Tour de France 2023: Belfort - Le Markenstein - Fellering

Route Description: The 20th stage was from Belfort to Le Markenstein Fellering over 133.5 km. This stage was a short but mighty climbing stage with 6 rated climbs. The start in the beautiful citadel of Belfort was followed by some lead in kilometers that were going slightly uphill to the first climb of the day, the Category 2 Ballon d'Alsace. In the history of the Tour de France the Ballon d'Alsace was the first climb put on the route back in 1905. It precedes the Pyrennes and Alps by several years. The climb is 11.5km  at an average gradient of 5.2%. The descent of the Ballon d'Alsace was followed by approximately 20km of valley roads leading to the Category 2 Col de la Croix des Moinats. This climb was 5.2 km at 7%, and it was followed by a brief descent to the foot of the next climb. The Category 2 Col de Grosse Pierre was 3.2 km at an average gradient of 8%. The brief descent of the climb was followed by several kilometers of rolling terrain and the next climb. The col de la Schlucht was listed as a Category 3 climb with a 5.4% average gradient over 4.3 km. This was followed by an over 18 km descent to Munster and the foot of the Petit Ballon. Tbe first of two Category 1 climbs in the finale of the stage was the Petit Ballon. This climb was 9.3 km in length at 8.1%. The descent of the Petit Ballon led to the final climb of the day the Col du Platerwasel which has an 8.4% average gradient and is 7.1 km in length. The final eight kilometers after the climb were a false flat followed by a descent to Le Markenstein-Fellering.

Race Summary and Analysis:This stage started with a rollout from Belfort thru the historic Citadel. Once the race began, it was again raced at a breakneck pace. Victor Campanaerts and  Jasper De Buyst both Lotto-Dstny were the first attack to gain some distance on the peloton. De Buyst would not keep pace with Campanaerts who was able to start the Ballon d'Alsace before being caught and passed by a breakaway group that had formed. The initial six rider breakaway consisted of Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Maxime Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny). A counter-attack involved Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Madouas, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich). This breakaway would contest the first two climbs of the day which Ciccone would take the first position on each climb. In the peloton Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) would both crash in a turn on the descent of the Ballon d'Alsace. Video replay showed that Rodriguez slid out in the turn and Kuss had no where to go and somersaulted over Rodriguez's bike. Both riders would have cuts on their eyelids and would need to be bandaged up by the medical support convertibles. Otherwise the riders were unscathed. Unfortunately the crash would affect Kuss as he could not keep pace with the peloton and lost 20 minutes on the stage to the yellow jersey and fell out of the top 10 in the GC standings. He has not had any luck seeing as last weekend he was caught up in the crash with the selfie-ing fan. Rodriguez would be paced back to the peloton by his team car, but would not be able to make any sizeable gain in the GC, yellow jersey standings.

 On the col de Grosse Pierre Thibaut Pinot who was in a countermove would bridge up to the leading six riders. Ciccone would be the first to crest the climb, and the remaining members of the counter-attack would catch on forming a large breakaway. The breakaway would never get more than a minute and a half lead on the peloton. At the top of the Col de la Schlucht, Ciccone took the maximum points and celebrated winning the polka dot jersey. Thibaut Pinot attacked the breakaway that was disintegrating on the Petit Ballon and rode into an extremely vocal crowd of his supporters at the top of the climb. He crested with a 30 second lead over the first chase group which contained Tom Pidcock and Warren Barguil. Pinot started the Col du Platerwasel all alone, but he would be caught mid way up the climb by the first chasing group. They would be caught by a group that surged from the peloton of Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) , Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen).  The trio would crest the col together, but be joined by Simon and Adam Yates during the descent. Tadej Pogacar would win the sprint for the stage win contested by the lead group of five. Pinot managed to be in the second group on the descent, but would not make the junction with the lead group before the finish line. He would finish seventh on the stage in his swansong Tour de France. 

 

Tour de France 2023: Moirans-en-Montagne - Poligny

 

Tour de France 2023: Moutiers - Bourg-en-Bresse

 Kasper Asgreen would finally have the stage winning success that had so far eluded Soudal-Quickstep in a breakaway on a flat stage. We were reminded that the breakaway can still win on a flat stage, and upset the formula of how flat stages typically go down. The sprinters missed out on an opportunity for likely their last stage win before Paris.

Route Description: The 18th stage was from Moutiers to Bourg-en-Bresse over 184.9 km. The stage started in the valley at the foot of the Col de la Loze climb used the previous day. The course then snaked its way along the valley floor to leave the Alps behind.On the route were two category 4 climbs followed by the mid race sprint was located 132.9 km into the stage. The remainder of the stage was relatively flat and nearly perfect for a sprint finish.

Race Summary and Analysis:This stage started with 152 riders leaving Moutiers. Notably Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) did not start the stage. The early breakaway would be formed by Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quickstep), Victor Campaneaerts (Lotto-Dstny), and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X). They would get a maximum lead of one minute 48 seconds, but for the majority of the stage their lead would be at around one mnute or less. The teams with sprinters still in the race set the pace in the peloton to be able to reel in the break. Jayco-AlUla, Alpecin-Deucinck, and DSM-Firmenich each had riders at the front of the peloton focused on managing the break. With 65km to go the break had only about a 24 second gap when Pascal Eenkhorm (Lotto-Dstny) attacked from the peloton. Campanaerts would drop back to his teammate and they would work together to regroup with Asgreen and Abrahamsen. The break would have a 40 second with 20 km to go and a 20 second lead with 10km left in the stage. The sprint teams usually want to capture the breakaway between 20 and 10 km to go. The ideal situation for these teams is to capture the breakaway closer to 10 km so that way they don't have to worry as much about counterattacks. The later the catch is made in a stage, particularly inside 10 km, reduces the amount of time that the sprinters can line up their lead out trains. The chaos involved with the breakaway being caught in the final 3 kilometers sometimes results in unexpected stage winners. The breakaway had a lead of less than 10 seconds with 3 km to go. The usual rule of thumb is that a breakaway should lose one minute per kilometer to the peloton in the final 10 km of a flat stage. The breakaway at this point should have been still cuaght seeing as the peoloton could probably visually see the four leaders. The peloton would miss out on making the catch of the breakaway as they finally caught the tail end of the leading quartet at the finish line. Instead the breakaway riders would contest the stage win and Kasper Asgreen would finally break the drought for Soudal-Quickstep. This team had no luck with Fabio Jakobsen before he abandoned, and had sent Asgreen and Alaphilliippe in multiple day long breakaways to come up empty handed. Jasper Phillipsen (Alpecin-Deucinck), wearer of the green jersey, would finish fourth.

 

Tour de France 2023: Saint Gervais Mont Blanc - Courchevel

 The stage after the time trial in the high Alps with the highest altitude pass as part of the finale of the stage was meant to have drama. The drama definitely showed up with Felix Gall winning from the breakaway with a master class of climbing strength over the Col de la Loze. The yellow jersey competition would be driven wide open with Tadej Pogacar's inability to keep pace with the yellow jersey over the last climb.

Route Description: The 17th stage was from Saint Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel over 165.7 km. The stage starts with the Category 1 climb, Col des Saisies, starting 17.1 km into the stage and cresting 13.4 km further down the road. The descent of the Col des Saisies is followed by the mid-stage sprint at Beaufort. Almost immediately after the sprint is the start of the climb of the Category 1 climb of the Cormet de Roseland which is 19.4km in length. A long descent from the top of the col preceded the Category 2 Cote de Longefoy which was only 6.6km long. A very technical descent would lead the race to the foot of the Col de la Loze, an HC category climb, with a length of 28.1 km. The climb also had bonus seconds at the top. The descent of the Col de la Loze to Courchevel was down a bicycle path. The finish line for Courchevel was setup at the top of the runaway which meant a super steep final 500 meters of the stage.

Race Summary and Analysis: A large breakaway would form including Alexis Renard (Cofidis). French champion Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost), Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Neilson Powless, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Simon Yates, Lawson Craddock, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Clément Champoussin (Arkea-Samsic), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) formed 20km into the stage. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) would crash inadvertently 15 km into the stage on an uphill section of the stage. He would ride on unscathed. Giulio Ciccone would be the first to crest both the Col du Saisies, Cormet de Roseland, and Cote de Longefoy to solidify his lead on the King of the Mountain jersey. The breakaway would be reduced to 15 riders at the start of the Col de la Loze.. The breakaway was being driven by the three riders of Ag2r-Citroen. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen) had the most to gain from being in the break as they could climb higher in the general classification. As the race hit the steep part of the climb, the bicycle path to the top of the climb, Felix Gall attacked the reduced break to win the stage. He would survive the extreme slopes of this climb and win. Meanwhile in the yellow jersey group Jumbo-Visma set a solid pace as the climb started. Their efforts would bear fruit as Tadej Pogacar would be distanced 13 km from the top. Once Jumbo-Visma noticed the gap had opened Sepp Kuss went to the lead of the group  and set a blistering pace to increase the gap. Eventually Jonas Vingegaard would attack in the upper sections of the climb and started to reduce the gap to the lone leader Felix Gall. He would be briefly held up by a stalled sedan containing race organizers and/or referees. The delay may have affected Vingegaard's ability to win the stage, but it probably had little impact on his time gain over Pogacar. Vingegaard would end up finishing one minute 52 seconds behind the stage winner with Pello Bilbao and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) riding with him into the final 500 meter incline. Tadej Pogacar would finish seven minutes and 37 seconds behind the stage winner and is now seven minutes 35 seconds behind Vingegaard in the race for the yellow jersey. It seems quite evident that Vingegaard had a plan to attack today on the hardest stage in the mountains in this year's Tour de France. The Tour is not over as there are three stages left before the ceremonial stage on the Champs Elysee, and Saturday is another serious climbing stage with an uphill finish.

