The route of the Tour de France 2023 was unveiled this Thursday, October 27 in Paris. The Puy de Dôme, scene of a legendary duel between Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor in 1964 and whose slopes have not been surveyed by the Tour for 35 years, is making a comeback.
After the Grand Départ given on July 1 in Bilbao, Spain, the route of the Tour de France 2023 will visit the five massifs of France with a record of thirty passes. This is the second launch from Spain, the homeland of Miguel Indurain (5 times winners) and the 25th from abroad in the more than 100-year history of the event. A single 22 km time trial is on the program before the traditional finish on the Champs-Elysées on July 23. The Auvergne volcano, which has celebrated champions like Coppi, Bahamontes, Ocana or van Impe, is conducive to myth, especially in the last four kilometers at almost 12% on average and without an audience, given the narrowness of the places.
A Tour de France 2023 resolutely turned towards the mountains
Nearly 56,000 meters of elevation gain, and four summit finishes, this is what awaits the runners of the Grande Boucle 2023 over a total distance of 3,404 kilometers. It will therefore be a Tour de France for climbers. You will have to successively cross the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Alps and the Vosges, where a stage comprising six climbs offers to make the suspense last until the day before the arrival on the Champs-Elysées on July 23. The riders will notably climb myths like the Tourmalet, while the Pyrenees are on the menu from the 5th stage, between Pau and Laruns, with the passes of Soudet and Marie Blanque.
Overall, the 2023 Tour, whose last stage will start from the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, seems more than ever promised to a champion who loves climbing, and this from the first stage with a loop around Bilbao offering an elevation gain of 3,300 m.
Jonas Vingegaard, outgoing winner, and Tadej Pogacar, winner in 2020 and 2021, should fight a fierce battle. Unless the young Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, winner of the last Tour of Spain, comes to join the fight, he who has announced that he will enter the Grande Boucle in 2024.
The stages of the Tour de France 2023:
July 1: 1st stage Bilbao (Spain) – Bilbao, 182 km
July 2: 2nd stage Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) – San Sebastian (Spain), 209 km
July 3: 3rd stage Amorebieta-Etxano (Spain) – Bayonne, 185 km
July 4: 4th stage Dax – Nogaro, 182 km
July 5: 5th stage Pau – Laruns, 165 km
July 6: 6th stage Tarbes – Cauterets-Cambasque, 145 km
July 7: 7th stage Mont-de-Marsan – Bordeaux, 170 km
July 8: 8th stage Libourne – Limoges, 201 km
July 9: 9th stage Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat – Puy de Dôme, 184 km
July 10: rest in Clermont-Ferrand
July 11: 10th stage Vulcania – Issoire, 167 km
July 12: 11th stage Clermont-Ferrand – Moulins, 180 km
July 13: 12th stage Roanne – Belleville-en-Beaujolais, 169 km
July 14: 13th stage Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne – Grand Colombier, 138 km
July 15: 14th stage Annemasse – Morzine Les Portes du Soleil, 152 km
July 16: 15th stage Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil – Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, 180 km
July 17: rest in Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc
July 18: 16th stage Passy – Combloux (individual time trial), 22 km
July 19: 17th stage Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc – Courchevel, 166 km
July 20: 18th stage Moûtiers – Bourg-en-Bresse, 186 km
July 21: 19th stage Moirans-en-Montagne – Poligny, 173 km
July 22: 20th stage Belfort – Le Markstein, 133 km
July 23: 21st stage Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines – Paris Champs-Elysées, 115 km