tour de france expected winner

Who Won the 2023 Tour de France?

A stage-by-stage guide to the leader of the General Classification of the men’s Tour.

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Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won the yellow jersey as the overall winner of the 2023 Tour de France. The 26-year-old won the Tour for the second straight season, becoming the 21st rider in history to win the race multiple times. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), another two-time TdF winner, finished second for the second straight season, 7 minutes, 29 seconds behind Vingegaard. Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates teammate Adam Yates was third overall, 10 minutes, 56 seconds behind the winner, to round out the podium of the Tour de France.

Here’s a look at how the General Classification played out in every stage of the 2023 Tour de France.

2023 Tour de France Champion - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) officially won the 2023 Tour de France after safely finishing Stage 21 on Sunday, July 23. For the second straight year, Vingegaard was the top General Classification rider at the Tour. This time, he beat second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 7:29, the largest margin of victory in the GC since Vincenzo Nibali won by 7:37 in 2014.

Vingegaard first claimed the yellow jersey after Stage 6 and never relinquished it. He led by 25 seconds over Pogačar at that point, but Pogačar slowly but surely cut into that advantage. That is, until Stage 16, when Vingegaard rode a brilliant time trial to drive his lead over Pogačar to 1:48. The next day on Stage 17, Vingegaard further solidified his lead after Pogačar cracked in the high mountains, driving Vingegaard’s lead well past seven minutes. He held that lead through the finish in Paris on Sunday. Pogačar, meanwhile, won the white jersey as the best young rider (25 years or younger) in the Tour de France. He wins white for a record-breaking fourth time.

Pogačar wasn’t the only UAE Team Emirates rider on the podium. Adam Yates, who held the yellow jersey from Stage 2 through Stage 5, finished third overall, 10:56 behind the leader. His twin brother, Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), finished fourth overall, 12:23 back. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) was fifth, 13:17 back.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninick) won the green jersey as the winner of the points classification. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) won the polka jersey, winning the King of the Mountains classification. Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma team won the team classification, with the best time of their team’s top three riders.

Final General Classification Standings

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 82:05:42
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -7:29
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -10:56
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -12:23
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -13:17

Points Classification Winner

• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 377 points

Mountain Classification Winner

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 106 points

Best Young Rider Classification Winner

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 82:13:11 (+5:48)

Stage 20 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) will wear the yellow jersey on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday as the leader of the 2023 Tour de France. Vingegaard is set to win his second straight Tour de France—barring diaster or as he said, “anything stupid—on the 21st and final stage.

Vingegaard finished second on Saturday’s Stage 20 with the same time as his top rival Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar claimed the stage win, but will have to settle for second to Vingegaard for a second straight year. This year, Vingegaard holds a 7 minute, 35 second advantage on Pogačar.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) remains in third overall, 10:56 back of the yellow jersey to get the final podium spot. His twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) moved up a spot to fourth on Saturday. He’s 12:23 back of the lead. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) rounds out the top five, losing a spot on Stage 20 after crashing early in the stage. He’s 12:57 behind the leader.

General Classification Standings

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 79:16:38
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -12:57

Points Classification Leader

Mountain Classification Leader

• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 105 points

Best Young Rider Classification Leader

• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 79:24:07 (+5:28)

Stage 19 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the 2023 Tour de France through 19 stages. Stage 19 was packed with a lot of exciting drama up front, but the General Classification contenders stayed well behind the action well over 13 minutes behind the stage winner.

Vingegaard continues to lead Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Emirates) by 7:35. Adam Yates (also from UAE Team Emirates) is in third place overall, 10:45 back of the lead.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 75:49:24
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -7:35
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -10:45
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -12:01
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -12:19
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 88 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 75:56:59 (+4:26)

Stage 18 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remains in the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 18. Thursday’s stage was a day for the sprinters (even though the breakaway managed to barely survive), so there were no changes as far as the GC situation. Stage 18 comes a day after Vingegaard solidified his spot atop the yellow jersey standings.

Vingegaard leads second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 7:35. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is in third, 10:45 behind the leader, and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) is in fourth, 12:01 behind. With three stages to go, Vingegaard surely can taste his second straight Tour victory.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 72:04:39
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 323 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 72:12:14 (+4:26)

Stage 17 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the 2023 Tour de France, furthering his advantage on Stage 17. Vingegaard now leads second place Tadej Pogačar by 7 minutes, 37 seconds after leading by just 10 seconds two stages prior. Pogačar cracked in a big way on Wednesday, losing major time, while Vingegaard excelled once again in the mountains to gain massive amounts of time on his closest rival and pre-Tour co-favorite.