Tour de France 2023: Passy - Combloux

 

Route Description: The 16th stage was an individual time trial from Passy to Combloux over 22.4 km. In the individual time trial every rider will depart in reverse order of the general classification standing, the overall standings or the competition for the yellow jersey, and ride the entire route on their own. This means that the final rider out of the start is the yellow jersey. If they pass another or get passed this must be done with separation so as to avoid drafting off the rider being passed. The route left Passy and climbed the Cote de la Cascade de Coeur before passing the first time check at Passy Chef-Lieu 7.1 km into the stage. This was followed by a descent into the town of Sallanches which hosted the 1989 World Championships won by the '89 Tour de France champion American Greg Lemond. A relatively flat section of road existed between Sallanches and Domancy, where the second time check existed at 16.1 km, followed by the climb of the Category 2 Cote de Domancy. At the top of the Cote de Domancy was the third and final time check. From the final time check were 3.5 km of further climbing to the finish line at Combloux.

Race Summary and Analysis: I won't bore you with all the changes in the lead over the day. I will instead focus on the major lead changes and the yellow jersey competition. I should state that American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) did not start the stage after the rest day. Remi Cavagna (Soudal-Quickstep), the French national time trial champion, would set the time at the finish line that would hold for over two hours as other riders could not match his pace. Eventually Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) would set a faster time while wearing the Belgian national time trial champion jersey. His time would hold until the final two riders crossed the line. A succession of riders in the top 10 would fail to beat Van Aert's time as they all rode up to the finish line in Combloux. 

Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Emirates) wearing the white jersey left the starting blocks before Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) sepearated by a mere 10 seconds. Both riders started out going at very fast paces. Pogacar would set the fastest time at the first time check only to have Vingegaard surpass his time by 16 seconds. At the second time check Vingegaard's lead would be 30 seconds. Over the first two thirds of the course Vingegaard had been going faster than Pogacar, and both of them were clearly the class of the field.

The key question of the day was whether to switch to the road bike from the time trial bike for the climb. Time trial bicycles are heavier than the bicycles used on mountain stages, but they are more aerodynamic. The risk of doing a bicycle change is the amount of time lost and getting a quick and efficient exchange of bicycles. Tadej Pogacar would change his bicycle at the foot of the Cote de Domancy costing him 10 seconds. Since at that point he was already approaching 30 seconds down at that moment his time loss immediately went up to 40 seconds. In contrast Vingegaard decided not to switch bicycles. He would then continue to decrease the distance between he and Pogacar while increasing his time gap advantage all the way to the finish line. Pogacar would set a new fastest time at the finish, and beat Van Aert by one minute and thirteen seconds. Unfortunately Vingegaard was following not far behind looking to set a new fastest time for the day and win the stage. At the finish line Vingegaard had beaten Pogacar by one minute thirty eight seconds and expanded his lead in the yellow jersey to one minute forty eight seconds. The tour is not yet finished as there are still at least two opportunities for Pogacar to reverse his deficit,  but the way the two have been riding neck and neck leads me to think this will be extremely difficult. The most likely chances will Stage 17 and Stage 19 which are a major alpine stage and an uphill finish respectively. One question that can be asked is whether Vingegaard may have put too much effort into today's stage and may suffer a significant loss on the next stage, but a short time trial like today more than likely is not a sizeable enough effort to leave Vingegaard out of energy. We should be in for some great racing for the rest of the race.

Tour de France 2023: Les Gets Portes du Soleil - Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc

 

Route Description: The thirteenth stage was from Les Gets Portes du Soleil to Morzine Les Portes du Soleil over 151.8 km. This stage started with 7 km of descent that would be neutralized by the race to avoid crashes due to the extreme speeds that would occur. This was followed by 20km of descending and flat roads. Next there would be an uncategorized climb which would lead to the mid-stage sprint point before a quick descent to the first category 1 climb, Col du Forclaz de Montrim. From the top of the Col de Forclaz to the next category 1 climb, the Col de la Croix Fry. This is almost immediately followed by the Category 3 climb of the Col des Aravis. A long descent down into the valley followed the Col des Aravis. Once in the valley there were a couple of kilometers of flat roads that led to the Category 2 Cote des Amerands. Immediately following the descent of the category 2 climb was the start of the climb to the finish line at Saint Gervais-Mont Blanc, which is rated a Category 1 climb.

Race Summary and Analysis: This stage started with a long section of neutralized start descending into the valley from Les Gets. Once the stage started there was a frantic pace of attacks and counterattacks that made for another quick start.  At one point all the agressive riding at the front of the peloton created a split that had Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) in the group behind the yellow jersey. His team would chase down the main peloton and a big regrouping would occur. Eventually an eight man break containing Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost) would form, but it would never get more than a 12 second lead. This breakaway attempt was chased by Lidl-Trek and Cofidis who had no interest in letting this move go. Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) attack and rode away solo 29km into the stage. As the uncategorized climb began Julian Alaphillippe (Soudal-Quickstep) attacked and was joined by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) who caught Politt. A 27 rider group would form that was chasing Alaphillippe and Lutsenko.  This group would grow to a group of 37 containing  Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), Olivier Le Gac, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador, Magnus Cort, Powless, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Mikel Landa, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Marco Haller, Patrik Konrad, Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Giulio Ciccone, Mathias Skjelmose, Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek), Nans Peters (Ag2r-Citröen), Van der Poel, Soren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Chris Hamilton (DSM-Firmenich), Michael Woods, Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands, Dylan Teuns (Israel-PremierTech), Lawson Craddock, Luka Mezgec, Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Warren Barguil, Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen, Torstein Traeen (Uno-X) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies). All the breaks were being kept on a short leash and were only able to gain a lead of 20 seconds. In the peloton a fan trying to take a selfie or picture with their phone hit Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) on the handlebars causing a massive pileup at the front of the peloton. Pogacar and Vingegaard managed to avoid getting caught up in the crash, but were held up getting their bicycles free from the mess. The peloton at that moment decided to neutralize the race itself and wait for all the rides to catch back up. The peloton essentially formed a line all the way across the road and rode at a slow pace. This is called the barrage and is often done after a chaotic crash in the peloton. The barrage allowed the break to get an eight minute lead over the peloton.After all the riders had caught back up from the crash which didn't result in any riders abandoning the stage, the peloton started to set a pace that slowly started to reverse the time gap. UAE and Jumbo-Visma didn't need to worry about any riders in the break taking the yellow jersey since most of them were very far from the top of the general classification. At the top of the first climb of the day Alaphillippe and Lutsenko would crest the climb in the lead, and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) beat Neilson Powless for the remaining points on hand. Lutsenko and Alaphillippe would be caught by the 37 rider chase group between the first and second climb. On the second climb of the day the lead group would start to disintegrate with riders being tailed off. Powless would be dropped and not score any additional king of the mountains points. Giulio Ciccone would take the maximum points on this climb and go into a tie with Powless on points. On the ascent of the third climb the first Rui Costa (Intermarche-Wanty-Circus) and then Marc Soler (UAE Emirates) would attack the break fearing the pace was too slow compared to the peloton. Wout Van Aert would attack over the top of the climb and would be joined in the descent of the third climb by Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) and Kris Neilands (Israel- Premiere Tech) after having caught Marc Soler. The quartet of riders would ride down the descent to the foot of the final two climbs until Neilands crashed in the descent trying to get a water bottle from the neutral bottle motorcycle. He would be ok to continue on, but be caught by the peloton. On the second category climb Wout Poels would drop his break partners and go for a solo victory. Wout Van Aert would chase him but would continue to lose time on the ascent to the finish line. In the peloton the GC favorites were gunning for a fight on the final climb. UAE set a pace that dropped all but Pogacar, Adam Yates, and Vingegaard. At one point Yates pulled away from Pogacar and Vingegaard. Pogacar looked like he was on his limit and that Vingegaard should attack, but he would not. In the end he may not have had any ability to attack, but this was smart tactically since Pogacar had two teammates up the road. Either way Pogacar did attack in the last 500 meters, and Vingegaard would follow the attack and even nearly pass him on the way to the line. Pogacar would cross ahead of Vingegaard, but no time difference or time bonus would be assessed. to either of them. Thus going into the second rest day Vingegaard maintains a 10 second lead on Pogacar.

Tour de France 2023: Annemasse - Morzine Les Portes du soleil

 The first showdown in the Alps didn't dissapoint. The steep climbs combined with the time bonus available at the top of the last climb meant that the stage turned into a significant battle for the yellow jersey with no real change to the yellow jersey standings.

