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Tour de France 2023: Basque Country start, four summit finishes and a single time trial

Tour de France Femmes features Tourmalet summit finish and chrono finish

Jonas Vingegaard on podium
October 27, 2022
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The routes of the 2023 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes were released on Thursday in Paris’s Palais des Congrès. The men’s course is one for the climbers, with Puy de Dôme and Grand Colombier the most notable summit finishes, but there are plenty of mountains, some on short stages. The northern half of the country is almost completely bypassed. The women’s race highlights are a summit finish on the Tourmalet and a time trial finish in Pau.

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The 108th Tour de France kicks off in Bilbao, Spain on Canada Day with a spiky profile of 3300 climbing metres, followed up the next day with more ascending. There are sprint opportunites as the race heads into France. One might think that Week 1‘s highlight is Stage 6 with Pyrenean climbs like the Col d’Aspin, mighty Tourmalet and the summit finish on Cauterets Cambasque, but Stage 9 gives July 6 a run for its money with a Puy de Dôme summit finish. Puy de Dôme is 13.3 km of 7.7 percent but the final four km are above 11 percent.

Sprinters will get their chance at the start of Week 2, but Stage 13 brings back the mountains and finishes on Grand Colombier at the end of 138 km in the Jura Mountains. The next day the riders face the Col de la Ramaz and Col de Joux Plane before descending into Morzine. The week ends with a two step climb: 11 percent Côte des Amerands and then a 7.7-km haul up to St-Gervais Mont-Blanc.

Week 3 kicks off with the sole time trial of the race. It’s 22 km long and ends on the 2.5 km, 9.4 percent Côte de Domancy ascent to Combloux. Stage 17 the next day some consider to be the race’s queen stage, although it doesn’t end on the top of an Alpine climb but with a 6 km descent to Courchevel. However, four climb are packed into 166 km: Col de la Saisies, Cormet de Roselend, Cote de Longefoy and Col de la Loze. After two days more suited to the sprinters, the last Saturday shoehorns five Vosges passes into 133 km. The whole show transfers north for the final procession into Paris on July 23.

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2023 Tour de France

Stage 1: July 1 Bilbao–Bilbao (Spain)
Stage 2: July 2 Vitoria-Gasteiz–San Sebastian (Spain)
Stage 3: July 3 Amorebieta-Etxano (Spain)–Bayonne
Stage 4: July 4 Dax–Nogaro
Stage 5: July 5 Pau–Laruns
Stage 6: July 6 Tarbes–Cauterets Cambasque
Stage 7: July 7 Mont-de-Marsan–Bordeaux
Stage 8: July 8 Libourne–Limoges
Stage 9: July 9 Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat-Puy de Dôme
Rest day 1: July 10 Clermont-Ferrand
Stage 10: July 11 Vulcania (St-Ours-les-Roches)–Issoire
Stage 11: July 12 Clermont-Ferrand–Moulins
Stage 12:July 13 Roanne–Chiroubles ou Belleville-en-Beaujolais
Stage 13: July 14 Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne–Grand Colombier
Stage 14: July 15 Annemasse–Morzine
Stage 15: July 16 Les Gets–St-Gervais Mont-Blanc
Rest day 2: July 17 St-Gervais Mont-Blanc
Stage 16: July 18 Passy–Combloux (TT)
Stage 17: July 19 St-Gervais Mont-Blanc–Courchevel
Stage 18: July 20 Moûtiers–Bourg-en-Bresse
Stage 19: July 21 Moirans-en-Montagne–Poligny
Stage 20: July 22 Belfort–Le Markstein
Stage 21: July 23 St-Ouentin-en-Yvelines–Paris, Champs-Élysées

The second TdFF begins on the Paris Sunday in Clermont-Ferrand and wraps up on July 30 with a 22 km race against the clock in Pau. Teams will expand from six to seven riders for the second edition. Besides the time trial, there are four flat stages, two punchy days and a cracker of a queen stage that ends on the mighty Tourmalet.

Tour de France Femmes 2023

Stage 1: July 23 Clermont-Ferrand to Clermont-Ferrand, 124 km (Flat)
Stage 2: July 24 Clermont-Ferrand to Mauriac, 148 km (hilly)
Stage 3: July 25 Collonges-La-Rouge to Montignac-Lascaux, 14 7km (Flat)
Stage 4: July 26 Cahors to Rodez, 177 km (Hilly)
Stage 5: July 27 Onet-Le-Château to Albi, 126 km (Flat)
Stage 6: July 28 Albi to Blagnac, 122 km (Flat)
Stage 7: July 29 Lannemezan to Tourmalet Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 90 km (Mountain)
Stage 8: July 30 Pau to Pau, 22 km (TT)