The Tour de l’Avenir, which has revealed so much talent, is part of cycling’s international heritage, and it is precisely Italy, one of the sport’s leading nations, which will host the finale of the 60th edition on 23 and 24 August for two stages through the Piedmont region and the territories of the Metropolitan City of Turin. This foray into Piedmont will also provide the backdrop for the final two stages of the women’s Tour de l’Avenir, now in its second year.
After the great successes of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France (which started in Italy), another major stage race for which the Region is contributing two-thirds of the costs will be coming to Piedmont,’ said Marina Chiarelli, Councillor for Sport, Tourism and Culture, at a press conference held on Monday 29 July in the Sala Trasparenza of the Piedmont Region’s skyscraper in Turin. We are proud that the Tour de l’Avenir, a cycling race that has been showcasing the best under-threes in international cycling for 60 years, is coming to our region. This is a new promotional opportunity that confirms our region’s ambition to become one of the most important destinations for international cycling tourism.
The Deputy Mayor of Turin, Jacopo Suppo, also emphasised that ‘the Metropolitan City of Turin believes in the promotional value of the Tour de l’Avenir, to the extent of being the leader of an operation that will bring to the roads of the Val di Susa, Val Pellice and Val Chisone the race that highlights the most promising talents in world cycling. We are taking up this challenge with the municipalities of Condove, Bobbio Pellice and Usseaux, the mountain associations to which they belong, the Cottian Alps Protected Areas Management Organisation and volunteer associations. We are doing this by hosting the finish on 23 August in Condove and the grand finale of the race at Colle delle Finestre, which has already been the scene of some epic stages of the Giro d’Italia, with the last 7.8 kilometres unpaved and prepared in the best possible way by our Transport and Roads Department’.
And there’s a hint of history here, as Turin was the birthplace of a great champion, Miguel Indurain, the future five-time winner of the Tour de France, who completed his breakthrough success in the event, then labelled the Tour of the European Community, in the Piedmontese capital in 1986.
The Colle delle Finestre to conclude
For this 2024 edition, run from the 18th to the 24th for the men and from the 21st for the young women, the entry into the Piedmont Region will take place on Friday 23rd via the Col du Mont-Cenis, around 70km from the finish, before descending the Val Susa to Condove.
The following day, 24 August, the final stage, starting from Bobbio Pellice, will finish at the summit (2174 m.) of the spectacular Colle delle Finestre, an eighteen-kilometre climb, the last eight kilometres of which will be on an unpaved road!
The route of these two ‘Piedmont’ stages is common to both the men’s and women’s Tour de l’Avenir.
The prologue in Sarrebourg (Moselle-Sud) will be followed by a crossing of the Vosges massif, the Jura and then the Plateau d’Hauteville in the Ain before reaching Savoie and the Piedmont side of the Alps. The men’s and women’s races will virtually run together from La Rosière, where the girls will contest their prologue at the end of the day on Wednesday 21 August, following the arrival of the boys in the Haute-Tarentaise resort.
The entire route was unveiled by Philippe Colliou, event director, and Bernard Hinault, patron of the Tours de l’Avenir, in Paris on 21 May at the invitation of the CIC, partner of the yellow jersey for both events. The other leaders’ jerseys are also supported by partners common to both events: Biofioul for the green points jersey, Alden for the polka-dot best climber jersey, and Haute-Tarentaise – Vanoise for the white best young rider jersey (aged 19 and 20).
The men’s and women’s Tours de l’Avenir, which are reserved for young hopefuls under the age of 23, are contested by national teams, a formula which gives the event its global dimension. Twenty-three teams (including a selection from the World Cycling Centre and one from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) have been selected for the men’s event, while eighteen teams have been selected for the women’s event.