Route Description: The thirteenth stage was from AnneMasse to Morzine Les Portes du Soleil over 151.8 km. This stage contained three category 1 climbs, a third category climb, and the final climb was rated Hors Categorie, beyond categorization. The stage started with the category 3 climb followed by two category 1 climbs before the mid-stage sprint location at the Col de Jambaz. After the sprint was the descent into the last category 1 climb. The last climb of the day was the HC rated Col de Joux Plane which included a time bonus at the top. From the top of the Col du Joux Plane there was 12 km of technical descent to the finish line at Morzine.

Race Summary and Analysis: The stage started with 165 riders remaining in the Tour de France. 6.5 km into the stage there was a massive crash that caused the Tour to have to halt. Louis Mentjes (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Antonio Pederero (Movistar) would abandon as a result of the crash. The race was restarted approximately half an hour later, but Esteban Chaves (EF Education- EasyPost) would abandon in pain from his crash injuries 15 km into the stage. The first breakaway of the day would form with Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech). Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) would join the lead trio later. On the descent of the third category climb James Shaw (EF Education - EasyPost) and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) would crash and have to abandon. This is only the second time that Romain Bardet has abandoned the Tour, and as a good descender this is a very unlikely way for him to have to leave the Tour. The attacks and counter attacks occurred between the category 3 and the first category 1 climb. Eventually a 21 rider breakaway would form. The peloton led by Jumbo-Visma kept the break from gaining too much time with a solid pace. The breakaway didn't contain any immediate risks to the yellow jersey placing of either Pogacar or Vingegaard and thus these teams didn't see a need to chase. Jumbo-Visma must have had plans to attack Pogacar in the later parts of the stage since they kept the break from getting a large lead that would be insurmountable even with all the tough climbing on par for the stage. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) would take the maximum king of the mountain points on the first two Category 1 climbs ahead of Polka Dot jersey wearer Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost). On the second Category 1 climb Ciccone got a gap and started the descent solo. He would be caught by a group containing Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Alex Anaburu (Movistar), Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious), and Michael Woods (Israel-Premiere Tech). Woods and Ciccone would ride away from their breakaway counterparts at the start of the third Category 1 climb, but would be caught before the top by the yellow jersey group. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) would be the first rider over the last Category 1 climb. With the breakaway reeled in Jumbo-Visma was in the clear to start their planned moves to drop Pogacar and help Jonas Vingegaard gain time.

With 30 km to go a group of 16 riders formed at the front containing Van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Felix Grossschartner, Rafal Majka, Adam Yates, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Yates, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen). Jumbo Visma would lead the group up the hors categorie (HC) climb of the col du Joux Plane. At 5km from the top Jai Hindley would be dropped by the pace set by Sepp Kuss. Pogacar decided to attack at 3.7 km from the top and gained a 4 second lead. Vingegaard would spend the next two kilometers catching back up to Pogacar. Pogacar while a very talented climber has a very strong explosive sprint that he can use uphill and on the flats also. This explosive burst has allowed him to get separation from Vingegaard several times, but his pace slows down after the initial burst. Vingegaard will often follow the immediate attack, but back off rather quickly to not burn out and lose a larger amount of time. Instead he will maintain a very high tempo which is often faster than Pogacar after his explosive attack. Once Vingegaard caught Pogacar they were left to mark each other one on one without any other riders. With approximately 1 km to go to the top Pogacar attacked again, but had to stop due to nearly running into the motorcycles in front of them. This allowed Vingegaard to catch back up. TV commentators were riled by the fact that the motorcycles were so close to the riders at that point, but the crowd on the top of the climb had narrowed the road to barely one riders width. The motorcycles are unable to get more distance without losing the riders to the crowd, and they are going at barely a stable speed due to having to force the fans to move out of the way. It should be pointed out that I did not see a single officer towards the top assigned for crowd control. I do not blame the motorcycles for the predicament they were in, and the riders should be appreciative of the space created by them otherwise they might have crashed from a fans arm, flag, or article of clothing hooking their handlebars. At the top Vingegaard pulled a Pogacar and attacked for the time bonus at the top of the Col de Joux Plane. They would go thru the false plateau that exists after the crest of the climb with Carlos Rodriguez being the third rider over the top. Rodriguez would chase down the lead duo at the top of the technical descent and then pass them. He would make the descent all the way to the finish line solo. Pogacar and Vingegaard would trail him by several seconds chasing the time bonuses at the finish line. With about 2km left in the stage Adam Yates of UAE would catch up with Pogacar and Vingegaard. The next man behind the trio was Sepp Kuss a teammate of Vingegaard, but the stage would finish with no change to the yellow jersey holder, but the time gap would increase by one second.

Tour de France 2023: Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne - Grand Colombier

 

 Today's stage was another hilly chaotic stage. A win occurring from the breakaway after an extremely fast start and some action by the yellow jersey contenders prior to the Alps. This would result in Cofidis second stage win this year and a second victory by a Basque rider.

Route Description: The thirteenth stage was from Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne to Grand Colombier over 138 km. The route ran thru the Ain department into the Jura mountains and up the Grand Colombier climb, an HC rated climb, with its steep section of 12% gradient and the notorious exposed hair pin curves on the ridge line.The route started running along the flat sections of road in the Ain. In the second half of this short stage came an un-categorized climb that included the sprint location. After a descent and traverse of the valley the last 17 km of the stage were the climb of the Grand Colombier.

Race Summary and Analysis:This stage featured a fast start over a flat parcours with a steep mighty climb at the end. The start included attempts to get a breakaway that would hold a lead over the peloton. The combination of a headwind, flat roads, attacks, and counterattacks made the job of forming a breakaway nearly impossible. Eventually a breakaway would form26 km into the stage. The breakaway consisted of 19 riders Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Alberto Bettiol, James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Matej Mohoric, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Adrien Petit, Mike Teunissen, Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Hugo Houle (Israel-PremierTech), Luca Mozzato (Arkea-Samsic), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), Cees Bol, Harold Tejada (Astana), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X), Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies). They would even gain a lead of 3'55" at the bottom of the Grand Colombier. The breakaway started on the massive climb to the finish line and within the first kilometer Quentin Pacher attacked the breakaway. The French rider was attempting to win the stage on Bastille Day, their national holiday equivalent to Independence day. He would be caught by Tejada, Van Gils, and Shaw 12.9 km from the line. Michal Kwiatkowski would come from behind the four riders who had just regrouped at the front of the race and pass them without any hesitation. He set a pace that was fast enough to hold off the other riders and even the yellow jersey contenders who were catching members of the breakaway all over the slopes of the climb. He eventually got a 42 second lead on the first chase group which he would not relinquish until he crossed the finish line for the stage win. Meanwhile in the peloton the pace had picked up with all the GC contender teams lining up their riders as if a sprint finish was going to be adjudicated. Once the climb began for the peloton UAE started setting the pace that dwindled the group down to only the climbers. It was noticeable to see that Jumbo-Visma did not have many of its riders next to Jonas Vingegaard. Wout Van Aert was dropped very early on the climb without having done any pace setting. Eventually the group of contenders dwindled down to Adam Yates and Tadej Pogacar of UAE-Emirates, Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma, Tom Pidcock and Carlos Rodriguez of Ineos-Grenadiers, Jai Hendley of Bora Hansgrohe, Simon Yates of Jayco-AlUla, and David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ. At approximately 2km to the line Adam Yates attacked the group gain a small amount of separation. Sepp Kuss responded to this attack by chasing him down and dragged Pogacar and Vingegaard with him. Most of the other contenders were able to follow, but David Gaudu was among the riders who were dropped by the sudden acceleration.  Pogacar would attack at 400 meters from the line and pass several breakaway riders to take third place on the stage to get a small time bonus. Vingegaard followed the acceleration sprinting uphill to keep up with Pogacar. He would eventually cede several seconds at the line in addition to the time bonus. Vingegaard leads by nine seconds over Pogacar at the end of the stage. The question that can be reasonably asked is whether all the uphill sprint efforts committed by Pogacar to get the time bonuses and small time gains will wear him out and leave him vulnerable to a massive time loss over the next two brutal alpine stages. Vingegaard has thus far been much more defensive in all the climbing stages other than stage 5 in to Laruns. It will be interesting to see if Jumbo-Visma has a plan similar to last year's Col du Grannon stage that could put multiple minutes of time gap between the yellow jersey and Pogacar.

Tour de France 2023: Roanne - Belleville-en-Beaujolais

 Today's stage was another hilly chaotic stage. A win occurring from the breakaway after an extremely fast start and some action by the yellow jersey contenders prior to the Alps. This would result in Cofidis second stage win this year and a second victory by a Basque rider.

Route Description: The twelth stage was from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. This hilly stage rolled along  terrain in the Loire and Rhone river valleys. The stage included two category 3 climbs in the first half of the stage followed by some unrated hills before a big descent into the Rhone river valley. In the last 70 kilometers lied three category 2 climbs with the last one having a time bonus for the first ride over the top. From the top of the last climb 28 kilometers remained to the finish line.

