Five things to know before the 2023 Tour de France

The Tour will kick off outside France for the 25th time. It will the second start from the Spanish Basque Country after San Sebastian in 1992. After two stages entirely in Spain, the peloton heads for Bayonne in France. In 2022, the Grande Boucle started in Copenhagen and in 2024 it gets underway in Florence, Italy. Cities pay dearly for the right to host the Grand Depart, which race organisers ASO insist expands the international influence of one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

With nearly 56,000 metres of climbing, a record 30 passes, five French mountain ranges and a single time-trial, this Tour presents a tough profile that favours climbers. After the Pyrenees, the Tour makes an eagerly-awaited return to the Puy de Dome in the Massif Central after 35 years. The race will then climb through the Jura, the Alps, with the main stage to Courchevel via the Col de la Loze (2,304 m), and finally the Vosges, on the eve of the finale in Paris on July 23. 

Dane Vingegaard, winner last year after a second place in 2021, and Slovenian Pogacar, the 2020 and 2021 champion, then runner-up in 2022, are the big favourites. Yet Pogacar's form remains unknown after breaking his wrist on April 23 during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege. For Vingegaard, the question first concerns his ability to resist the pressure of defending his title. At least a dozen other riders, including French duo David Gaudu and Romain Bardet, Spaniard Enric Mas and the Australian Ben O'Connor, could fight for podium places. Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas are the main absentees.

The death of the Swiss rider Gino Maeder  mid-June, descending a mountain in the Tour of Switzerland plunged the peloton into disarray and reignited the debate