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.
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