Race Summary and Analysis:This stage featured a fast start over the hilly parcours. The pace was ridiculous with attacks and counter attacks not letting the break form. As part of the high speed start comboned with the narrow roads caused David De La Cruz (Astana). He would have to abandon due to his injuries. With 111 km to go Wilco Kilderman (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Soler (Marc Soler), and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) formed a break that was able to get a 10 second lead over the peloton containing the yellow and white jersey, but would be brought back to the peloton. At 100 kilometers to go Mads Pederson (Lidl-Trek), Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premiere Tech), and Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) formed a break that got a 12 second lead over the peloton. Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis), Andrey Amador (EF Education EasyPost), and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) counter attacked to form a chase group to capture the Pederson, Teuns, and Benoot trio. At 89 km to go Adam Yates decided to attack from the reduced peloton. This prompted Jonas Vingegaard to react which pulled Tadej Pogacar to respond and ride his wheel. These attacks kept the breakaway attempts from gaining time on the peloton. It is important to note that the continued high speed of the start had dropped all the sprinters to be dropped very early on. The route was on many narrow roads and so during a section of road that was going uphill the Peloton split in two. The group that got separated from the main peloton included Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma). The loss of Sepp Kuss from the front peloton was a significant blow to Jonas Vingegaard. Kuss is the last Jumbo-Visma rider on major climbing stages to provide the pace for Vingegaard, and this could potentially have been a problem for the yellow jersey. Several small groups of riders would jump out of the peloton to join the Pederson, Benoot, and Jorgenson trio. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) decided he was going to leave the peloton behind and join this breakaway with 88 km to go. He sprinted to make up the 19 second gap. Sensing that the successful breakaway may be forming Julian Alaphillippe (Soudal-Quickstep) attacked from the peloton to go chase down the breakaway. With 85.4 km to go Jesper Stuyven attacked to make the breakaway. He would catch Julian Alaphillippe, and they would work together to catch up with the rest of the 13 man breakaway. Starting at 80 km to go the peloton let up their pace and the breakaway finally gets over one minute and then expands the time gap to two minutes. The breakaway would consist of Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Ruben Guerreiro, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Dylan Teuns (Israel-PremierTech), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Tobias Halland Johanessen (Uno-X), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek). At 66km to go four Ag2r-Citroen riders in the yellow jersey group, formerly called the peloton, which contained only about 43 riders started setting the pace. The motivations of the of the team were not very clear since the breakaway was unlikely to be caught with so many motivated riders motivated to win a stage. It turned out that by maintaining the time gap between the yellow jersey group and the king of the mountain group, containing Landa and Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), would allow Felix Gall to climb up the general classification. The size of the breakaway meant that polka dot jersey points wouldn't be available.

With 50 km to go Andrey Amador and Mathieu Vanderpoel attack and gain 20 seconds on the remainder of the breakaway during the ascent of the first category 2 climb. At 48 km to go Mads Pederson could not keep up the pace of the breakaway and was dropped. A half a kilometer later Jesper Stuyven is also dropped. This destroyed the chances of Lidl-Trek winning the stage. The two Lidl-Trek riders would never be able to even chase back on during the descent. With 45.9 km Vanderpoel drops Amador and would crest the climb by himself. He raced on for kilometers trying to build a lead. At 32 km to go Thibaut Pinot and Matteo Jorgenson would catch Vanderpoel. An eight man group would form. Ion Izaguirre would ride away from this group with 31 km to go. The yellow jersey group and the group containing Kuss would finally merge. In the newly reformed peloton, Ineos-Grenadiers took the pace setting responsibilities to limit the time gap as Thibaut Pinot was jeopardizing Carlos Rodriguez's place in the general classification. Ion Izaguirre would solo the rest of the way to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. This is the second stage victory for Cofidis and a second stage victory for a Basque rider after a start in the Basque country.

 

Tour de France 2023: Clermont Ferrand - Moulins

 

 This stage was another flat stage with a sprint finish as the Tour heads towards the Alps at the end of the week.

Route Description: The tenth stage was from Clermont Ferrand to Moulins. This stage bid adieu to the Massif Central and rolled thru flatter terrain in the center of France. The stage included three catergory 4 rated climbs. A sprint finish was all but expected.

Race Summary and Analysis: Flat stages in many ways have a pre-defined storyline to them. The breakaway will form and spend most of the day up the road. The peloton will manage the catch of the breakaway to avoid counter moves, and then the sprint trains will dial up the speed in the last 10 kilometers and launch their sprinters to compete for the stage win. In this stage Andrey Amador of EF Education-EasyPost was the first rider to attack and try to make a break that would stick. He would be joined by Tony Gallopin of Trek-Lidl, and Matis Louvel of Arkea-Samsic. Tony Gallopin would eventually sit up and wait for the peloton, but Daniel Oss of Total Energies would join the break. The trio gained an advantage of three minutes and twenty seconds, but the sprint teams including Soudal-Quickstep would start the pacemaking to control the breakaway. Due to some crosswinds the GC favorite teams would bring their teams to the front of the peloton to protect their yellow jersey candidate, including the jersey wearer himself. This would have the effect of increasing the pace in the peloton even further. At this point Matis Louvel gave up trying to be in the break with 54 km to go. Approximately 5km further down the road Andrey Amador would do the same thing. This left Daniel Oss all by himself to continue to try and hold off the peloton. He would stay out front until 13.5 km to go. It is totally understandable to ask the question of why do these riders go in the breakaway. One motivation is the hope that something goes wrong in the peloton and they fall behind by enough time to give up on re-capturing the breakaway. The peloton lead by the teams of the best sprinters foiled this option by keeping the breakaway at a reasonable time gap. The other reason for riders to get in the break is to get TV exposure time. During the stage the TV coverage will put much more focus on the breakaway than the peloton up until the sprint finish. All teams are sponsored by corporations, and for some teams getting the additional exposure of their corporate sponsors is important to their continued operation. The sprint teams set the pace the rest of the way to the finishing straight for a sprint finish. Several of the GC teams kept up at the front until the peloton got inside the three kilometer zone. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deucink would edge out Dylan Groenwegen of Jayco AlUla for his fourth stage win of this Tour de France. He matched Mark Cavendish as the only riders to win four stages in one Tour de France. None of the jerseys in the three big competitions changed hands at the end of the stage.

Tour de France 2023: Vulcania - Issoire

 

 Today's stage was a hilly restart to the Tour de France after the first day off in Clermont Ferrand. After a fast paced, crazy, and chaotic first 9 stages from Bilbao to the Puy de Dome via the Pyrennes. The second week started in the Massif Central

Route Description: The tenth stage was from Vulcania to Issoire over a distance of 167. km. The stage was run thru the Massif Central region of rolling terrain that includes extinct volcanoes, like the Puy de Dome. The climb featured two category 3 climbs preceding the category 2 Col de la Croix Saint-Robert. This was followed by two category 3 climbs with the last one leading to the descent into Issoire.

Race Summary and Analysis: This stage started with attempts to form a breakaway, but every attack would result in a counterattack that would bring the peloton back together. Eventually Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard would drive up the pace to an even higher rate when they began to attack. The first hour was run at an average speed of over 51 km/h. This high speed start after a rest day actually caught some of the yellow jersey contenders out as they were having trouble over the hilly parcours. Romain Bardet of DSM and David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ were dropped and fell behind by up to two and a half minutes from the front of the race, which at points was the peloton. Bardet and Gaudu would get their teams to chase the peloton and would bring the time gap down. A break of 14 riders would form with 86 km to go. In the group were Pello Bilbao of Bahrain-Victorious, Michal Kwatkowski of Ineos-Grenadiers, Kristin Neilands of Israel-Premiere Tech, and Julian Alaphillippe of Soudal-Quickstep. This break didn't get away easily as the peloton chased for a while due to Pello Bilbao's high position in the GC, the yellow jersey race. Once the break was formed, the pace in the peloton backed off which allowed the Bardet-Gaudu group to return to the peloton. The breakaway would get a three minute and a half lead over the peloton. The second category climb and three category climb afterwards reduced the peloton size. The sprinters were left behind to try and survive the time cut and ride another day. Neilson Powless, wearing the polka dot jersey, would be dropped and would arrive to the finish line after the peloton. The breakaway was split over the rolling terrain with the lead group including Bilbao, Neilands, and O'Connor. A chase group formed that had Julian Alaphillippe. Neilands would attack at 53 km to go. Wout Van Aert and Mathieu VanderPoel broke away from the peloton, but would be caught several kilometers later. Meanwhile Neilands has broken away by himself with 33km to go. He would crest the last climb by himself with approximately a 40 second lead. He would race down the descent trying to elude the two chase groups. The first chase had a 20 second deficit with approximately 5 km to go. He would be caught with 3km to go, but the Alaphillippe group would never get closer to 20 seconds behind the front, but would fall back to a 40 second deficit by the finish line. Ben O'Connor would make an attack at 1.8 km to go to try and solo to victory.  In the reduced bunch sprint Pello Bilbao took the stage for Bahrain-Victorious. He would dedicate the stage to his recently deceased teammate Gino Mader. In addition to winning the stage Bilbao made a great strategic move getting in the breakaway. His deficit was over seven minutes at the start of the stage and he shaved over three minutes with the breakaway that stayed away. He timed his time gain and stage winning breakaway with the opportunity to ride in the peloton and recover from the effort on a flat stage. On stage 5 Jai Hendley was in a day long breakaway and gained over three minutes to pull on the yellow jersey, but he would pay for his efforts the next day on stage 6 in the high Pyrennes.

Tour de France 2023: Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat - Puy de Dome

 Today's stage was all about the Puy de Dome making its triumphant spectacular return to the Tour de France after 35 years. After the long week of intense racing the stage split into two races inside the race. There was the race for the stage win involving several North American racers, and the yellow jersey race.