Vingegaard made major gains during the Stage 16 individual time trial, and then on Wednesday he delivered a virtual punishing blow to Pogačar’s yellow jersey hopes. It seemed during the Tour’s second week that Pogačar had a slight upperhand on Vingegaard. But it wasn’t to be as the defending champion through down his time trial and then big mountain ride on consecutive days. That changed the Tour from one of the closest of all-time to the largest leading margin since 2014.

There are four stages still remaining, but barring something completely unexpected, Vingegaard will win the Tour de France once again by the end of the day on Sunday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 67:57:51
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 68:05:26 (+4:26)

Stage 16 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) leads the General Classification of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 16. Vingegaard extended his hold on the yellow jersey on Tuesday on an individual time trial. The maillot jaune crushed the ITT, winning the stage by 1:38 and extending his GC lead to 1:48 over second place Tadej Pogačar, his top rival.

Vingegaard was magnificent on the time trial, putting time into Pogačar from the start all the way to the finish. It’s the first time this Tour that one of the co-favorites put a major amount of time into the other, as Vingegaard has firmly asserted himself as the one to beat over the remaining five stages.

Elsewhere in the GC battle for the podium, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) moved up from fourth to third place in the standings. Yates supplanted Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) after the time trial. Yates, Pogačar’s teammate, is 8:52 behind the yellow jersey Vingegaard. Rodriguez is now in fourth place, 8:57 behind Vingegaard. Just five seconds separates Yates and Rodriguez, so it should be an exciting matchup between those two for the third and final podium spot in the GC.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 63:06:53
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -1:48
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -8:52
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -8:57
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -11:15
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 63 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 63:08:41 (+7:09)

Stage 15 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remains in the yellow jersey after Stage 15 of the 2023 Tour de France. Vingegaard holds a 10-second lead over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) after another tough mountain stage. Ultimately, the gap between the two GC favorites remained unchanged, as the two riders finished the stage together. The Tour heads into a Monday rest day before the final week begins, and very little has separated Vingegaard and Pogačar.

Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) was able to extend his hold on the third place podium spot after Stage 15. Rodriguez finished the stage ahead of Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe), who he started the day just one second ahead of. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) moved up ahead of Hindley for fourth place overall.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 62:34:17
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:10
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -5:21
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:40
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -6:38
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek): 58 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 62:34:27 (+5:11)

Stage 14 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) still leads the 2023 Tour de France after a wild Stage 14. Vingegaard now holds a 10-second advantage on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) moves up to third place in the GC after winning Stage 14. He’s now 4:43 behind the yellow jersey. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) moves to fourth place in the GC, 4:44 back of the lead. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is in fifth place, 5:20 behind.

Stage 14 only saw a change of one single second among the two leaders, Vingegaard and Pogačar, but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of fireworks. Jumbo-Visma pushed the pace to make it hard on Pogačar, but Pogačar looked to be relatively unfazed by it all. The stage proved that the battle for the yellow jersey will go down to the bitter end between Vingegaard and Pogačar.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 57:47:28
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:43
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -4:44
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:20
• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 54 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 57:47:38

Stage 13 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto the yellow jersey as the leader of the 2023 Tour de France. But the gap between the defending champion and Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has narrowed after the Slovenian, winner of the Tour in 2020 and 2021, attacked and then gapped the Dane about 400 meters from the top of the “Beyond Category” Col du Grand Colombier at the end of Stage 14.

Pogačar crossed the line 4 seconds ahead of Vingegaard and in doing so finished third on the stage to take a 4-second time bonus, which cut Vingegaard’s overall advantage to just 9 seconds. With two days in the Alps before Monday’s rest day, expect more fireworks as these two continue their intense fight to win the 2023 Tour de France.

A little less than a minute before the reignition of the Tour’s GC battle, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) won the stage after spending all day in the breakaway and attacking what was left of it on the lower slopes of the Grand Colombier. A super-domestique with an impressive resume of his own, the 33-year-old proved too strong for UAE Team Emirates to catch, holding-off Belgium’s Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Soudal) and then Pogačar to take the second Tour de France stage victory of his career.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 53:48:50
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:09
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -2:51
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:48
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -5:03
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 46 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 53:48:59'

Stage 12 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) remained in the yellow jersey after a somewhat stressful Stage 12 of the Tour de France. Despite the stress, the GC picture remained mostly unchanged. Vingegaard remains 17 seconds ahead of second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is third overall in the GC, 2:40 back.

Thibaut Pinot made a jump into the top ten of the GC, going from 15th to tenth after gaining time on the other GC contenders in the breakaway on Thursday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 50:30:23
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:17
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -2:40
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -4:22
• Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious): -4:34
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 50:30:40 (+4:05)

Stage 11 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France after 11 stages. Stage 11 saw no change to the General Classification on a sprint stage, despite a relatively tricky road into the finish.

