Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has expressed hope for Lemko Evenpoel's debut in the 2024 edition, which will finish with an individual time trial in the hills between Monaco and Nice.
Evenpoel chose the Giro d'Italia this year because of its many time trial kilometers, but the 2024 Tour route may be more to his liking.
This year's Tour has fewer time trials, 22 km, than the 35 km time trial scheduled for the final stage in 2024.
It will be the first time in Tour history that the race will finish outside Paris, and the first time trial to conclude with a time trial since Greg LeMond took the yellow from Laurent Fignon in 1989.
Prudhomme also noted that the stage falls on July 21, a Belgian national holiday, and that the 24-year-old Evenpoel is the same age as Eddy Merckx, who made his Tour debut in 1969.
"Of course I would be happy if Lemko Evenpoel is at the start of the Tour in Florence next year," Prudhomme told Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab). 'A Tour with Lemko at the start would be even more palatable. Next year, the current world champion will be the same age as Merckx was in 1969. Eddy was also 24 years old. ...... I sincerely hope he will be at the start in Florence. I am very happy for him. We are waiting for him."
The 2024 Tour will finish in Nice on July 21 due to the logistics of the Olympic Games, which begin in Paris five days later. Details of the final two stages were announced at a presentation in Nice on Monday.
"There was another big city that was aiming for a Tour finish, but it has historical ties to Nice. The Tour was launched in Nice in 2020, but due to the pandemic it was held without many spectators." Now the Côte d'Azur will host a unique event in the history of the Tour."
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