Route Description: The seventh stage was from Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat to the Puy de Dome over a distance of 182.4 km. The stage was run thru the Massif Central region of rolling terrain that includes extinct volcanoes, like the Puy de Dome. The route first climbed to the Lac de Vassiiviere, known for having held a Tour de France time trial in the 80's, where the mid-stage sprint was held. The rest of the stage was over rolling terrain that included two category 4 climbs and a category 3 climb prior to the Puy de Dome. One key feature of the course today was the unrated climb prior to the descent into Clermont-Ferrand. In Clermont Ferrand the road started to climb towards the Puy de Dome. The finish line was at the top of the Puy de Dome where the last three kilometers are extremely steep, and would be without fans cheering the riders on.

Race Summary and Analysis: The stage started as most stages do with a breakaway forming that would be never seen by the Peloton. The breakaway that formed comprised 14 riders including Matteo Jorgenson of Movistar, Neilson Powless of EF Education First-EasyPost, and Michael Woods of Israel-PremiereTech. At the sprint point Jasper Philipsen would jump out of the peloton to grab the one remaining point for crossing in 15th place. The peloton would let the breakaway gain at first five minutes, and then ten minutes of a lead. By the mid point of the stage the breakaway had gotten a 15 minute lead on the peloton, which was not concerned with any of the riders in the breakaway due to their time deficit to the yellow jersey. Neilson Powless would make sure that he took the maximum points over the first three climbs in his bid for the polka dot jersey. With about 30 kilometers to go Matteo Jorgenson attacked the breakaway and managed to gain time on the rest of the group. A furious chase would start with various groups of riders attacking to try and bridge up to Jorgenson. Matej Mahoric and Mathieu Burgaudeau would break away from the rest of the pursuers. Several riders attempted to bridge up to Mahoric and Burgaudeau. Neilson Powless attacked the remaining pursuers right after one of the attacks had been caught. Powless was followed by David De La Cruz of Astana and their attack would stick. It would take a few kilometers for them to bridge up with Mahoric and Burgaudeau. The four riders would start to pull away from the remnants of the original breakaway. De La Cruz would eventually get dropped in the climb prior to the descent to Clermont-Ferrand. Jorgenson did the descent into the city and started the climb of the Puy de Dome with over a minute and a half lead on the first chase group containing Powless. He would eventually get about two minutes on Michael Woods. The two chase groups would start to shrink the gap to Jorgenson as they continued to climb up the Puy de Dome. The lower slopes were packed with an enthusiastic crowd of fans cheering the riders on. In the final five kilometers the fans were blocked from going up the road. This meant that the racers could hear the crickets and the birds chirping. The only people they would see on the side of the road are police officers and the odd television camera operator. Michael Woods attacked the group he was with once the crowds disappeared.  He started to cut into the lead of the first chase group and Jorgenson. Powless could not keep the pace with Mahoric on the Puy de Dome slopes. Jorgenson still in the lead was slowing down and paying for his earlier efforts on the punishing final three kilometers of the climb. With about 1.5 kilometers to go Woods caught Mahoric who tried to keep pace with him. Unfortunately he could not keep up after Woods picked up his pace again. By this time his time gap to Jorgenson is approximately 30 seconds. Woods would catch up with an exhausted and out of gas Jorgenson with 500 meters to the line. Michael Woods dropped him to win the stage. Powless finished in sixth to score some more points in the King of the Mountain competition. If he continues to ride like today, he may be able to snatch the jersey from the top GC riders. Jorgenson's long distance attack nearly worked, but he simply ran out of gas at the moment where the pitch is its steepest. He could have waited till the Puy de Dome, but he would have probably been dropped by Woods. His attack actually forced the shake up that dropped the weaker and less gifted climbers from the front of the race.

As I mentioned in the intro the yellow jersey race was going to occur behind the race for the stage win. The Peloton arrived on the lower slopes of the final climb with over 14 minutes behind the breakaway. The Jumbo-Visma team started to set a pace that was dropping riders. Eventually the group reduced down to Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Jai Hindley, Carlos Rodriguez, and Tom Pidcock along with their helper teammates. Hindley, Rodriguez, and Pidcock would be dropped. Pogacar attacked once the ramps got steep to isolate he and Vingegaard. at about 1.1 km from the top Pogacar made the attack that gave him some separation from Vingegaard, Vingegaard rode as hard as he could to try and catch up. In the end Pogacar would gain eight seconds on Vingegaard at the line, but there were no time bonus that were also available. Pogacar has looked good in the explosive short climbing finishes, but Vingegaard has looked good on the longer steeper climbing sections of stages. This duel between these two cyclists will go on over the next two weeks.

Tour de France 2023: Libourne - Limoges

 

The last sprint stage of the first week of the Tour would be contested, but only if the peloton could control the breakaway.

Route Description: The seventh stage was from Libourne to Limoges was a stage that started on flatter terrain and would incorporate more rolling terrain as the race approached the finish line. The first part of the stage was flat with the mid-stage sprint point location located at Tocan-Saint-Apre. The first rated climb of the day was the Category 3 Cote de Champs-Romain. It would be followed by undulating terrain until the category 4 Cote Masmont which was at approximately 10 kilometers from the line. The category 4 Cote de Condat-sur-Vienne was located at 4 kilometers from the line. The three kilometer rule was back in force at the standard distance.

Race Summary and Analysis: The stage started as most stages do with a breakaway forming that would be out for most of the stage. The breakaway consisted of Tim Declercq of Soudal-Quickstep, Anthony Delaplac of Total Energies, and Anthony Turgis of Arkea-Samsic. They would gain a four minute gap lead over the peloton at one point during the stage. In the peloton Jasper Philipsen would win the sprint for the remaining point at the mid-race sprint location. This breakaway would survive over the category 3 climb, but be caught before the Cote de Masmont. With the peloton closing down the gap to the breakaway a crash would occur towards the back of the peloton. Mark Cavendish, who was attempting to win one more stage and take the total stage win record from Eddy Merckx, was on the ground in clear pain. He would be unfortunately forced to abandon his last Tour with what seemed to be a broken collar bone. Once the breakaway was about a minute and a half up on the Peloton Kasper Asgren of Soudal-Quickstep would attack out of the peloton. Once this occurred his teammate Tim DeClerq would stop assisting in setting the pace in the breakaway. Unfortunately Asgren would never get more than 20 seconds lead on the peloton; he would finally be caught. The peloton was all together by the time the last two climbs of the day. At approximately eight kilometers to the line there would be another crash in the peloton. Simon Yates and Mikel Landa were the yellow jersey contenders to be stopped temporarily by the crash. Yates and one of his teammates would make a furious chase to try and get back with the peloton, but would end up losing 47 seconds on the day. This is why we see teams like UAE and Jumbo-Visma riding with their yellow jersey contenders near the front of the peloton next to the sprinters and their lead out trains. Stefan Cras who was 13th in the overall standings was tied up in the crash and would have to abandon the Tour on this stage. The sprint teams setup their sprinters and the final sprint turned into a duel between Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen of Trek-Lidl. Mads Pederson would beat Philipsen to the line to take his second career Tour de France stage.

Tour de France 2023: Mont-de-Marsan - Bordeaux

 An early solo breakaway on a hot flat stage followed by an attempt to foil the sprinters for a stage victory. Unfortunately the sprinters were ready to contest the stage victory among themselves.

Route Description: The seventh stage was from Mont-de-Marsan to Bordeaux. The stage was run over a flat course on the first hot day of the this year's Tour de France. The stage had a sprint location and one category 4 hill over the pretty flat course that included long stretches of straightaways. The second half of the stage was run along and near the Garonne river. The finish included crossing over the Garonne river in Bordeaux, and a very techical turn inside the last 3.5 kilometers that had the potential to cause massive crashes. Therefore the race jury altered the typical 3 kilometer rule to 3.5 kilometers for this stage. The 3 kilometer rule applies to any potential time delay that could occur from being in a crash or being held up by a crash inside the final three kilometers. If a rider crashes or is held up by a crash they will be given the same time as the peloton or group that they were with at the time of the crash. In a practical application if a crash occurs at 2.99 km in the peloton the riders who hit the ground and anybody held up will get the same time as the peloton. The riders will in effect ride in to the line casually after this type of crash rather than having to take unnecessary risks to get around and back on their bikes. The rule will not give riders who have been distanced from the peloton the same time as the peloton even though they have been held up by the crash.

Race Summary and Analysis: The heat of the day and the anticipated sprint finish were two of the reasons why the racing was rather calm on this stage. Simon Gugliemi went off on a solo breakaway early in the stage. This was fine for all the yellow jersey contending teams as he is way down in the general classification, and giving him a five minute time gap would have no effect on the yellow jersey. With 40 kilometers to go in the stage Nans Peters of Ag2r-Citroen and Pierre LaTour of Total Energy broke away from the peloton and caught up to Gugliemi who was only 45 seconds ahead of the peloton at that time. The trio would never get over a minute and a half lead on the peloton, and eventually Gugliemi was dropped and returned to the peloton. The remaining duo would go on for several kilometers more and would be caught at around 8 kilometers to the finish line. The sprint teams would setup for the sprint finish in Bordeaux that would be contested without any crashes in the final four kilometers. The sprint was actually led out by Mark Cavendish with approximately 200 meters to the line, but he could not hold off Jasper Philipsen from taking a third stage win in this edition of the Tour. For all the yellow jersey contenders today was about avoiding being caught up in crashes or cuaght behind one. In this respect they all stayed safely on two wheels in the peloton.