Vingegaard remains 17 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) for the lead in the yellow jersey competition. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is in third, holding down the final podium spot, 2:40 behind Vingegaard. Tuesday’s flat stage is the last true sprinter’s stage until perhaps Stage 19—or even the final Stage 21 in Paris—so we can expect an eventful next week or so as far as the GC is concerned.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 46:34:27
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 46:34:44 (+4:05)

Stage 10 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto the yellow leader’s jersey after Stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France, leading Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 17 seconds. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) remains in third place, 2:40 behind Vingegaard. These standings should stay the same after Stage 11, which will likely favor the sprinters.

Stage 10 didn’t see any major GC moves, but that didn’t mean it was an easy day in the saddle for the yellow jersey hopefuls.The peloton held the breakaway in check throughout the day, never giving them too much time. Ultimately, there weren’t any moves on the stage after the rest day from Vingegaard or Pogačar.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 42:33:13
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 260 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 42:33:30 (+4:05)

Stage 9 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) held onto his lead in the 2023 Tour de France, but lost time to Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) at the end of Sunday’s Stage 9. The stage finished atop the Hors Categorie (“Beyond Category”) Puy de Dôme, an extinct volcano rising above the Massif Central that the Tour hasn’t been climbed by the Tour since 1988.Canada’s Mike Woods (Israel-PremierTech) won the stage.

The former world class distance runner paced himself perfectly from the base of the climb, catching multiple riders left from the day’s big breakaway on the way to his first Tour de France stage victory. France’s Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) finished second, and Slovenia’s Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) finished third. But the battle to win the Tour’s General Classification took place over eight minutes later, as Vingegaard and Pogačar continued their duel on the climb’s upper slopes.

Jumbo-Visma did a terrific job of whittling down to the yellow jersey group, but it was Pogačar who took advantage pulling away from Vingegaard about 1,400meters from the summit finish. Vingegaard only lost 8 seconds to the Slovenian, but heading into the first rest day, he now leads the Tour by just 17 seconds. The race to win the 2023 Tour de France is far from over.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): 38:37:46
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -4:39
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 259 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): 38:38:03

Stage 8 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

There was once again no change in the overall, as Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France. The defending champion has a 25-second advantage on Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), as the peloton prepares to head into a big mountain stage on Sunday.

Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla) was the lone GC contender to lose time on Stage 8, crashing with about 6K to go in the stage, outside of the 3K safe zone. Yates went from being 3:14 down from the leader Vingegaard to 4:01 after Saturday.

• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): -
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:25
• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -1:34
• Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers): -3:30
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -3:40
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 258 points
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 36 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): +3:05

Stage 7 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) enjoyed his first day in the yellow leader’s jersey during Stage 7 at the 2023 Tour de France. It was a relatively easy day—despite some intense heat—for the GC contenders in the peloton on Friday’s stage designed for the sprinters.

Vingegaard continues to hold a 25-second GC lead over Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). The two riders will likely see a major GC clash again on Sunday’s Stage 9 mountain stage. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) is 1:34 behind the yellow jersey Vingegaard in third overall.

• Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla): -3:14
• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 215 points

Stage 6 Leader - Jonas Vingegaard

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took over the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after an eventful Stage 6 that saw the GC contenders battle it out for the stage win and crucial seconds. Vingegaard will wear the yellow jersey on Friday’s Stage 7. He leads second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 25 seconds in the overall standings after Pogačar won Stage 6. Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe), who wore the yellow jersey on the day, lost time on Thursday and is now in third place in the GC, 1:34 back of the leader.

After Vingegaard dealt a major blow to Pogačar on Stage 5, Pogačar roared back to capture the stage win and prove that the GC is not over yet. Despite Vingegaard moving into the yellow jersey, Stage 6 was much more defined by Pogačar gaining time on Vingegaard than the changing of the guard in the leader’s jersey. It seemed after Stage 5 that the defending champion Vingegaard was clearly the strongest rider in the peloton once again, but Pogačar, a two-time Tour champion in his own right, showed us that it’s a long way to Paris and it could be a fierce battle all the way to the end.

• Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck): 150 points

Stage 5 Leader - Jai Hindley

Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) took over the lead of the 2023 Tour de France after a brilliant win on Stage 5. Hindley leads the General Classification by 47 seconds (thanks in part to 18 seconds worth of bonuses picked up on Stage 5) over second place overall Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek) is 1:03 back in third overall and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora–Hansgrohe) is in fourth overall, 1:11 back.

The yellow jersey holder for the first five stages, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) lost the lead on Wednesday and is now in fifth overall, 1:34 back of the lead. Tadej Pogačar, the co-prerace favorite along with Vingegaard, lost time on Stage 5 and is now in sixth place overall, 1:40 behind the leader Hindley. Vingegaard is 53 seconds ahead of Pogačar.

