Paris 2024 reveals the routes for the Olympic Games

From the sidelines of stage 4 of the Tour de France, Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet revealed the routes. The cycling routes for the next Olympic Games are aligned to the Paris 2024 Games themselves: spectacular, challenging and open to all.

The courses are also special insofar as they bring the Games to the newer places in the Ile-de-France: the Val-de-Marne département for the time trials and the Essonne département for the road races.

Spectacular courses - both the road races and the time trials - will feature a wide variety of landscapes, switching between wooded areas (Chevreuse Valley, Vincennes Woods, etc.), more urban segments as well as France's world-famous monuments (the Château de Versailles, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Garnier Opera House, Place de la Bastille, etc.).

Challenging courses – distinctive for their length (273km for the men and 158km for the women), their rolling profile, their final climb up Montmartre and their technical nature, with cobbled streets and tightly winding sections to negotiate on the last part of the course before returning to the Trocadéro.

Open to all – the courses will offer spectators plenty of opportunity to watch and cheer on the racers free of charge and from close up, in the extraordinary, unique atmosphere of the Olympic Games whether in the forest or any other picture-postcard setting.

From the first loops to the Chevreuse Valley

On Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 August 2024, starting from the Trocadéro, the men's and women's pelotons will go on a 5-kilometre procession to take in the Eiffel Tower, the Seine, Les Invalides and the Latin Quarter before the start proper of the race on Rue Gay-Lussac in the 5th arrondissement. They will then leave Paris, to return later in the afternoon.

For the first time in the history of the Games there will be an equal number of men and women participants with 90 men and 90 women racers going through the Hauts-de-Seine département via the Côte des Gardes hill (1.9km at 6%) in Meudon. Further on, they will catch a glimpse of the Château de Versailles, shining a global spotlight on this exceptional architectural icon that also serves as an Olympic and Paralympic competition venue.

Another château awaits the men in Saint-Germain-en-Laye for the first loop held in the Yvelines département, spiced up by the inclines of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1km at 5.5%) and Mesnuls (1.1km at 6.1%). The courses for the men's and women's events will then pursue a common aim: to pay tribute to the Chevreuse Valley, a true hub for cycling for Ile-de-France.

A favourite playground for many cycling enthusiasts, the Chevreuse Valley resents some challenging terrain for the men's and women's pelotons. Côte de Port-Royal (1km at 5%), Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (1.3km at 6.3%) and Côte de Châteaufort (900m at 5.7%) with its memorial stone in honour of Jacques Anquetil... a succession of tough inclines topped off by Côte de Cernay-la-Ville (1.1km at 3.9%) for the women, and Côte de Senlisse (1.3km at 5.3%), Côte d'Herbouvilliers (850m at 5.7%), and Côte de Bièvres (1.2km at 6.5%) for the men. These all present great opportunities for spectators to watch the racers pass by at a slower pace…

These first loops in the western part of the wider Parisian region, covering 225km for the men and 110km for the women, will also give spectators a glimpse of the other Olympic and Paralympic venues: the Golf National and the Vélodrome National in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, home of the French Cycling Federation.

The Butte Montmartre: ramping things up

The return into the capital, which goes past the Louvre, its Pyramid and the Opéra Garnier, heralds the final 50 kilometres of the race. No strangers to the Champs-Elysées in July, this time the men's and women's pelotons will head to the north-east of Paris where they will find a final segment of 18.4km, with technical bends and a tough cobbled climb on the Butte Montmartre (1km at 6.5%).

After two laps, the leading contenders will wage their final battle on the third ascent of the Butte Montmartre up towards the Sacré Coeur basilica, the last ramp before their downhill finale. The final 9.5 kilometres will take them onto Pont d’Iéna bridge, the setting for a 230-metre sprint finish towards the Trocadéro.

At the end of Pont d’Iéna and after 158 km for the women and 273 km for the men, there will be champions, medals and iconic scenes: Olympic champions raising their arms with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Men and women athletes on the same course in the time trials

The road cycling time trials will be held one week before the first road race and also offer a host of new features. For the first time in the history of the Games, the 35 men and 35 women riders will be presented with the same course and the same distance. On Saturday 27 July 2024, the athletes will set off one by one from the Esplanade des Invalides for 32.4km of virtually incline-free terrain.

After the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, they will cross the Seine on Pont de Sully to reach Place de la Bastille. Once they reach the Bois de Vincennes, the nods to sporting history begin. The Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, nicknamed ‘La Cipale’, will be the first to be saluted for its monumental past: the venue hosted the 1924 Paris Games and was the finish line of the Tour de France from 1968 to 1974. The time trial course will then proceed to the Polygone de Vincennes, an extremely popular spot for Parisian cyclists. Finally, the Institut National du Sport, de l'Expertise et de la Performance (INSEP) will signal the turnaround point.

The racers will reach the halfway point after a brief foray into the Val-de-Marne municipalities that border the capital. Leaving the Bois de Vincennes through its château, they will return to Place de la Bastille, after Place de Nation, and rejoin the roads they took earlier in the opposite direction. The day after the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, the Pont Alexandre III bridge will once again take centre stage as the finish line for this race against the clock.