The 2023 Tour de France riders are set for a gruelling final block of racing on a treacherous course that will go through all five mountain ranges.

With a start from Bilbao, Spain, the peloton will quickly be in the Pyrenees with a mountaintop finish at the iconic Col du Tourmalet, before heading to the Massif Central to end up at the top of the Puy de Dome for the first time since 1988.

The Jura and the Alps will feature three consecutive mountain treks before a rest day; a short but brutal individual time trial and a ride to Courchevel with 5,100m of altitude gain.

“They will get to the bottom of the Col de la Loze (the last climb before heading down to Courchevel) really knackered. The riders will need to keep a bit of freshness to be alert on the tricky descent,” said Tour sporting director Thierry Gouvenou.

“It’s a big, big stage.”

The Tour might then be decided in the penultimate stage to the Markstein in the Vosges, where the women’s Tour ended last year.

“We’re looking to make the most of the mountain ranges in the country, and a start from the Basque country made that possible,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said.

With only 22km of time trialling, the pure climbers will obviously be favoured.

“You can never know what will happen. There’s what we imagine and the scenarios we would like to see, but sometimes we get something totally different,” said Prudhomme.

“What we want is something like last year.”

Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar attends the presentation ceremony of the Men and Women Tour de France 2023 cycling race in Paris, France, on 27 October 2022. The 110th edition of the Tour de France will start from Bilbao, Spain, on 1 July 2023 and will arrive in Paris on 23 July 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Christophe Petit Tesson)

“I really like the route… it’s going to be a hard race from the start, with a tough week in the Basque country,” said 2020 and 2021 champion Tadej Pogacar.

“It has a lot of climbing, which I like, particularly the first and third weeks.”

In 2022, then defending champion Pogacar cracked in the ascent to the Col du Granon after the team of eventual winner Jonas Vingegaard threw everything at the Slovenian in a vintage stage, arguably the most spectacular in the century.

There will be several opportunities for sprinters to shine, aside from the traditional finish on the Champs Elysees in Paris, with stages ending in Bordeaux, Poligny and Nogaro, with Mark Cavendish’s presence being the biggest question mark as the Briton looks to break the record of 34 stage wins he shares with Belgian great Eddy Merckx.

The Tour will start on 1 July with its second “Grand Depart” from the Basque country after setting off from San Sebastian in 1992.

Minor adjustments as women’s Tour de France sets off from Clermont

The 2023 edition of the revived women’s Tour de France will set off from Clermont Ferrand and feature an ascent of the iconic Col du Tourmalet at the end of an undulating eight days of racing, organisers said on Thursday.

The race will start on the day the men’s Tour finishes in Paris, but this time it will not depart from the French capital.

Organisers made some adjustments following last year’s race, which left riders beyond the point of exhaustion after the final climb to the Markstein on the penultimate day.

“We have listened to what the riders told us,” women’s Tour de France director Marion Rousse told Reuters.

“The last stage last year was too tough, and even if the Tourmalet is a rough climb, the stage will feature fewer metres gained.

“Our goal is that the race becomes perennial.”

An individual 22km time trial in Pau, southwestern France, will be introduced.

“I’m happy that there is a time trial… I support that the discipline gets back on the calendar,” said defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten.

“Otherwise on the other six days, there are not many options to take time. This year we had two hard uphill days — this time only one, but a big one, so hopefully it will be enough to gain a lot of time.”

Asked whether the race would become longer and end up lasting three weeks, like the men’s event, Rousse insisted that sustainability was the keyword.

“It’s not possible yet. There’s still a long way to go,” she said.

“But we hope that things will evolve in that direction.” DM/Reuters