The Can’t Miss Stages of the 2023 Tour de France
The 2023 Tour de France starts on Saturday in Bilbao, Spain with a 182km stage through the hills around the city that will determine the first rider to wear the yellow jersey as the leader of the Tour’s General Classification.
In total, the riders will cover 3,399.5km spread over 21 stages (including two Rest Days) with eight stages that could end in field sprints, four “hilly” stages that look perfect for breakaways, one individual time trial, and a whopping eight mountain stages (including four summit finishes). Here are six you won’t want to miss:
Stage 1 - Bilbao to Bilbao (182km) - Saturday, July 1
The Tour’s opening weekend is always an exciting event, and this year’s packs an even bigger punch than usual. Starting in Spain’s Basque region, both Stages 1 and 2 are packed with the short, steep climbs for which the region is famous–and the reason why April’s Tour of the Basque Country is considered one of the hardest stage races on the calendar.
If you only have time to watch one of the two, go with Stage 1 for the simple reason that the winner is guaranteed to pull-on the first maillot jaune of the Tour and the racing will be even more intense because of it.
The stage starts and finishes in Bilbao, with the riders covering 182km of the region’s tight, technical roads and five categorized climbs offering points toward the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition.
The stage will likely be decided on the Côte de Pike, a short but steep climb that comes just 9.6km from the finish line. Don’t be surprised to see someone win solo, but at most a small group of the Tour’s best riders will emerge to settle the stage and determine who’s first to pull-on the yellow jersey. We can’t remember the last time an opening stage was so challenging, and you won't want to miss it.
Stage 9 - Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat to Puy de Dôme (182.4km) - Sunday, July 9
After 35 years, one of the most famous climbs in Tour de France history makes its return at the end of Stage 9: the Puy de Dôme. An extinct volcano that rises above the Massif Centrale, the climb was last visited by the Tour in 1988, when Denmark’s Johnny Weltz was first to the summit.
The 182.4km stage begins in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat and heads due east toward the chain of volcanoes that’s home to the final climb. The intermediate sprint comes early–in Lac de Vassivière–and from there the stage’s jagged profile really begins to bite, with three categorized climbs setting the stage for the finale.
The Puy de Dôme is rated as an hors categorie (“beyond category”) climb, a distinction reserved for only the Tour’s toughest ascents. The 13.3km climb begins steadily, with an average gradient that hovers around 7 percent for the first 9km. But the pitch steepens significantly once the riders hit the parking lot for tourists wishing to take the railway to the summit.
From there final 4km average close to 12 percent, and the road narrows considerably as the riders wind their way up the treeless summit. It’s a perfect climb for a rider like Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and the defending Tour champ will certainly do his best to continue his nation’s winning streak.
Stage 13 - Châtillon-Sur-Chalaronne to Grand Colombier (137.8km) - Friday, July 14
The organizers plan something special for Bastille Day, and this year is no different, with a short stage into the Jura mountains that ends with a climb up one of the Tour’s newer hors categorie ascents: the Grand Colombier. The Tour originally visited the climb in 2012 and again in 2017, but it was first used as a summit finish in 2020, when Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar won the stage.
There are four routes to the summit, and each year local cyclists organize a ride that loops together all of them in a painful celebration of the mountain. This year the riders will tackle it just once–from Culoz–with an approach offering 17.4km of climbing and an average gradient of 7.4 percent. The stage is relatively short and there are no other categorized climbs on the route, so the riders should hit the bottom of Colombier in one large group, which means we should be treated to a battle among the GC contenders to win the stage.
Stage 15 - Les Gets les Portes du Soleil to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc (179km) - Sunday, July 16
After a finish on the Grand Colombier (Friday) and a first foray into the Alps (Saturday), Sunday’s Stage 15 should have everyone happy to see Monday’s second Rest Day. Starting in Les Gets, the 179km stage features five categorized climbs, all in the second half of the stage.
The final 60km are particularly brutal with the Category 1 Col de la Croix Fry followed almost immediately by the Category 3 Col des Aravis, then a long descent to the valley below where the final climbs to the finish line begin almost immediately. Essentially two climbs in one, the finale begins with the Category 2 Côte des Amerands–with an average gradient of 10.9 percent and pitches topping out at 17 percent–then a short downhill before the more steady Category 1 climb to the finish line in Saint Gervais. With such a jagged profile and no moment for the riders to catch their breath, Stage 15 offers an intense end the second week.
Stage 17 - Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to Courchevel (165.7km) - Wednesday, July 19
After Stage 16’s individual time trial on Tuesday, Wednesday brings the final stage in the Alps–and it’s a doozie! Starting at the foot of the climb to the finish of Stage 15, Stage 17 covers over 5,000m of elevation gain thanks to four categorized climbs spread evenly throughout the 165.7km route: the Category 1 Col des Saisies, the Category 1 Cormet de Roselend, the Category 2 Côte de Longefoy, and the hors categorie Col de la Loze.
The first three climbs are challenging, and will provide a chance for out-of-contention GC contenders to go on the attack in a bid to try and win the stage or score more points toward the Tour’s King of the Mountains competition. But it’s the Col de la Loze–originally the road to the Méribel ski resort–that makes this stage special.
The Tour famously climbed to Méribel in 1973 when Frenchman Bernard Thévenet won the stage, but was unable to gain significant time on Spain’s Luis Ocaña, who had taken the yellow jersey during a stage earlier in the morning (and went on to win the race overall).
The Tour didn’t return until 2020, when the construction of a new cyclists-only roadway from the ski resort to the summit of the nearby Col de la Loze gave the organizers a good reason to. The new roadway adds another 7km to the original climb, most of which is steeper than 10 percent—with one pitch that hits 24 percent.
One of the highest paved roads in France, the first rider to the top will take home the Souvenir Henri Desgrange cash prize for winning the highest summit in the 2023 Tour. The stage ends after a short descent into Courchevel, where a steep ramp to the finish line offers one final, painful challenge for the riders to overcome.
Stage 20 - Belfort to Le Markstein (133.5km) - Saturday, July 22
The Tour’s penultimate stage will be an explosive one, with a short stage through the Vosges mountains that could be one of the most exciting of the Tour–no matter what the standings are. Only 133.5km long and with six categorized climbs, the stage will be raced like a spring classic, with attacks coming right from the gun and everyone trying to get up the road. The race for the stage–and possibly the Tour–should all come down to the final two climbs–the Category 1 Petit Ballon and the Category 1 Col du Platzerwasel–where riders will lay it all on the line in one last bid for glory.
Pogačar famously won his first Tour de France in the Vosges back in 2020 when he crushed an individual time trial up to the La Planche des Belles Filles ski resort to snatch the Tour from compatriot Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma). Assuming the Slovenian gets stronger as the Tour progresses (his pre-Tour preparation was interrupted by a broken wrist he sustained in late-April) and Vingegaard weakens (he’s been racing at a high level since early June), this stage could be the scene of another dramatic Tour finish.
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