Male Team 01 - 23 Jul
Tour de France
3387 Kilometers 21 Stages
As usual during the last few years, Eurosport and GCN will be broadcasting each and every of the 21 stages live in full.
There will be 10-6-4″ at the finish of every road stage, plus 8-5-2″ at the Point Bonus -marked with a ‘B’ on yellow background at the race profiles- distributed over the route.
Seven overall victories and 34 stage wins are the coveted palmarès of the squads managed by José Miguel Echávarri and Eusebio Unzué in the Tour de France, the full list available on our website’s History section.
Showing off a brandnew kit –the ‘Iceberg’ collection from Gobik-, starting from their home country and tackling a route as emblematic as demanding, the Movistar Team will be facing in 2023 no less than its 41st consecutive appearance in the Tour de Francia. Enric Mas will be their main GC reference, while the Blues -turned into ‘Whites’ for the upcoming three weeks’- will also be keeping an eye on every day’s fight at the most famous race in the calendar, where they will try to make the big ‘M’ shine in their 13th year of sponsorship.
In what looks almost like an imitation of La Vuelta, the route for this year’s ‘Grande Boucle’ will force the main contenders to fight right from the beginning. The two full stages in the Basque Country are as hard as one could expect from such a ‘Grand Départ’: Vivero (Cat-2) and Pike Bidea (Cat-3) will be near the finish of stage one in Bilbao on Saturday 1st, while Jaizkibel (Cat-2) will be faced just 16km from San Sebastián on Sunday 2nd. Two clearer chances for the sprinters in Bayonne (Monday 3rd) and the Nogaro circuit (Tuesday 4th) will be followed by an early incursion into the Pyrenees: Soudet (HC) and Marie Blanque (Cat-1) on Wednesday 5th, then a tough stage six (Thursday 6th), with Aspin (Cat-1), Tourmalet (HC) and a finish up Cauterets (Cat-1).
Crossing the plains of Aquitaine, with sprint finishes in Bordeaux (Friday 7th) and Limoges (Saturday 8th), we will get to the comeback of a legend: the Puy de Dôme (HC), a mountain-top finish prior to the first rest day (Sunday 9th), with some brutal slopes in its second half. As two more bunch sprints are expected following that initial ‘repos’, the winning break -so characteristic in the Tour- should make its appearance back on Thursday 13th, with a series of shorter, sharp ascents towards Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
The big mountains will be back in force at ‘quatorze juillet’, on Ain soil, with the final ascent to the Grand Colombier (HC). It will be the prelude to the Alps, divided into two ‘halves’, with a weekend duo composed by Cou (Cat-1), Feu (Cat-1), Ramaz (Cat-1) and Joux Plane (HC), on Saturday 15th; and Forclaz de Montmin (Cat-1), Croix-Fry (Cat-1), Amerands (Cat-2) and Saint-Gervais (Cat-1), Sunday 16th.
It won’t be before Tuesday 18th July, at stage sixteen of the race, when the peloton will face the only individual time trial of this year’s TDF, not a flat one by any means, with the côte de Domancy (Cat-2) before the finish in Combloux (22.4km). The Alps will be over with argualy the Queen stage of the race (Wednesday 19th): even if shorter than usual (165km), it contains the cols of Saisies (Cat-1), Cormet de Roselend (Cat-1), Longefoy (Cat-2) and the endless La Loze (HC; almost 30km from the foot of the ascent) towards the Altiport of Courchevel.
The mountains won’t end there: this year, after two flat stages towards the Vosges, the race will be decided on Saturday 22nd with a final ‘raid’ of climbs remembering the route where Annemiek van Vleuten all but won the 2022 TDFF. Just 133km, yet featuring the Ballon d’Alsace (Cat-2), Petit Ballon (Cat-1), Platzerwasel (Cat-1) and three other ‘côtes’ before the finish in Le Markstein.