Route revealed for historic Tour de France as organisers move to avoid Olympic Games frenzy

The 2024 Tour de France will see the world's most famous cycling race start in Italy and end outside Paris for the first time.

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme confirmed the 2024 route at Palais des Congres in Paris, unveiling a course that features two individual time trials, four mountain-top finishes and a series of gravel sections in stage nine.

The 111th edition of the race will begin with the Grand Depart in Florence on June 29 and conclude with a 34-kilometre individual time trial from Monaco to Nice on July 21, less than a week before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

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Race organisers adjusted the route to avoid a clash with logistical planning for the Olympics, which will be hosted by Paris for the first time since 1924.

The first individual time trial, a 25-kilometre showdown in stage seven, will start in Nuits-Saint-Georges and finish in Gevrey-Chambertin, two stunning communes in eastern France.

The 2023 Tour de France, won by Jonas Vingegaard, consisted of only one 22.4-kilometre individual time trial.

Twenty-one stages ranging between 25 and 229 kilometres will be contested in 2024.

The route covers 3492 kilometres and has 52,320 metres of elevation.

Vingegaard, Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia's Primoz Roglic, Belgium's Remco Evenepoel and Spaniard Juan Ayuso shape as the chief contenders for the yellow jersey, with Vingegaard hunting his third Tour de France title in a row.

The Olympic Games will take place between July 26 and August 11.