The timing was careful. The COJO Paris 2024 chose the fourth day of the Tour de France, Tuesday July 4, to officially unveil, upon arrival at the Nogaro circuit, the road cycling routes for the next Olympic Games. Unsurprisingly, they have some new things in store.
Great first: the inversion of the tests. Breaking habits, the program will begin with a race against time. It is scheduled for Saturday July 27, the day after the opening ceremony on the Seine. The road race, traditionally organized at the very start of the Games, was postponed to the following weekend, straddling the first and second week.
Another new feature: the workforce. Parity requires, the number of runners will be identical for men and women. There will be 90, not one more, in each of the two pelotons for the road event. A significantly reduced contingent for the men's event compared to previous editions. For the time trial, there will be even fewer entrants: 35 men and as many women.
The routes now. The COJO explained it to the media before the official unveiling on the sidelines of the Tour de France: they were designed and built to meet the requirements of the UCI, to promote the Parisian and Ile-de-France regions, and finally to allow the public to come en masse support the runners.
The result ? Promising, at least on paper. The first event of the program, the race against the clock will start from Les Invalides, with a finish planned on the Alexandre III bridge. Class.
Between the two, a 32,4 km loop, to be completed only once. Big first: the time trial course will be identical for men and women.
It will lean towards the east and south-east of Paris and the Paris region. After the start at Les Invalides, the route will take the athletes towards Saint-Germain desprès. On leaving the capital, head towards Vincennes, in Val-de-Marne, a department hitherto absent from the Olympic system.
Then, pass in front of INSEP, the factory of French sports champions, then return to Paris via the Bastille. A nod to history: the 32,4 km loop will run alongside the Cipale velodrome, now renamed Jacques Anquetil, used for the track events at the Paris Games in 1924.
The OCOG makes no secret of it: the time trial course does not present any major difficulties. Flat like the back of the hand. Rolling, therefore. “ The averages look very high”, anticipate the organizers.
Road racing now. Unlike the chrono, it leans towards the west. Above all, it turns out to be historically very long. No less than 273 km for the men (photo above), one of the longest courses at the Olympic Games. For women, the COJO offers a 158 km loop.
In both cases, the start will be on the Pont d'Iena, between the Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower, for a sort of 5 km warm-up, before a more formal start given on rue Gay-Lussac, in the XNUMXth arrondissement.
The rest looks solid. On the menu of festivities, the Route des Gardes between Meudon and Versailles, a passage in front of the Château de Versailles, a long journey in the Chevreuse valley, “ Mecca of Ile-de-France cycling », where several hills will display slopes of more than 5%.
Back in Paris, the race will visit the Louvre museum, the Pyramid, before tackling a final loop of 18,4 km, marked in particular by the climb of the paved hill of the Butte Montmartre. The loop will have to be completed twice by the peloton, before a final lap which will pass by the Sacré Coeur basilica, before diving towards the finish line at the Pont d'Iéna, with a final sprint of 230 meters towards the Trocadéro.
The organizers have done their math: the road race, in its men's version, will pass through 68 municipalities. In addition to Paris, it will take runners through Hauts-de-Seine, Yvelines, and even Essone, another department hitherto absent from the Games map.
