Tour de France 2023: five things to know about the 2023 edition

Europe 1 with AFP 1:52 p.m., October 27, 2022

Thirty-five years after its last visit, the Tour de France will return to Puy de Dôme in 2023, announced the director of the Grande Boucle, Christian Prudhomme, by unveiling a route resolutely turned towards the mountains on Thursday in Paris.

After the Grand Départ given on July 1 in Bilbao, Spain, the route will visit the five massifs of France with a record of thirty passes.

A single 22 km time trial is on the program before the traditional finish on the Champs-Elysées on July 23.

Europe 1 reveals five things to know about the Tour de France 2023.

The 25th departure from abroad

One year after Denmark, the departure from Bilbao on July 1, 2023 will mark the 25th start from abroad in 110 editions of the Tour de France.

It will be the second time that the Grande Boucle will start from Spain after the departure in 1992 from San Sebastian, already in the Basque Country.

Since the first kick-off given from abroad, in Amsterdam (Netherlands) in 1954, ten countries have hosted the Grand Départ of the Tour.

In 2024, it could be Italy's turn.

After three stages in Spain in 2023, the third arriving in Bayonne, the Tour will then continue in its entirety in France where it will visit six regions and 23 departments.

30 passes, a record

The Tour de France 2023 will include a total of 30 passes or climbs or altitude finishes classified as second, first or out of category.

It's a record and it's seven more than in 2022. The 2019 edition should have already offered 30 passes, but a violent storm in the Alps forced the organizers to amputate the Tignes stage and modify the route. the next day's stage.

The roof of the Tour in 2023 will be the Col de la Loze (2,304 m) where the Souvenir Henri-Desgrange will be awarded, a prize paying tribute to the founder of the Tour.

As in 2020, the five mountain ranges of France will be on the program.

In order: the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Alps and the Vosges.

In particular, there will be 13 passes in the Alps and 6 in the Pyrenees.

There will be four summit finishes,

Time trial, the bare minimum

With a single 22 km time trial on the programme, the 2023 edition has the second lowest total in kilometers covered in this solo exercise after the 13.8 km in 2015. It will be a time trial at altitude, on steep terrain, in the Alps, on the occasion of the 16th stage between Passy and Combloux.

The runners will notably have to climb the famous Domancy hill, where Bernard Hinault forged his title of world champion in 1980, and which climbs steeply (2.5 km at 9.4%).

In terms of distance, we are very far from the ceilings of 2012 (96 km), the edition generally considered the most soporific of recent times, and obviously of the dark years of the previous decade (117 km in 2007).

Twelve novelties

Twelve new sites or stage towns will host the Tour for the first time: in addition to the two Spanish ones (Bilbao and Amorebieta-Etxano), Nogaro, Vulcania, Moulins, Belleville-en-Beaujolais, Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne, Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil, Passy, ​​Combloux, Poligny and Le Markstein Fellering will discover the race.

Of the 21 stages, there are 8 flat stages, 4 hilly stages, 8 mountain stages with 4 altitude finishes (Cauterets-Cambasque, Puy de Dôme, Grand Colombier and Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc) and 1 mountain stage. - individual watch.

There will be two rest days, Monday July 10 and 17.

Stable endowments

The allocation for the Tour de France 2023 is not changing: it will amount to 2.3 million euros for the teams and the riders, including 500,000 euros for the winner.

This is ten times more than for the women's Tour de France - 250,000 euros in global endowment, 50,000 for the winner - over a race of eight stages.

But this envelope is higher than that of the most important one-week races of the men's calendar, for a comparable duration.

For reference, the total amount of the Paris-Nice prizes in 2022 reached 144,300 euros (16,000 to the winner).

>> READ ALSO

- Tour de France 2023: discover the route of the penultimate stage in the Vosges

The male journey

The Tour de France 2023 will visit the five mountain ranges of France from July 1 to 23 and has a total distance of 3,404 kilometers.

This estimate in kilometers could be slightly corrected after the last recognitions of the organizers.

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 at 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.

The women's edition will leave from Clermont-Ferrand

The women's Tour de France will start from Clermont-Ferrand on July 23, 2023, event director Marion Rousse announced on Thursday by unveiling the route for this second edition which will pass through the legendary Col du Tourmalet.

Run in eight stages, the women's Grande Boucle will end on July 30 with a 22 km individual time trial in Pau.

The 2022 edition marked the rebirth of the women's Tour de France, which had existed in different forms before disappearing at the end of the 2000s due to lack of funding.

The Tour de France Women's route will be nearly 1,000 kilometers long.

The precise distance, around 956 kilometres, will be fixed after the last technical reconnaissance.

Steps :

July 23: 1st stage Clermont-Ferrand - Clermont-Ferrand, 124 km.

July 24: 2nd stage Clermont-Ferrand - Mauriac, 148 km.

July 25: 3rd stage Collonges-la-Rouge - Montignac-Lascaux, 147 km.

July 26: 4th stage Cahors - Rodez, 177 km.

July 27: 5th stage Onet-le-Château - Albi, 126 km.

July 28: 6th stage Albi - Blagnac, 122 km.

July 29: 7th stage Lannemezan - Tourmalet Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 90 km.

July 30: 8th stage Pau - Pau (individual time trial), 22 km.