Tour de France 2023: Tarbes - Cauterets-Cambasque

 The Tour de France is not over until the Champs-Elysee in Paris. Tadej Pogacar may have been down on the general classification, but he was not out of the Tour de France.

Route Description: Today's stage started in Tarbes located in the high Pyrennes at the foot of this mighty mountain chain for the Tour de France. The stage was only 144.9 km, but contained more climbing than stage 5. The stage contained one third category climb, two category 1 climbs, and one HC climb. The route started out of Tarbes towards the third category climb of the Cote de Capvern-les-bains. After the first climb the sprint points was located at Sarrancolin. Only a handful of kilometers after the sprint was the beginning of the category 1 Col d'Aspin. The descent of the col d'Aspin led directly in to the mighty hors category Col du Tourmalet by far the highest point thus far in the Tour at 2115 meters. After the perilous descent of the Tourmalet the climb to Cauterets-Cambasque started almost immediately. The finish line of the stage was at the top of the final category 1 climb of the day.

Race Summary and Analysis: From the moment the neutralized start was over it was clear what the Jumbo-Visma strategy was. Wout Van Aert immediately accelerated trying to create the breakaway. A breakaway with multiple teams would form. Neilson Powless would bridge the gap to the breakaway before the climbs. At the top of the Category 3 climb Powless would take the first position and gain the maximum king of the mountain points. Bora-Hansgrohe, the team of yellow jersey wearer Jai Hendley, would maintain a high enough pace to limit the time gap to the breakaway to nu more than three minutes. The breakaway would continue to lead the race over the Col d'Aspin; Neilson Powless would take the maximum points over this climb as well. The climb of the Col du Tourmalet would start to disintegrate the breakaway and peloton.  As usual the sprinters would be dropped and form their group to avoid the time cut. The peloton started to chase down the break with first UAE and then Jumbo-Visma setting the pace. As the reduced peloton got to the upper slopes of the Tourmalet, Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma set a blistering pace that dropped most of the contenders except for Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Jai Hendley. Hendley was eventually distanced by the pace set by Kuss. Vingegaard decided to attack and try to ride Pogacar off his wheel as soon as Kuss was finished doing his job. Pogacar was up to the fight on the Tourmalet and rode in Vingegaard's wheel. By the top of the Tourmalet Vingegaard and Pogacar were right behind Neilson Powless, who had scored more KOM points. The three would ride the descent together while the remants of the breakaway include Wout Van Aert, Michal Kiawatkowski of Ineos, and James Shaw a teammate of Powless. By the top of the Tourmalet the remaining contenders including Hendley would be two and half minutes behind Pogacar and Vingegaard. The trio would start the climb up to Cauterets with Vingegaard setting the pace, and eventually they would capture the remnants of the breakaway. At this point it seemed like Vingegaard was going to set a pace that prevented Pogacar from attacking and that would eventually leave him behind out of gas to get to the finish line and limit the time loss. As soon as Van Aert was caught he went straight to the front of the group and set a punishing pace. As the final kilometers approached Vingegaard led Pogacar with Shaw, Kiwatkowski, and Powless trailing behind. Suddenly at approximately 3 kilometers to go Pogacar puts in an attack and gets some distance on Vingegaard. Vingegaard tries to dial up the pace to reel back in Pogacar, but he can only shave several seconds off the gap. Pogacar would maintain his lead and get to the flatter parts of the climb near the finish line where he extended his lead to around 20 seconds. Pogacar would win the stage and get the 10 bonus seconds. Vingegaard rode on at the maximum effort to limit his time loss knowing that instead of stamping his imprint on the Tour and expanding his lead; he had actually lost time to his nearest rival. Vingegaard most likely paid for his efforts to try and pry Pogacar off his wheel on the Tourmalet, and his attack from the previous day in the final few kilometers. All was not lost for Vingegaard as he assumed the yellow jersey at the end of the stage. This battle among the two top climbers will continue for the next two and a half weeks, but for now there will be a two day reprieve until Sunday on the Puy de Dome.

 

2023 Tour de France: Pau - Laruns

 

The GC battle returned to roads of the Tour de France in full force. Jai Hindley of Bora-Hansgrohe and Jonas Vingegaard were the major contenders who took advantage of the undulating terrain to set themselves up for a solid run at winning the yellow jersey. This mountain stage had plenty of fast paced action and a significant reshuffling of the yellow jersey standings.

Route Description: Today's stage started with a long lead up to the first climb, the col du Soudet. The route led from Pau into the Pyrennes mountains along the lower valleys to the first Hors Categories, beyond categorization otherwise referenced HC, climb of the Tour de France. HC climbs are the toughest, narliest, longest, and steepest climbs in the Tour. After the descent of the Soudet there was 20 miles of valley roads that included a category 4 climb before the Category climb of the Col du Marie Blanc. The Col de Marie Blanc in addition to being the last climb also had bonus seconds available to the first three riders to cross the col. A ten mile speedy descent down to Laruns, the finish town, followed the top of the col du Marie Blanc.

Race Summary and Analysis: The beginning of the stage in the lead up to the climb was completed at a furious pace as multiple groups attempted to form a breakaway. The high pace of peloton at the beginning of the stage led to some of the sprinters who crashed in the previous stage were dropped and at risk of missing the timecut. Eventually a 32 man breakaway would form including 20 of the 22 teams. Most of the riders were far down on the yellow jersey standings,  but Jai Hendley an outside favorite for the yellow jersey had sneaked into the break. UAE and Jumbo-Visma had teammates in the breakaway and didn't have significant motivation to try and reel them back. Wout Van Aert, Victor Campanaerts, Bryan Coquard, and Mads Pedersen dropped the rest of the breakaway as they approached the sprint location and the Col du Soudet. The four would contest the sprint points which Coquard would win ahead of Pedersen. It should be pointed out that Campanaerts and Van Aert were completely disinterested in the sprint. Immediately after the sprint location Coquard dropped back to the main breakaway. Campanaerts and Van Aert continued on started the Soudet climb with over a minute on the breakaway with the peloton was approaching four minutes. As the Soudet climb continued the main breakaway eventually cuaght the Campanaerts-Van Aert group. In the upper section of the Soudet climb Felix Gall of Ag2r-Citroen attacked the breakaway and would solo summit the HC climb. On the descent of the Soudet a reduced breakaway group linked up with Felix Gall. Gall had two teamates and Jai Hendley had one teammate with him. The peloton on the Soudet climb shedded many of the sprinters who would form the groupetto and work to avoid the time cut. The breakaway rode thru the valley with the peloton picking up the pace and cutting into the deficit. At the bottom of the cold du Marie Blanc the peloton still had an over three minute gap to the breakaway. The ascent of the col du Marie Blanc reduced the breakaway one by one as it was led by the Ag2r-Citroen teammates of Felix Gall. As the final kilometers of the climb approached the lead of the race was down to two men Hendley and Gall. Eventually Hendley attacked to gain the bonus seconds at the top and Gall couldn't keep up.  Meanwhile at the same time the peloton was beginning to catch many of the breakaway riders. Early on the climb the peloton was led by UAE working for Pogacar, but eventually Jumbo-Visma took over. As soon as Van Aert was caught he immediately went to the front of the reduced peloton and drove the pace until he was out of gas. Suddenly Jonas Vingegaard decided to attack to see if Tadej Pogacar was able to follow. Pogacar did not respond to Vingegaard's attack and he continued on as Pogacar seemed to be having difficulty maintaining the pace with the other riders. Hendley would cross the climb by himself taking the bonus seconds and begin the descent to Laruns. Felix Gall would be all but caught at the top by Vingegaard who already had stretched his lead to around one minute over Pogacar. During the descent Vingegaard would keep chasing down Hendley in a failed attempt to catch him, but would limit his time loss to about 40 seconds. Vingegaard's attack on the Marie Blanc has significantly distanced all his rivals other than Hendley and particular gaining a valuable minute on Pogacar. The effort he put in was only over the last few kilometers of the climb and the final 4 or 5 km of the descent to Laruns which is essentially flat. The key question is whether the efforts by Vingegaard and Hendley will cost them tomorrow when the Tour has a high mountain climbing stage in the Pyrennes' again ending with an uphill climb. I worry that Hendley being in the break may have expended enough energy that he might be gaped on the final climb of stage 6.

2023 Tour de France: Dax - Nogaro

 How much chaos can happen with a sprint finish on a auto racetrack? Apparently multiple crashes and the sprint trains having difficulty getting setup.

Route Description: The stage from Dax to Nogaro was a flat stage with sprint points available at Notre Dame des Cyclists (English translation: Our Lady of the Cyclists) and the category 4 climb Cote de Demu. The final three kilometers were run on the race circuit located in Nogaro.

