Stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France is finally here and one of those with intentions of mixing it up for the opening stage win and the first Maillot Jaune alongside, will be EF Education - EasyPost's Tour de France debutant, Ben Healy.For me, there has been a big focus on the heat work, because it...

The Tour de France starts in Italy. With the recent announcement that the 2026 edition will start in Barcelona foreign starts are now more than a curiosity, theyre almost the norm. The potential for big crowds and a chunky hosting fee make it an attractive option for the organisers.Firenze is the 25th edition out of 111 to start abroad. Until the 1950s the race always started in Paris with one exception. The starts began to move elsewhere in the 1950s, around France but including Amsterdam as the first foreign start in 1954. West Berlin in 1987 and London in 2007 stand out.Embed from Getty ImagesThis trend has accelerated. Half of starts this century are abroad and since 2014 weve had seven outside of France. Why? Theres a big demand with large cities and their regions keen to be in the spotlight, the Tour is a global media event. Live audiences for start to finish for the racing are bigger than other events but its the reach of the Tour, it gets on TV news bulletins and newspaper front pages in a way that other races dont. This is valuable.Plus theres the logistics. If a foreign city wants the Tour, hosting start is obvious. Visiting Rimini and Emilia-Romagna is easy this weekend compared to mid-race; otherwise a city outside France has to be close so Brussels or Lausanne can work.Money makes the wheels go round. Stages have their hosting fees and in 2019 the standard tariff was 70,000 for a stage start and 120,000 for a finish. For a grand dpart it varies but that year Brussels reportedly paid a hosting fee of 5 million. That made the start more lucrative than all the other stages combined. You can see why its called a grand dpart.Also its not said out loud but while there might be up to 300 candidates to host a stage of the Tour de France, few willing to negotiate the large fee for the start. Plus mayors might like a finish one afternoon but a long weekend can be more controversial, good for hoteliers and restaurants but with road closures frustrating some locals and shopkeepers worried about takings.Embed from Getty ImagesThere sometimes comments in the French media like its not the Tour de France, its not right but for those with a nationalist or mercantilist streak and there seem to be more than a few about these days the Tour ought to be seen a valuable export. Instead of locals paying, foreigners are. Arguably more importantly is the soft power of a cultural export where millions of people in Yorkshire or Denmark come out for the day to celebrate a little bit of French culture. As race director Christian Prudhomme remarked, even pubs in Yorkshire joined in and the Black Bull pub became Le Taureau Noir for the day, the Red Lion renamed Le Lion Rouge.Prudhomme also likes to say that if Tour starts abroad in a big city then it must also visit small places in France. Its a nice formula but the Tour probably visits small towns and villages anyway. The one place the Tour doesnt visit is Frances overseas territories. Places like Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean and Runion in the Indian Ocean are legally and politically as French as Burgundy or the Vende and cycling is very popular too. There have been plans, one draft in the 1980s involved using part Air Frances fleet of supersonic Concorde planes. But the logistics of long haul travel means theyre inaccessible for now. Even Corsica was a challenge, the race has only been once. The race had actually been exploring options for a start in Algeria but the Arab spring and protests meant the hosts had other priorities.This start will be interesting to observe. One of the factors behind the big crowds in Yorkshire 2014 or Copenhagen in 2022 must have been a now or never feeling that if people wanted to see a big bike race then it was that weekend or else. Italians on the other hand have their own grand tour and a rich calendar beyond that. Likewise for a start in France, if you miss it then the race is bound to be nearby in a couple of years. Mind you so do the Basque people and they turned out in full for last years Bilbao start.This scarcity and excitement is not limited to fans, well have to see how they turn out this weekend in Italy. But we can already see the excitement of mayors and regional governors, theyve paid big and invested in this weekend.Finally spare a thought for Mauro Vegni and the Giro organisers who get on well with their French cousins but it must be odd to see the Tour on their turf; imagine if your neighbours decided to hold a BBQ in your garden. The Tour rides into Torino tomorrow, the city hosted the start of the Giro in May and now its back just a few weeks later. The Tours finish is debatably more central too although neither race gets the prestige of a finish in the centro.The post The Tour de France Exported first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The dream of a 35th win at the Tour de France remains alive for Mark Cavendish however it is all but assured taking into consideration the events of stage 1. We are only halfway through the day at the moment but the Manx Missile has already been dropped from the peloton by a few minutes and is also...

With his second Tour de France getting underway later today in Florence, Biniam Girmay is very hopeful of writing more history with a first stage win over the next few weeks.I think this year is special," the Eritrean icon previews in quotes collected by Africa Newsahead of the 2024 Tour de France...

Weve spotted what appears to be a new, aero-specific front tyre from Continental and SwissSide at the Tour de France.Spotted on the Van Rysel bikes of the DecathlonAG2R La Mondiale team ahead of stage one on Saturday, the tyre has square notches within the tread.While there are no official details about the new tyre, it's likely designed to work in a similar way to a golf ball, whereby the dimples trip the airflow from laminar to turbulent, thereby reducing drag. Aero socks and aero base layers employ similar thinking.The tyre is branded as Continental Aero 111 on the sidewall. The tyre also appears to be a partnership between the German tyre brand and Swiss Side, with Aerodynamics by Swiss Side printed on the opposite sidewall. The Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team uses Swiss Side wheels.These 'notches' are likely designed to reduce aerodynamic drag. - George Scott / Our MediaTheres no indication of width on the tyre, but wed expect it to be 28c thats what it looks to the eye, and 28c has become the standard size for pro riders.The bikes weve seen at the Tour de France only use the new tyre at the front, with a regular Continental GP 5000 S TR on the rear. The DecathlonAG2R La Mondiale team is using the new tyre at the Tour de France. - NurPhoto / Getty ImagesThats not unsurprising, given that only the front tyre is going to have a meaningful aerodynamic impact.Its also not surprising that tyres have become the latest subject of attention for aerodynamic bigwigs, given the ever-increasing focus on drag reduction at the top level of the sport. The tyre appears to be a collaboration between Continental and Swiss Side. - George Scott / Our MediaTyre width and tread pattern as well as the interaction between the tyre and the rim have a small but not negligible impact on drag, within the overall context of a rider-plus-bike system. ENVE is among the brands to offer 'aero-optimised' road tyres.Keep an eye out for this new tyre at the Tour de France, where the DecathlonAG2R La Mondiale team is also using a new Van Rysel FCR aero bike.

The Astana sprinter, aiming for a record 35th Tour stage win, was distanced on the first climb of the day and appears to be suffering in the Italian heat

Jonas Vingegaard has suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and collarbone less than three months ago. He spent eight days with a lung drain and almost two weeks in a Basque Country hospital, but today he began the Tour de France with dreams of winning it for the third consecutive time. But the defe...

Mark Cavendishs bid to take a record-breaking 35th stage win at the Tour de France was looking at risk on stage 1 today when the British rider was dropped early and was seen to throw up the fluids he was trying to consume. On a hot day and with the Tour starting with a []The post Cavendish in trouble, throwing up, off back on Tour stage 1 | Video appeared first on Sticky Bottle.

Remco Evenepoel dreams of a Top5 and stage win at this year's Tour de France, his first appearance in the race. It is a race that starts off immediately with a difficult day but the Belgian believes that rather than a GC fight, he expectes a sprinter to take on the first yellow jersey."It can start...

A die-in organised in memory of the cyclist last year saw a raging driver mount the pavement and grass verge before attempting to drive through the group of demonstrators