Montmartre and Alexandre III bridge to feature in Olympic cycling events

Sacre-Coeur Basilica at the summit of the butte of Montmartre in Paris.
Photo: AFP

The cycling road races at the Paris 2024 Olympics will go up the iconic Butte Montmartre and will have the longest routes in the Games’ history.

The women will ride 158km on Aug. 4 and the men 273km on Aug. 3 from the Place du Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower into the Vallee de Chevreuse, returning to the French capital into an 18.4-km circuit, where they will climb the Butte Montmartre (1km at 6.5%) three times before finishing at the Trocadero from the Pont d’Iena.

Only once did the Olympic athletes ride a longer course, when there was only an individual time trial, which was 315km, at the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

In western Paris, where they will go through Boullay les Troux, a town well known by amateur riders in the Vallee de Chevreuse, the men’s peloton will climb 10 short and fairly steep hills and the women six on a leg-sapping course.

“It will be incredible to see the winners raise their arms with the Eiffel Tower in the background,” Paris 2024 executive sports director Aurelie Merle said.

The time trials will start from the Invalides and head east to the Bois de Vincennes before finishing on the Alexandre III bridge.

Both women and men will ride 32.4-km on a flat route on July 27, the day after the opening ceremony.

-Reuters