The Tour de France heads for a once-in-a-lifetime Riviera curtain call
EMBRUN, France—By now, Tadej Pogacar has memorized every twist and turn of the Col d’Eze, the winding road that rises from behind the port of Nice to the hills above Monaco. It’s where he goes on coffee rides, where he flies past unsuspecting amateurs, and where he trains to win the Tour de France. The two-time champion is such a fixture on the Col d’Eze that cyclists in the cafés below trade Pogacar sightings like celebrity-spotters in the bars of swanky hotels.
That’s because the 6-mile mountain pass is practically Pogacar’s driveway. And this weekend, Eze and a handful of other climbs on the Côte d’Azur will decide the world’s most famous bike race. For the first time in its 121-year history, the Tour will substitute the road to Paris with a pair of brutal Riviera stages on Friday and Saturday, followed by a Sunday time trial that ends in Nice.
“Afterward," Pogacar said, “I can just get on my bike, ride home and go to sleep." Pogacar, who lives just up the coast in Monaco, won’t be the only one making the short commute back. The Riviera happens to be one of the world’s leading hot spots for professional cyclists—along with art dealers, oligarchs, and tax exiles. As soon as the Tour ends, dozens of riders will scatter to points between Nice and Monaco and return to their own beds for the first time in over a month.
Under normal circumstances, the race would finish in Paris, where the Tour has concluded every year since the first edition in 1903. But with the French capital scrambling to prepare for the Summer Olympics, which begin on July 26, shutting down major roads and mobilizing security for the peloton to race on the Champs-Elysées, became unworkable. Instead, the Tour fell back on familiar terrain.
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