The 2023 Men’s Tour de France begins on Saturday, July 1st in Bilbao, Spain. At the same time departure and arrival, the capital of the province of Vizcaya will offer a very uneven route.
Therefore favourable to punchers, on the edge of the Cantabrian Sea with two symbolic passages in Guernica, the martyred village of the war Spanish civilian immortalised by Pablo Picasso.
With five referenced climbs, including three in the last thirty kilometers, 3300 meters of elevation transcended by two springboards likely to make huge differences in the final, with the Vivero climb and especially that of Pike, 10 km from the finish, with significant percentages, the start will not be easy in the Spanish Basque Country.
It is at km 173 that the first big difficulty of the Tour will arise , in the form of a 2 km climb with an average percentage of 10% and the last 500 meters at more than 15% which can establish a first hierarchy. The will of the organizers is to immediately get to the heart of the matter, to allow the favourites to position themselves.
The first yellow jersey will be reserved for a crack, Christian Prudhomme said when presenting the course.
31 years after the last visit of the Tour in the region, in 1992, with a prologue in San Sebastian won by the event’s future winner, Miguel Indurain, it would not be surprising if the first yellow jersey followed the same trajectory as the Navarrese, five-time winner of the event.
The Tour de France is an annual men’s multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France. A total of 2,3 million euros will be awarded to the teams and riders including € 500,000 to the final winner of the overall individual classification.
