France.

The three stages will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Italian cyclist, Ottavio Bottecchia, winning the overall in 1924 and 1925. Other Italians include Gino Bartali, Riccardo Nencini, Marco Pantani, and Fausto Coppi.

The 2022 edition will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, and next year's Tour will be held in the Basque Country, with a team presentation outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The 2024 Tour de France will be held a week earlier than usual, with a time trial in Nice on Sunday, July 21, to coincide with the Paris Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to August 11.

This is the first time in history that the race will end outside Paris. It is also the first time that the Tour has concluded with a time trial since 1989, when Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by a dramatic margin on the Champs-Elysées.