Sport Valley. Bologna welcomes the Tour de France for its second leg

2024 proves to be a great year of sports for Emilia-Romagna, with more than 100 scheduled events, including prestigious confirmations, such as Davis Cup and the F1 Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna, and significant new entries, such as the Italian Golf Open and the Grand Départ of the Tour de France.

Anticipation is growing over the latter, the most important cycling event and the third most watched sports competition in the world. For the very first time, Italy will be involved in the first three stages of the event: Florence-Rimini (June 29), Cesenatico-Bologna (June 30) and Piacenza-Turin (July 1). With more than 200 TVs connected from around the world, the Tour has an unparalleled media impact every year.

In Emilia-Romagna, the tour will pass through 38 localities for a total of 600 kilometers, attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees and stimulating an induced revenue of tens of millions of euros. On this occasion, enthusiasts can admire the Grand Départ Trophy up close at several of the locations involved: the trophy will be in Bologna, at the Region's Headquarters, until April 4 and then from April 30 to May 10.

"We are proud to host, for the first time ever in Italy, the Grand Departure of an extraordinary sporting event, the third most-watched in the world after the Olympics and the World Cup," underlines the regional councillor for Tourism, Andrea Corsini "A great opportunity to promote our region in the world, since millions of viewers will be following the stages of the Tour de France, with more than 29 million euros in induced and 150 thousand tourist presences."

More specifically, the Metropolitan City of Bologna will be the protagonist of the second leg. Relatively simple in its initial phase, which also involves the Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari, the Cesenatico-Bologna section becomes complex as it approaches the finish line, with the climb to the San Luca Sanctuary (1.9 km at 10.6 percent) planned twice in the last 40 km. To mark the occasion, even the merch is suited to the Emilia-Romagna capital, with red and blue T-shirts and depictions of the Neptune's trident and the Asinelli and Garisenda towers on the back.