As part of its "Riding into the Future" programme to promote sustainable mobility, the Tour de France launched the "Tour de France Cycle City" label in 2021, encouraging all the initiatives taken by towns and cities that have already hosted the Grande Boucle to promote everyday cycling.
For this fourth edition, the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift have received bids from 24 cities, including six outside France. This year, 16 towns on the 2024 Tour de France route have applied, and two are on the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift map, which should take the number of approved cities to 150... in 10 different countries!
The results will be announced on 15 May as part of the “Mai à vélo” (Bike in May) campaign.
150! That's the symbolic milestone the "Tour de France Cycle City" label could reach in its fourth edition. This initiative, created in 2021, enables towns that have already hosted the Grande Boucle to have their commitment to developing cycling in all its forms assessed and rewarded. Whether they are French or foreign, rural or urban, towns applying for the label must highlight all the existing measures to encourage cycling in their application and present local short- and medium-term development plans (infrastructure deployment, improving rider safety, learning to cycle with the "How to ride a bike" campaign, parking and combating theft, maintenance and repair, etc.). All these measures contribute to the growth of cycling as a means of daily transport, a source of leisure, and exercise.
Since 2021, 133 cities in eight countries have already received at least one level of accreditation. With 24 applications, the 2024 campaign could see the number of towns and cities recognised for promoting cycling rise to 150. In addition to the new French and Belgian cities that could appear on the map, two new territories are about to join the club, representing ten countries with towns awarded the label! Italy, where the Tour de France will set off on 29 June for the first time in its history, has three candidates: Rimini, Piacenza and Pinerolo. More exotic still, Japan, which for over ten years has welcomed the champions of the Grande Boucle to Saitama in the middle of autumn as part of a festive criterium reminiscent of the Asian craze for the event, could also be in the running!
Sixteen French towns on the route of the 2024 Tour and two others on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift submitted bids, from Evaux-les-Bains, the least populous of the candidate towns, to Nice, the host town of a new and spectacular finish of the Tour de France on 21 July, reflecting the diversity of bids once again this year for a label that allows towns to showcase their assets on their scale. Four French cities that have hosted the event in the past have also applied, while two municipalities that have already received the label have requested a reassessment of their rating. The jury is now studying all the applications. The results will be announced to the candidate cities on 15 May 2024 as part of the "Bike in May" campaign.
Composition of the jury for the "Tour de France Cycle City" label:
Christian Prudhomme, Director of the Tour de France; Émilie Defay, deputy editor-in-chief at France Bleu Paris; Jean Ghedira, director of communications, sponsorship and general secretariat at LCL; David Lazarus, mayor of Chambly and chairman of the "Sports" working group of the Association des Maires de France; Olivier Schneider, president of the FUB (French Federation of Bicycle Users); Karine Bozzacchi, CSR manager for the Tour de France.
Candidate cities for the 2024 label:
| Agen | Huy (Belgium) | Piacenza (Italy) |
| Bastogne (Belgium) | Limoux | Plouay |
| Béziers | Mâcon | Rimini (Italy) |
| Dijon | Montpellier | Saint-Amand-Montrond |
| Embrun | Morteau | Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne |
| Évaux-les-Bains | Nice | Saitama (Japan) |
| Gevrey-Chambertin | Nîmes | Semur-en-Auxois |
| Gruissan | Pinerolo (Italy) | Villeneuve-sur-Lot |
