The start of the Tour de France 2023 will benefit the punchers in the first stage in Bilbao which was unveiled on Wednesday by its director Christian Prudhomme during a press conference in Vitoria, capital of the autonomous community of the Basque Country.
The Tour will start for the second time in its history from the Basque Country, thirty-one years after the 1992 edition which began with a prologue in San Sebastian, underlined Christian Prudhomme who wished Colombian Egan Bernal a good recovery, the 2019 winner seriously injured on Monday in his country.
In Bilbao, the race will begin with a 185 kilometer stage in line, described as “very demanding” by its designers.
The next day, the race will start from Vitoria and reach San Sebastian after 210 kilometers, site of the main one-day race organized in the Iberian Peninsula (Clasica San Sebastian).
On July 3, the Tour will take the direction of France, starting from Amorebieta for a destination that has not been revealed.
ASO, organizer of the event, only specified that the border crossing would be at Irun.
The first stage will include several short but steep climbs, including the Pike hill (2 km at 9%) located 10 km from the finish, itself judged at the top of a 5% slope.
The second stage will take the Jaizkibel pass, but in the opposite direction to that used during the Clasica San Sebastian.
The three capitals of the provinces forming the autonomous community of the Basque Country will be stopover towns: Bilbao (capital of Biscay), Vitoria (Alava) and San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa).
The Basque Country was the first region of the Spanish State to receive a stage of the Tour de France in 1949 (victory of Louis Caput in San Sebastian) then to host the Grand Départ, in 1992, in San Sebastian, where Miguel Indurain , who came as a neighbor, had worn the yellow jersey.
Indurain, from Navarre based near Pamplona, is one of the four riders who holds the record for five victories in the Tour.
After two editions starting from France (Nice in 2020, Brest in 2021), the Tour will start next July from Copenhagen, for an unprecedented Grand Départ in Denmark.
The Grand Depart of the Tour de France 2023:
July 1: 1st stage Bilbao - Bilbao, 185 km
July 2: 2nd stage Vitoria - San Sebastian, 210 km
July 3: 3rd stage start in Amorebieta
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/ONNWYZHFAFEOPMPI3UH36KPKNE.jpg)