Race Summary and Analysis: Today's stage did not have the typically early breakaway forming in the first few kilometers. Instead the peloton rode along all together at a gentle pace. Why was the peloton going at a very relaxed pace for the stage? The combination of the very challenging opening weekend in the Basque Country combined with the next two stages meant that the racers in the Tour de France decided to get some recovery from the all the hard racing they had already incurred. About 86 kilometers from the finish a breakaway finally formed with Benoit Cosnefroy and Anthony Delaplace. They would be caught well before the finish line. In the final kilometers to the finish line, the sprinters and their times dialed up the pace while trying to setup their sprint trains. The wider roads and looping turns in the final three kilometers meant that the pace at the front of the peloton was so fast that the sprint trains were unable to properly form. This combined with two smaller crashes meant that several of the top sprinters, Fabio Jakobsen in particular, were tailed off. At the line Jasper Philipsen would edge out Caleb Ewan for his second consecutive stage win. For the most today the peloton had a relaxed day and was able to get a breather from high intensity of racing that can be the first week. Tomorrow the contenders for the yellow jersey will be looking to avoid losing time and possibly gain time on their rivals in the first mountain stage in the Pyrennes. The rest of the peloton will be trying to avoid missing the time cut and having their Tour de France prematurely end in on stage 5.

2023 Tour de France: Vitoria-Gasteiz - San Sebastian

 Cofidis finally gets the long awaited win. Victor LaFay won with a daring last kilometer attack of a reduced peloton. He achieved the first Tour de France stage win for Cofidis since 2008. They have been made many attempts by trying to get in breakaways over the years, Guillaume Martin having strong placings in mountain stages and Benjamin Thomas being caught two hundred meters from the line in a stage last year, but a team member could finally raise his arms in a victory salute.

Route Description: This stages route was the longest of the Tour at 209km, and again it was hilly. This stage started by going thru a flat plain towards the Atlantic coast with the notorious hills of the Basque country on the horizon. The first half of the stage was flat with the sprint location coming before all the rated climbing. This stage was easier with less climbing than the first stage, but it included 2 Category 4, 2 category 3, and a Category 2 climb. The category 2 climb was none other than the famed Jazkibel climb that is used annually in Classica San Sebastian. The finish in San Sebastian was approximately seven kilometers of flat roads after the descent of the Jazkibel.

Race Summary and Analysis: This stage had plenty of action early on to be in the breakaway since so many riders had lost time in the general classification the previous day. Early attempts would be brought back by the peloton when the rider makeup did not satisfy the strongest teams. Eventually a breakaway would form with Neilson Powless, Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Remi Cavagna. They would eventually get a nearly five minute lead on the peloton before any of the climbs. Neilson Powless took the maximum points over the first two rated climbs with his two breakaway companions. On the third climb Remi Cavagna dropped out the lead to return to the peloton with the breakaway having at most a lead of two minutes and 45 seconds. On the fourth climb, a category 4, Powless would drop Boasson Hagen by the top and would descend with about a two minute lead on the peloton which was reduced due to the pace being set. Powless would ride thru the valley maintain and slightly increasing his lead over the peloton. Powless managed to have a two minute lead at the base of the Jazkibel, but the UAE team was setting a blistering pace to capture the bonus seconds at the top of the Jazkibel. Towards the top Jumbo-Visma took over the pace making, and at the top there was a sprint for the time bonuses between Simon Yates, Tadej Pogacar, and Jonas Vingegaard. The sprint would be won by Pogacar followed on his wheel by Vingegaard. They would slow down instead of pressing on as the descent began. This allowed most of the GC contenders and some contenders for the stage to catch back on during the descent and run in towards the line. Jumbo-Visma chased down several of the later stage attacks with the goal of having Wout Van Aert win the stage. At the one kilometer mark just after an attack had been reeled in is when Victor LaFay attacked. As soon as his initial surge was completed it was quite obvious he had gotten a good lead on the rest of the riders who would be chasing him. He was able to maintain a good amount of  speed to fend off being caught all the way to the line. If the stage had been 10 meters longer he would have likely not won the stage as the group pursuing him was right on his rear wheel as he crossed the line and put up his arms in a victory tribute. This was an extraordinary victory for the team lead by Cedric Vasseur. The team continued to get invited to the Tour de France for many years even after they were demoted from World Tour status, but their efforts over the years at the Tour never resulted in stage wins. Today the team recompensed the organizers of the Tour de France with a spectacular victory on another exciting day of racing.

2023 Tour de France: Amorebieta-Etxano - Bayonne

 The transition from Spain to France happened on a flatter stage than what has been seen thus far in this Tour de France. The stage may have started with more rolling terrain, but the flat second half of the stage resulted in a sprint finish in Bayonne.

Route Description: Today's stage went from the Spanish Basque country to the French Basque country via San Sebastian. The stage was flat with only three third category climbs and a fourth category climb. The route ran through the Basque countryside and along the Atlantic coast. The first half of the stage included all the climbs and the location of the mid-stage sprint location. Once the race crested the final category 3 climb the descent led to a passage thru the center of San Sebastian. From San Sebastian the route continued north to the border with France. The finishing kilometers were flat with a relatively straight forward run in to Bayonne.

Route Summary and Analysis: As is typical the beginning of the stage was marred with attacks and counter-attacks to try and form a breakaway in the early kilometers of the stage. Eventually Neilson Powless, in the red polka dot jersey, launched an attack. He would be followed by Laurent Pichon of Arkea Samsic. They would be allowed to gain time and form the breakaway of the day. Pichon and Powless would be allowed to stay out over all the categorized climbs and the sprint points. Powless took the maximum points on the climbs enabling him to maintain the jersey for at least the next two stages. Pichon was able to take the green jersey points at the mid-stage sprint. As the breakaway duo rode thru the packed raucous cheering crowd in San Sebastian Powless let up the pace to return to the peloton. The peloton would roll thru San Sebastian a little over two minutes later, and several riders would suffer flat tires from nails that were put in the road. It should be mentioned the same happened the previous day on the Jazkibel. Powless having been in the breakaway on Sunday was intentionally managing his efforts to get more king of the mountain points. Pichon would continue on in a solo futile effort to win the stage. He would be caught after the race had crossed into France. The run in to Bayonne was uneventful with Mathieu Van der Poel towing Jasper Philipsen to the line for a win over all the other great sprinters in the Tour peleton. For the general classification riders today was a day to avoid losing time in a split, which none occurred, or crashing out of the tour in one of the many wrecks that can happen on flat stages. The GC teams were focused on getting the riders who will compete for the yellow jersey to three kilometer to go banner. Once inside three kilometers to the line, if there is an accident that holds up riders they will get the same time as the peloton they were with. In this stage the final kilometers include two sharp bends that were scary considering the peloton was charging towards the line at over 35 miles an hour. In the final straight Jasper Philipsen moved slightly to the right and seemed to cut off Wout Van Aert who abandoned his sprint to avoid crashing into the barriers. The judges most likely reviewed the sprint and decided it was not worthy of disqualifying Philipsen.

2023 Tour de France Stage 1: The GC Battle Starts Now

 Usually the opening stage of the Tour de France is a flat stage where the focus of the General Classification, yellow jersey, contenders are focused on avoiding crashes or splits in the peloton. Today was not that type of day. The Basque country is a part of Spain full of rolling hilly terrain that has produced some incredible cyclists like Mikel Landa and Miguel Indurain. The route designers selected a route that included several categorized climbs which is atypical for an opening stage. The categorized climbs would provide opportunities for the teams of the yellow jersey contenders to attempt attacks.

The stage turned into exactly what the organizers and route makers intended. An early breakaway formed once the racing got underway. The breakaway of five riders would be held in check by the peloton to avoid them getting to large of a lead. The 5 riders would be in the lead over the first two climbs of the day, but they would be caught with over 40 kilometers to go in the stage. Once the break had been caught the pace in the peloton would pick up as the third climb of the day approached. Once the climb began the pace started to drop riders who could not keep up. Once over the top there was a technical descent which would lead up to the sole category 2 climb of the day.  Everyone member of the peloton had in the back of their minds the risk of descents due to the recent passing of Gino Mader that I mentioned in the route preview. During the descent we had a crash among three riders in the front of the race, composed of yellow jersey contenders. The crash victims were Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, and a second rider from EF Education First. Mas didn't look to be injured, but was not getting back on his bike. Carapaz on the other hand was bleeding from atleast one knee and sat down on the tarmac to evaluate the injuries. Eventually after the entire race had passed them Carapaz would get back on his bike and ride on knowing that he had already lost any chance of winning the Tour. Meanwhile at the front of the race the pace was not slowing down, and you could sense that this was going to be a day where the yellow jersey contenders could start to separate from their rivals. At the bottom of the category 2 climb UAE sent one of their teammates to the front to set the pace until he was out of steam with the goal of putting rivals in difficulty. He would be replaced by several Jumbo-Visma teammates with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard. Approximately two-thirds of the way up the climb Tadej Pogacar attacked. Initially it was hard to see who had been able to follow him, but once the crowd cleared enough to see there was Pogacar followed by Jonas Vingegaard, and a Cofidis rider. The remaining contenders had been distanced and were staring down losing precious seconds in the run in to Bilbao.During the descent into downtown Bilbao some of the riders initially dropped on the climb were able to catch back on including David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot of Groupama-FDJ. The regrouping only lasted so long as Simon and Adam Yates attacked out of the group and rode the final kilometers up to the line with Jumbo-Visma desperately trying to chase them down. At the line it was Adam Yates who won and thus will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow. Tadej Pogacar grabbed third to gain a two second time bonus on the rest of the contenders.

