The Tour de France has often begun with a prologue time trial or a flat road stage and sprint finish to help the riders settle into the three weeks of racing. But this year’s race is different, very different.
The Grand Départ is in the cycling-mad Basque Country and the opening stages include some tough climbs that will inspire attacks, make everyone nervous about crashes and perhaps even create the first time gaps amongst the overall contenders.
Such is the difficulty of stage 1 around Bilbao that Tadej Pogačar is a favourite to win it. The UAE Team Emirates contender predicted that a small group of just 10-15 riders will emerge on the climb to fight for the stage victory and the first yellow jersey of 2023.
Whoever wins stage 1 will then wear yellow during Sunday’s stage 2 from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Donostia-San Sebastián. It is another hilly stage in the Basque Country over a distance of 208.9km, with the 8.1km Jaizkibel climb topping out just 16km from the finish. It is like a mini-Clásica San Sebastian and so another hard day in the saddle, with attacks and a GC battle likely.
By the time the Tour de France rides from Amorebieta to Bayonne in France on stage 3 and the sprinters finally get a chance of victory, there could be some double-digit time gaps between the GC contenders, with perhaps one big name already out of contention. It will be a high-stakes but thrilling Grand Départ.
Back in the Basque Country
The Tour de France last started in the Basque Country in 1992 in San Sebastian and only the end of violence and independence protests in the Autonomous region allowed first the Vuelta a España and now the Grand Boucle to return.
The three Basque regions of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa have reportedly paid 12 million Euro to host the Tour de France Grand Depart, both to the pleasure of the local cycling fans but also to promote the area globally and especially boost cycling holidays in the area.
The knowledgeable Basque fans packed around the spectacular Guggenheim museum to watch the team presentation on Thursday evening and many recognised and called out the name of every rider as they completed the ride through the Parque República de Abando gardens.
Hundreds of thousands of Basque cycling fans are expected to pack the roadsides during the three stages, with many of them waving ikurriña flags and wearing orange, to recreate the Marea Naranja - the orange tide - that once cheered the Basque Euskaltel-Euskadi team each July.
“I'm expecting a crazy, crazy first few days in the Basque Country. They really love the sport, I’m expecting huge crowds and great racing,” Simon Yates (Jayco-AIUIa) predicted.
“I think they’re stages for the climbers,” he explained. “It’s not often you get these hard stages and a start at the Tour where there is an opportunity to take the jersey if you're aggressive. I'm sure there are many riders who are up for that, but I think it's also a good thing for me.”
Stage 1: The hardest first stage for a decade
The opening stage should entertain the Basque fans and everyone watching around the world.
It is arguably the toughest opening Tour de France stage for a decade, with the late hills expected to produce a first showdown between Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), every other GC hopeful and anyone who can survive over the Pike Bideo climb which ends just 9.6km from the finish in central Bilbao.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) admitted the climb is right on the limit of what he can handle. Classics rival Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is also cautious, knowing he will also have to chaperone Vingegaard rather than focus on his own ambitions as he did on stage 3 to Calais in the 2022 Tour.
We expect Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Yates (Jayco Alula), Richard Carapaz and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) all to be in the thick of the action.
It will be a stage of stress and apprehension and a huge fight for position up front for the likes of Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers). Someone will surely struggle to stay in the front selection and so lose time. Crashes could also take out a GC contender on the very first day of the Tour.
Bonus point seconds of eight, five and two seconds were to be awarded at the top of Pike Bideo but these have been removed. Ten, six, and four bonus seconds will be awarded to the first three riders across the finish line in Bilbao and so the stage winner will pull on the first yellow jersey.
The 182 km Bilbao-Bilbao stage covers a total of 3,500 metres of climbing and copies much of the route of the Circuito de Getxo – Memorial Hermanos Otxoa race, which also includes the Alto del Vivero and Pike Bideo.
The stage route loops around the hills north of Bilbao, heading out to the coast at Getxo via two early climbs, a testing road along the northern coastline, then a final 80km across four climbs, with the final three - the Alto de Morga, the Alto del Vivero and the Pike Bideo, packed into the final 40km.
The Pike Bideo - or the Côte de Pike as the Tour de France has called it - is just two kilometres long but climbs at an average of 10%, with the final 500 metres at 15.6%.
The ride to the finish is mostly downhill, perhaps helping any attacks to stay away, while the final kilometres rises into central Bilbao, adding an extra twist to the sprint to the line.
Wout Van Aert set a new Strava record for the Pike Bideo climb during training on Thursday, setting a time of 5:35 and average speed of 21.6 km/h. He described himself as "King!!! For one day'.
The Belgian's time will surely be beaten on Saturday. The big question is by who and who will be in the front group and who will lose contact and precious seconds.
Kwiatkowski: one of the hardest ever Tour de France starts
Michał Kwiatkowski rode the whole stage on arrival in the Basque Country. He studied the final climbs but also wanted to understand the impact of the early climbs.
“Looking at the final of the stage it could be a stage that shows the eventual Tour winner. The last two climbs will reveal so much. If a rider can go full gas and win, they’re ready to win the whole of the Tour de France,” the Ineos Grenadiers racer and former World Champion told Cyclingnews.
“Some of the GC contenders are perhaps thinking about the second and third week or the high mountains but this Tour starts with a bang, there’s no early time trial, it’s full on climbing from day 1.”
The experienced Polish rider will play a key role for Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour de France, helping Tim Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez and perhaps even Egan Bernal.
After riding the whole stage he warned that some teams would try to use the early climbs to make the stage hard and so distance the likes of van der Poel on the Pike Bideo and hurt some GC contenders.
“The stage profile and the roads make me wonder if UAE Team Emirates and Jumbo-Visma will try to control the whole stage and race it hard. That makes the early part of the stage important too,” Kwiatkowski warned.
“There are two climbs soon after kilometre zero and if the race kicks off there, it’ll be one of the hardest ever starts of the Tour de France.”
Kwiatkowski is expecting a real fight for position and the front of the peloton before and on the Pike Bideo.
“It’s one of the days when you can try to make a race plan but you don’t know if it will work out. You could have two or three guys with your leader or the group could be small and they’ll even be on their own,” he said.
“There aren’t many places where you can afford to make mistakes in this year’s Tour. You have to be ready from day 1 or otherwise you will lose a lot of time.”
As for the top two Tour favourites, Tadej Pogačar did a reconnaissance ride of stage 1 around Bilbao with his UAE Team Emirates teammates on Thursday morning. He is slightly concerned about his wrist after he fractured it in late April in a crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but he confirmed Kwiatkowski’s predictions for the final.
“We saw the final, it’ll be super explosive,” he warned.
“There’ll be a big selection in the end, maybe 10 or 15 riders who can go for the stage win. If I’m ready, it could be a chance to take time."
Pogačar and Vingegaard are locked in a psychological battle of pre-Tour mind games and the Dane said he expects Pogačar to produce some fireworks.
“I would expect him to attack, a bit like last year," Vingegaard said. "I just have to be ready for it and we just have to also do our best and see what we can do.”
