Tour de France magazine 2023 | Page 9

CONTENTS

ON OUR COVER THRILLING HIGH-MOUNTAIN MEN ’ S AND WOMEN ’ S TOURS Main photo & Pogacar : Pauline Ballet / ASO Other riders : Getty Images

57 The map : The 3 399.5km route from Bilbao to Paris
58 The Grand Départ : The Tour starts in the Basque Country , where there ’ s hardly a metre of flat
60 Pyrenees : Stage 6 ups the ante with a series of big mountain passes and a summit finish
62 Puy de Dôme : The legendary volcano is back , and there should be fireworks on its slopes
PHOTOGRAPHS : PAULINE BALLET / ASO
POINT OF VIEW 12 The editor chases rainbows
32 The SA stars Groot Lem looks at who could be lining up in Bilbao come 1 July , and what goals and strategies they ’ ll put in play
YOUR GUIDE TO THE 110TH EDITION OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE
14 Tadej Pogačar : The Slovenian has had a stellar season , and is hungry for Tour title # 3
16 Jonas Vingegaard : The defending champ likes the look of the mountain-heavy route
18 Wout van Aert + Mathieu van der Poel : We catch up with the Kings of the Classics
40 10 Tour Favourites : A Pogačar vs Vingegaard , but who else is in the running ?
44 50 years ago : Stage 7 will pay homage to Luis Ocaña , the French Spaniard who won the 1973 Tour
54 Tour director ’ s overview : Christian Prudhomme has put together a massive challenge in the mountains of France
63 Le Grand Colombier : ‘ The Bugey pyramid ’ will test the form of the GC contenders
64 The Alps : There ’ s non-stop action on a series of legendary ascents and descents
66 Mountain time trial : The short and punchy time trial could change the face of the race
68 The Col de la Loze : A fearsome climb to the roof of the tour on a stage with 5 000m of vertical gain
69 The Vosges : Could the deck get reshuffled on the challenging climbs of this penultimate stage ?
70 The sporting stakes : Prize money and covetable jerseys
71 Roll of honour : Past winners of the GC & other classifications
73 The 21 stages : Route director Thierry Gouvenou examines key action points , plus stage maps and profiles from Paris HQ
103 The 22 teams : Two-time Tour winner Bernard Thévenet looks at who ’ s targeting what in 2023
2023 TOUR DE FRANCE | 9