This year is a two-wheeled anomaly. For unlike almost every year since 1903, it can be reasonably argued the most important cycling event on French shores is not the Tour de France.
Indeed, such is the significance of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the all-powerful ASO long ago acquiesced to transfer the final stage of le Grand Boucle to Nice – 940km south of the Champs-Élysées – for logistical and security reasons. This means 2024 is the first time in the Tour’s illustrious 121-year history that it will not conclude somewhere within the arrondissements of Paris.
The Olympic cycling program begins the day after the Opening Ceremony,
