The Tour de France 2023 and its variations have been presented to the press and general public on October 27th, 2022.
The most famous version of the Tour de France is the men’s version, which is what it refers to whenever someones refer to “Le Tour“.
Three Events
The dates of the 2023 edition of the most famous bicycle race in the universe are from July 1st to July 23.
The women’s edition which is called “Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift” is held from July 23 to July 30.
Traditionally a third event is revealed at the same time as the Tour de France route, it is “L’Etape by Le Tour de France.”
This one-day race is a Gran Fondo (aka Cyclosportive) for the “amateurs” to ride one stage of the Tour de France in the same conditions as the professional peloton does. This means closed roads to cars.
L’etape 2023 is on July 9 and it uses stage 14 of the Tour de France 2023.
The professional peloton will race the 152km and 4,100m of cumulative climbs of stage 14 Annemasse – Morzine on July 15.
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Sprint To book Your Room
As the new Tour de France route is announced, there are a lot of events and organizations active in the background.
Fans from around the world planning going to watch or participate in the Tour de France and its variation need to start booking their hotels literally as they watch the live presentation.
The next day of the Tour de France routes announcement, I went on Booking.com to check available accommodation in the areas of the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and L’Etape 2023.
The remaining accommodation availabilities and choices are already limited within 24h of the announcement of the route.
This is to be expected of course with so many people moving around the three events.
16,000 Riders on l’Etape
Just on L’Etape du Tour alone, there are 16,000 riders to tackle the one-day event in the French Alps.
That’s a lot of hotel rooms to be booked. For sure the Tour de France events are great business opportunities for all the cities, towns, and villages it starts or ends at.
A popular alternative to hotels is the camping-cars. It has become a popular summer activity to follow the Tour de France by camping cars.
My dream would be to try following most European races of the UCI World Tour calendar by camping car as ProCyclingStats does.
Watching the Tour de France from the side of the road, when you live in the area is as normal as the cows looking at the train zipping by the pasture. It is free and accessible to anybody.
However, it is more challenging when living in a different area and you want to be on the side of the road on a Col.
You need to be more organized and planning is required to find a place to sleep as you are in competition with the whole members of the Tour de France, the racers, the teams staff, the caravan staff, the journalists, the event logistic staff, etc…
The courses of the three events are viewable on the Tour de France website, I am sparing you the repetition and going straight to what is known but was not said.
Which teams are racing the Tour de France 2023?
22 teams of 8 riders are racing the 2023 Tour de France. The 18 teams of the UCI World Tour, which is the equivalent of the top league of road cycling, are automatically selected for the three Grand Tours.
Then four teams from the UCI Pro Tour, the second tier of pro cycling, are invited a few weeks before the Tour de France.
Despite being downgraded to the UCI Pro Tour team in 2023, the team Lotto-Dstny is automatically invited according to the UCI rules.
Below are the teams certain to start the Grand Depart in Bilbao on the 1st of July 2023:
AG2R Citroën Team
Alpecin-Deceuninck
Astana Qazaqstan Team
Bahrain – Victorious
BORA – hansgrohe
Cofidis
EF Education-EasyPost
Groupama – FDJ
INEOS Grenadiers
Intermarché – Circus – Wanty
Jumbo-Visma
Lotto-Dstny
Movistar Team
Soudal – Quick Step
Arkéa Samsic Team
BikeExchange – Jayco Team
DSM Team
Trek – Segafredo
UAE Team Emirates
The remaining wildcard teams will be announce in 2023. The definitive riders start list will be known in the last week of June 2023.
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
For the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2023, as of the time of writing it is not yet announced which teams will be competing in the one-week women’s edition.
Of course, the “big” teams are expected to be present.
Three teams are already officially committed to racing the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as below:
Movistar Team (Annemiek Van Vleuten won the 2022 edition, see her bike size here)
FDJ – SUEZ – Futuroscope
Team DSM
There is so much to write about until the start of the Tour de France, with rider transfers, new bikes, new sponsors, new team names, legendary riders retiring, neo-pros joining the World Tour, etc…
I’ll stop here until the next update.
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