This Saturday, the Tour de France 2023 will be officially launched. With three weeks of racing, 3500 kilometers of course, 21 stages and immense popular enthusiasm on the side of the roads as behind the television sets, the most beautiful race in the world will inevitably mark our month of July.
As every year, France Télévisions will broadcast the stages on France 2 or France 3 live for all race days from 12 or 1 p.m. depending on the departures. Eurosport 1 subscribers will also be able to follow the race on this channel, since the group is the second broadcaster of the race. From 11:30 a.m., you can also follow this Grande Boucle 2023 live on Le Figaro.
In addition to the stages to be followed live, broadcasts are planned before and after the race on the antennas of France Télévisions. Vélo Club every day after the live broadcast on France 2 and until 6:30 p.m., the Journal du Tour will be on France 3 at 8:50 p.m. (8:15 p.m. on Saturdays) and finally, the Image of the day to be found every evening on France 2 at 8:40 p.m. Finally on Eurosport, after each stage you will find the program which will debrief the stage of the day: the Kings of the Pedal.
Unveiled last October, the Tour de France route is made up of 21 stages from July 1 to 24, with six flat stages promised to sprinters, six stages with a few bumps where adventurers could play their card, eight mountain stages reserved for peloton and an individual time trial. The Grande Boucle will live in Bilbao its 25th departure abroad (the second from Spain, after San Sebastian in 1992). For this edition, the Tour will again pass on mythical roads. 13 years after Mark Cavendish’s victory, the Tour de France will make its big comeback in Bordeaux. Puy-de-Dôme will once again be one of the highlights with great battles to come throughout the 9th stage between Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat and Puy de Dôme. The queen stage will be contested from Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to Courchevel with a final at the Col de la Loze which could create gaps between the favorites.
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 26 years old and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 24 years old are the two huge favorites of this Tour de France 2023. The two men fought a great fight during the last edition and won their two the Tour de France 2020,2021 (Pogacar) and 2022 (Vingegaard). The two riders are formidable climbers and seem to be the strongest men in the peloton again this year. Among the outsiders, we find Jay Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) 26 years old, the winner of the Giro in 2022 was very solid in the third week of the race and could play the spoilsports or the Spaniard Enric Mas (Movistar) accustomed to the good places in the general standings on the big laps.
Like every year, the Tricolores hope to shine on their roads. Stage victories will be targeted, last year Christophe Laporte won the only French victory in the Tour during the 19th stage. For this edition, apart from the general classification which should be targeted by David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ), Romain Bardet (Team DSM) or Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), the French will mainly chase the stages. It will be necessary to count on a great Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) to dynamite the first stages which correspond to him, a Valentin Madouas (Groupama FDJ) galvanized by his new tricolor jersey or a Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ) carried by the crowd for his final Tour de France.
For the best climber’s jersey, given the route, the favorites Pogacar and Vingegaard could once again do a double blow by postponing the yellow and the polka dot jersey. Beautiful climb also for Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) third in the mountain classification in 2022 and Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic) the mythical polka dot jersey of 2017, the Breton had to abandon the race last year when he seemed fit and well placed to don the red polka dot jersey. Crowned in 2022, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) remains the favorite for the green tunic, even if Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan hope to get on the podium in Paris for their last Tour de France. The white jersey which rewards the best runner under 25 should remain the property of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
Already in sight on the Giro 2022 with a stage victory between Pescara and Jesi, the Eritrean Biniam Girmay could go even further in history by winning a first stage victory on the Tour de France. At 23, the winner of Ghent-Wevelgem in 2022 will discover the event and will have the opportunity to be the first African rider to win a stage, at the same time, he would finally bring success to his Intermarché-Circus training. -Wanty on the Tour. As Aike Visbeek, the team’s performance manager, put it: “Girmay, his mission will be to aim for the stage victory in the sprint. To put all the chances on our side (…), we have been working on the sprint train since the winter”.
