Italy will host the Tour de France?

Italian region of Veneto expects to host the Tour de France. Italy, where cycling, as well as in France, enjoys great popularity and where is held the famous cycling race Giro d'Italia, nevertheless do not mind to host of one of the stages of the Tour de France.

Veneto region, which expects to become one of the race stages, intends to present its presentation to the race organizers - the ASO company – on April 27, 2011 in Paris.

Francois Preud'homme, the director of the Tour de France, said that the proposal to extend the route of the Tour de France was received by the administration from the Veneto region in March.

Veneto is a region in northern Italy, where are located such towns as Venice, Padua, Verona and Treviso. Earlier Giro d'Italia twice started in Veneto.

To promote Veneto proposal was established special VeneTour company, headed by Eleanor Botteccia, a descendant of the legendary cyclist Ottavio Botteccia, who won the Tour de France in 1924 and 1925, according to cyclingnews.com.

To date, Veneto claims to hold one or several stages of the Tour de France. However, according to Francois Preud'homme, it is possible that in one of towns in Veneto will be held the Grand Depart of the famous cycling race.

It is worth noting that Veneto is not the only region of Italy, which has filed an application for the Tour de France. Today, two more cities of Italy - Genoa and Florence are considered as candidates to hold the Grand Depart. So, Florence wants to host the Grand Depart in 2014. The Florentines would like to dedicate it to the 100th anniversary of the birth of their countryman, two time winner of the Tour de France - Gino Bartali.