Another major French spectacle takes place on 6 October 2024 with the annual professional cycle race from Paris-Tours in the Loire Valley. The race starts in the outskirts of the capital and the route extends over 250km / 160 miles and takes about 5-6 hours before arriving in the city centre of Tours (37 Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val-de-Loire)
There is always a great carnival atmosphere surrounding this prestigious race, which tends to attract many of the top names in the sport.
The best advice is to avoid Tours city centre for the day, unless you want to see the event – although the main routes and the A10 autoroute should not be unduly affected.
For more info see www.letour.fr/
Paris–Tours is a French one-day classic cycling race held every October from the outskirts of Paris to the cathedral city of Tours. It is a predominantly flat course through the Chevreuse and Loire valleys; the highest point is 200 m, at Le Gault-du-Perche. It is known as a “Sprinters’ Classic” because it frequently ends in a bunch sprint at the finish, in Tours. For several decades the race arrived on the 2.7 km long Avenue de Grammont, one of cycling’s best-known finishing straits, particularly renowned among sprinters. Since 2011 the finish was moved to a different location because a new tram line was built on the Avenue de Grammont.
Paris–Tours was first run for amateurs in 1896, making it one of the oldest cycling races in the world. It was organised by the magazine Paris-Vélo, which described that edition won by Eugène Prévost as, “A crazy, unheard of, unhoped for success”. It was five years before the race was run again and a further five years (1906) before it became an annual event for professionals, with L’Auto as organiser. L’Auto ran the Tour de France (TDF) and Paris–Tours is still run by the Tour organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation. wikipedia
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