2023 Tour de France Route Revealed

A Basque Country preview video. You can basically only type those words in that order if you write about cycling for a living or manage Rick Steves’ website.

The Route

Looks like a load of squiggly lines going across France like a belt. Wait, no, it looks EXCITING.

A Tour for the Climbers

Four, count them, four summit finishes. And, alright, that’s about par for the course, but one of those is the Puy de Dome. It’s making its first appearance since 1988. A welcome addition for cycling websites that are obsessed with the 1980s. Anybody know one of those?

Testers: Look Away Now

There are 22km of time-trialing this year. The era of a TTT and then 120km against the clock has been over for a while, but the likes of Filippo Ganna will be wondering whether it’s even worth showing up. Oh yeah, and it’s a hilly time-trial, climbing to a summit finish.

Watch for the Ikurriña

It’s a Basque Country start. The Tour calls it a Spanish Basque Country start, which is a bit of a politically charged statement. Enjoy some day-one hills in one of cycling’s heartlands.

Eight Sprints

Well, probably not. But the sprinters will be licking their lips after a 2022 Tour that offered scant few stage win opportunities. Mark Cavendish is expected to return, dependent on some resolution to some sponsor chaos, so we may yet see him beat Eddie’s record.

Mid-Race Mountains

Yeah, yeah. A Tour for climbers, like we said. Once we hit the Puy de Dome, the riders are in for a relentless few days of hills and mountains that will see the chances evaporate for more than a few GC contenders. Look for the latest great French hope crying after the stage.