Lehendakari Urkullu said that leaving the French tour of Bilbao symbolizes having fulfilled a “long-desired wish”
MADRID, 27 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The next Tour de France ‘of the Guggenheim’, which will be held from July 1 to 23, 2023, will leave Bilbao, return 35 years later to the Puy de Dome, climb the mythical Tourmalet and will only have one time trial, 22 kilometers in Combloux, as announced by the organizers this Thursday at its official presentation in Paris.
“This presentation in Paris symbolizes a dream come true. We come with the emotion of having fulfilled a long-desired wish. Our country is going to be the start of the 2023 Tour,” said the Basque Lehendakari, Íñigo Urkullu, in the announcement of the tour at the Palace of Congresses of the French capital.
Urkullu announced that they will take advantage of the “opportunity” offered by the Great Start of the Tour to show “what Euskadi is and wants to be in the world”. “We are a unique country, with its own culture and language. We have our sights set beyond our limits. We are an open and welcoming country,” he stressed.
Likewise, the Basque Lehendakari stated that Euskadi, the “country of cycling”, shares “teamwork”, “making an effort to help those who lag behind” and “celebrating victory collectively” with cycling sports.
The presentation ceremony was attended by the president of ASO, Jean Etienne Amaury, the general director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, and the director of the women’s, Marion Rousse, and, among other authorities outside the Basque lehendakari, Íñigo Urkullu, the general director of La Vuelta, Javier Guillen.
The cyclists also attended the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), second in the last edition of 2022 in which the Danish Jonas Vingegaard prevailed; the British Mark Cavendish (Quick Step), with 34 stage wins in the French round, and the Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), winner in the last edition, among others.
The ‘Grand Départ’ of the Tour will take place for the second time in the Basque Country, after San Sebastián in 1992, and for the twenty-fifth time abroad. After the first three stages on the other side of the Pyrenees, in Bilbao, Vitoria-San Sebastián, the most ‘marathon’ of 2023, with 209 kilometers, and Amorebieta, the rest of the Tour will run without leaving France.
Of its 21 stages, 8 will be flat and conducive to breakaways or sprint finishes, 4 medium-mountain and eight high-mountain, with 4 high-altitude finishes in Cauterets-Cambasque, Puy de Dome, which did not appear in the layout since 1988, Grand Colombier and Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc.
The climbers will have their options in the days in the Pyrenees, where the Aspin and Tourmalet are climbed in the sixth stage, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Alps and the Vosges, with three novelties, those of the Nursery in the Basque Country, the Col de la Croix Rosier and Col du Feu, and the Col de la Loze, with its 2,304 meters, will be the highest point of the next edition.
On the other hand, the specialists against the clock will only have one time trial in the ‘Tour du Guggenheim’, in the sixteenth stage, in the Alps between Passy and Combloux, 22 kilometers through steep terrain.
The day before the arrival on the Champs-Élysées, the day that ends at Le Markstein Fellering, with 133 kilometers on the route meter, includes ascents to the Ballon d’Alsace, Col de la Croix des Moinats and Grosse Pierre, Petit Ballon and Platzerwasel to try to turn the yellow jersey upside down.
For its part, the second edition of the women’s Tour will be held from July 23 to 30 over 956 kilometers between Clermont-Ferrand and Pau, with a penultimate stage with the finish line in the mythical ascent to the ‘col’ of the Tourmalet after climbing the Aspin, according to revealed the director of the Women’s Tour, Marion Rousse.
The women’s Tour, which will cross the Massif Central and the Pyrenees and will have a marathon day of 177 kilometers between Cahors and Rodez in the fourth stage, will conclude with a 22-kilometre time trial starting and finishing in Pau, where Van Vleuten will try to revalidate the jersey yellow of this 2022.
