The official route of the Tour de France 2023 will be unveiled this Thursday, October 27 in Paris. Until then, motus and tight mouths with local elected officials, as required each year by the organizer of the Grande Boucle, ASO. Everyone refuses to confirm or deny the latest rumors about these stages of the Tour 2023. France Bleu was still able to confirm some information and this 110th edition promises a great return of our alpine massifs.
Return of the Joux-plane pass, justice of the peace in the general classification
The first alpine stage should be held on July 15, between Annemasse and Morzine, via the Col de Joux-Plane (between Samoëns and Morzine). This pass is one of the great cycling meetings, the usual justice of the peace for mountain stages, with its terrible climb and its perilous descent. The trick put twelve times its ascension to the program, the last of which, in 2016
. In the story, the general classification has often experienced serious upheavalsan expected return.
The following days, the peloton will switch from Chablais to the Arve valley. Among the departure or arrival cities (there are still uncertainties…), should appear Passy and Saint-Gervais whose mayors will attend the presentation of the route this Thursday, October 27, but their counterpart from Sallanches Georges Morand will not be there, not invited, he told us, which contradicts the rumor of a Sallanches-Courchevel stage.
The winter sports resort of Saint-Gervais, in Haute-Savoie, has been a stage finish city on three occasions (1990, 1992 and 2016). A finish could promise a magnificent finish at 1,400 meters above sea level, with a demanding, exhausting battle and maddening percentages, whether via the Bettex (9.8 km climb at 8%) or the Contamines (7.6 km climb at 4.7%).
A passage by the coast of Domancy, renamed “Route Bernard Hinault”?
What is certain is that the peloton will once again come up against the coast of Domancy, immortalized by Bernard Hinault’s title of world champion in 1980, and which will once again be the highlight of the show. 2027 world cycling championships
in Haute-Savoie. This climb, located in the Arve valley, displays 2.5 km of ascent at 9.4%.
Next summer’s visit to Domancy is no stranger to this future event, no more than the very advantageous exposure of the department: if this is confirmed, the Tour will spend five days on the territory with a day of rest, the Monday July 17 or Tuesday July 18, after a time trial (the route of which remains to be discovered), and before a departure towards the Altiport of Courchevel via the Col de la Loze.
The Col de la Loze, now legendary ascent of the Tour de France
The Loze pass? The great return of this “pass that did not exist”,
as described by the boss of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme. Paved in 2019, for a first appearance during the Tour de France 2020, the Col de La Loze is now one of the mythical climbs in the Alps,
such as Alpe d’Huez, Mont Ventoux or the Col du Tourmalet.
According to well-informed sources in the world of cycling, before the big piece in the Alps, the Tour will pass elsewhere in the Rhône-Alpes: on July 13, the start would be given from Roanne. On the other hand, according to our information, the peloton will not go through Isère this year, but further north, and will go directly to Haute-Savoie, then to Savoie.