2023 Tour de France Preview: My Predictions

 This article will make predictions on winners of the competitions. Please don't hold it against me if I get it wrong.

Green Jersey

Last years winner: Wout Van Aert

My prediction: Mads Pederson

With the number of flat stages not being particularly high and the hilly first two stages, I decided to go with a sprinter who can climb moderate grades to earn points on non-flat stages. I could have considered previous winners who have those capabilities like Peter Sagan and Wout Van Aert. Van Aert has stated that his focus is not on the green jersey, and Sagan has not been on a mountain stage raid to get green jersey points for several years. Therefore I ruled them out. Mads has the ability to handle the slightly uphill terrain of the rolling stages much better than the other sprinters who tend to be more pure sprinters.

 

Polka Dot Jersey (best climber):

Last years winner: Jonas Vingegaard

My prediction: Thibaut Pinot

Thibaut Pinot is a good climber who is in his swansong Tour de France. He is my sentimental favorite, but he also just won the climbers jersey at the Vuelta.

 

 White Jersey(Best Young Rider):

 Last years winner: Jonas Vingegaard

My prediction: Tadej Pogacar

I expect Pogacar to be the runner up again this year to Jonas Vingegaard, and he is still under the age requirement. He will win this jersey by default.

Yellow Jersey:

Last years  winner: Jonas Vingegaard

My Prediction: Jonas Vingegaard

Jumbo Visma just has the better team I believe to help the defending champion. It won't be easy, but he has all the different types of lieutenants to make a successful defense, but they may well wish that they could take Primoz Roglic who just won the Giro d'Italia and played a crucial role on the Col de Glannon stage last year. Roglic also provides an alternate GC favorite who can play cat and mouse and force other teams to waste energy chasing him down. Additionally he is talented enough by himself to win the decisive stages.

2023 Tour de France: The Contenders

 If you want to see every teams riders I recommend this link. This article will look at the contenders for the yellow jersey which is presented to the overall race leader.

THE OUTSIDERS

These are racers who have an outside chance at winning the Tour de France, but are not considered the main contenders.

Rigoberto Uran - EF Education - EasyPost

Rigoberto is in the swansong of his career, but it was only in 2017 that he magically was able to score a second place overall position in a Tour de France that had very tight time differences all the way thru the mountains and into the final time trial. The last few years he has not been able to keep pace in the mountains and in particular mountain top finishes. He may be in a better situation this year to be a lieutenant to teammate Richard Carapaz.

Neilson Powless - EF Education - EasyPost

Neilson had a very admirable 12th place result at last years Tour de France. This year he seems to be continuing to grow in strength and skill as he has several good results in races this Spring including winning Etoile de Besseges.

Julian Alaphillippe - Soudal- Quickstep

Julian is always an entertaining rider at the Tour de France. He spent 14 days in the yellow jersey in 2019 and made all of France think he would achieve the seemingly impossible.I don't expect hm to match his 2019 exploits, but he could be a contender to wear the yellow jersey in the first week.

Mikel Landa - Bahrain Victorious

Mikel Landa was a member of the very successful Sky, now known as Ineos Grenadiers, for several years in the 2010s. He placed fourth in the 2017 Tour barely missing the podium by seconds. Since then he has attempted to win the Tour on several occasions with both Movistar and Bahrain Victorious. He is an excellent climber with decent time trial capabilities, but as he is getting older it appears he may be past his prime. Seeing him in contention throughout the Tour could make for some interesting tactical racing.

Guillaume Martin - Cofidis

The philosopher racer is a competent climber, but he is not at the capability level of the top contenders. He has been seen at the base of the final climbs with the leaders for most of the last three Tours, but he has yet to make the top five or really be close to the yellow jersey in the third week. His time trialing is sub-par, and can be considered his achilles heel to having more success in the general classification.

Ben O'Connor - Ag2r Citroen

Ben is a good young and up and coming general classfication racer who showed he could be a contender in 2021 when he managed to get in contention by being in a breakaway and nearly winning the stage to Tignes in a cold rain. Unfortunately 2022 was a wash when he crashed and eventually withdrew from the Tour. Can he replicate the 4th place finish from 2021?

THE TOP CONTENDERS

Egan Bernal - Ineos Grenadiers

Egan was the heir apparent to Chris Froome when he managed to win in 2019 by being in an advantageous situation when a freak hailstorm canceled the remainder of the stage to Tignes. In 2020 he would withdraw after not looking anywhere near the fitness level he had in 2019. 2021 would end up being a lost year for Egan as he suffered significant leg injuries in a training crash in Columbia. What will his capabilities after not racing for the majority of the last 18 months?

Romain Bardet - DSM

Romain is a two time podium place finisher. He looked capable of competing for the podium last year after the end of the Glannon stage, but would fade to finish 6th. A significant question is whether he is able to keep up with the top general classification contenders in the mountains. This is something that I don't recall him doing since 2017 when he finished in third place. The other question that must be posed is whether he has the team needed to support him if he is in contention.

Richard Carapaz - EF Education EasyPost

Carapaz is the reigning gold medalist in the road race and already has a third place in the Tour to his resume. He is a very good climber with decent time trialing capabilities. It should be pointed out that the time trial this year is short and the route is more suited to his skill set.

Enric Mas - Movistar

Mas has been tapped to replace Alejandro Valverde as the main star at Movistar, and has not always been able to meet these expectations. He is a very strong climber who may be just starting to realize his full potential. He has shown he can climb with the likes of Pogacar and Vingegaard, but he needs to do this consistently to remain in contention. He did show he could do this by being runner up in the Vuelta and Il Lombardia last year. He will need to perform well in the time trial to have a chance at the yellow jersey or even the podium. Time trialing is not a discipline Mas excells at.

David Gaudu - Groupama FDJ

David came to be known in 2019 as Thibaut Pinot's lieutenant as he looked poised to win the Tour de France with his strong riding throughout that Tour de France. Last year Gaudu rode to the best general classification placing of his career in 4th. He may have been the best of the rest, but he was not on par in the mountains, specifically mountain top finishes, as the top two from last year. The other key factor to remember is the time trialing is a distinct weak spot for him, and will likely be his achilles heal. He is likely France's best shot at winning the infamous maillot jaune, yellow jersey, awarded to the overall winner.

Tadej Pogacar - UAE Emirates

Tadej already has two Tour victories to his name, 2020 and 2021, but was the runner up last year. He has all the capabilities to win the race this year. He is an excellent time trialist and climber that can put the fear into any opponent with his knack for taking advantage of the altering stage dynamics to try and get time on his opponents. Everyone will remember his attack on stage 5 of last years' Tour on the pave sectors used for Paris-Roubaix.  His preparation for the Tour may have been hampered by an injury in late April. I would expect another duel between him and Vingegaard.

Jonas Vingegaard - Jumbo Visma

Jonas is the defending champion and will wear bib number 1. In order to win last year he had to defeat the defending champion Pogacar at every turn. He is young fast, even in time trials, and a very good climber.

2023 Tour de France Preview: The Route

 The 2023 Tour de France starts in the city of Bilbao in Spain's Basque Country. This years Tour starts with an open stage as opposed to the fairly typical Prologue. The three days of racing in Spain will not be easy as this is a hilly geographic area, although the third stage that ends in Bayonne, France is classified as flat. The fourth stage will be flat followed by two days in the Pyrennes and the first mountain top finish at Cauterets is preceded by the mighty Tourmalet pass which is rated at the highest level of Hors Categorie (HC). The first week is capped off with a quick trip to Bordeaux, and then into the Massif Central. The Massif Central is a region of undulating hills, massifs, and extinct volcanoes that reach up to 3000 feet plus in altitude. The finale of the first week is the stage to the Puy de Dome. A mountaintop finish, on an extinct volcano, that has not been used in over 30 years. This will be the first trip by the Tour de France since 1988, and topping out at 4642 feet of altitude this HC climb will be an exhilarating and potential decisive ending to week one.

 

Week two will begin with several transition stages towards the Alps with a combination of hilly and flat stages heading East from the Puy de Dome department. The later half of week two will be three mountain stages in the Alps with two mountaintop finishes sandwiched between a stage finishing in a descent to Morzine. There will be probably be lots of discussion about how the stage to Morzine is raced due to the tragic death of Gino Mader last month in a descending finish at the Tour de Suisse.

Week three begins with a short individual time trial, but this is an uphill finish time trial. I would not state that it is a mountain climb of a finish, but the final kilometers result in an increase in altitude to the finish line. The very next stage is a big time alpine stage with a quick descent to Courchevel immediately after passing the high point for the Tour de France, prix Henri des Granges. It should be pointed this stage is a classic multi-pass alpine stage with all above a rating of two. The tour then bids adieu to the Alps with a hilly stage without major climbs. Another flat transition stage leads up to the penultimate stage in the Alsace mountains with a climbing final to Le Markenstein. As has been tradition the Tour de France will race into Paris and finish on the Champs Elysee for potentially the last time, at least for two years. The tour route can be found here if you would like to look at it for yourself.