Stage 5 saw some major GC shakeups. Hindley, the 2022 winner of the Giro d’Italia, sits in yellow with a solid 47-second advantage over Vingegaard. With a grand tour win already under his belt, Hindley has a chance to stay in yellow for a while. Of course, a lot of that depends on the race tactics of Vingegaard and Pogačar, who may likely spar again on a mountainous Stage 6.

• Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe): -
• Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma): -:47
• Giulio Ciccone (Lidl–Trek): -1:03
• Emanuel Buchmann (Bora–Hansgrohe): -1:11
• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -1:34
• Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën): 28 points
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): +:16

Stage 4 Leader - Adam Yates

There was no change in the General Classification standings of the Tour de France after Stage 4. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) will stay in the yellow jersey another day, holding onto a six second advantage over teammate Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and his twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla).

Stage 5 has a good chance to brings some GC fireworks. Pogačar—in second place overall—has an 11-second advantage over Tour de France co-favorite Jonas Vingegaard, who is in sixth place overall. That could change—one way or the other–on Wednesday.

• Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates): -
• Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): -:06
• Simon Yates (Jayco–AlUla): -:06
• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): -:12
• Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma): -:16
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 18 points

Stage 3 Leader - Adam Yates

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) continues to lead the 2023 Tour de France. After the first two stages of the Tour de France brought a ton of fireworks and battles between the General Classification contenders, Stage 3 was the first (mostly) flat day for the sprinters.

Yates remains in the lead of the GC still six seconds up over second place Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and third place Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla). There were no significant losses among the contenders on Stage 3.

• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): 80 points

Stage 2 Leader - Adam Yates

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) maintained his lead of the 2023 Tour de France after Stage 2. Adam Yates finished 21st on the stage, but finished on the same time as the other top finishers of the day. He now holds the yellow jersey by six seconds over second place Tadej Pogačar, Yates’ UAE Team Emirates teammate. Adam Yates’ twin brother Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) is third overall, also six seconds behind.

Pogačar, meanwhile, earned 12 bonus seconds during Stage 2 to widen his lead over GC co-favorite Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Vingegaard earned five bonus seconds on the day, and currently sits in sixth place in the yellow jersey competition, 17 seconds behind Yates and 11 seconds back of Pogačar. Stage 2 winner Victory Lafay (Cofidis) is now fourth overall in the GC.

• Victor Lafay (Cofidis): 65 points
• Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost): 11 points

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Meeus wins thrilling Champs-Élysées finish as Vingegaard wins Tour de France

It was a surprise winner of the 2023 tour de france final stage in jordi meeus, but a very expected result as jonas vingegaard wrapped up the overall victory of the race..

Jordi Meeus wins Stage 21 of the 2023 Tour de France.

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Jonas Vingegaard Wins Tour de France, Completing His Sudden Ascent to Top

Vingegaard, 25, won cycling’s most prestigious race on his second attempt, setting up a new rivalry with the two-time champion he dethroned, Tadej Pogacar.

By Juliet Macur

PARIS — Head down and legs churning, Jonas Vingegaard crossed the finish line of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday and cupped his hand over his mouth, as if to stifle a gasp. He had done what he had come to do, and his astonishing accomplishment was sinking in.

In only his second Tour de France, and only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Vingegaard, a 25-year-old Danish rider, had sealed his victory in cycling’s most prestigious race.

His victory became official on Sunday, when the race concluded with its traditional celebratory ride into Paris. But the Tour had been effectively over for days, and when Vingegaard finished second in Saturday’s time trial to his Jumbo-Visma teammate, Wout van Aert of Belgium, his effort on the 25-mile course was enough to leave him with such a large lead in the overall standings — 3 minutes 34 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer — that the final stage brought almost no drama at all.

Vingegaard steered clear of danger on the final laps in Paris, crossing — safely — alongside his teammates well behind the peloton. His winning time was 79 hours 33 minutes 20 seconds.

“We made a plan and we followed it 100 percent,” he said on the podium afterward . “And thanks to everyone in the team, behind the team. It has been really incredible journey for us and now we finally did it.”

After about three full weeks of the Tour, Vingegaard, as he had on Saturday, immediately sought out his partner and toddler daughter in the area past the finish line and gave them a long, sweaty hug.

While Vingegaard had pedaled up and down all the endless hills and unforgiving mountains, and across all the flat roads past fields of flowers and farms, he had wanted to win for them. During every day of searing heat that at times rose above 100 degrees, melting pavement and sidelining some riders with heat exhaustion, he said, he had steeled himself for them.

And, in the end, Vingegaard, who grew up in a small fishing town in northern Denmark, won what was arguably one of the most grueling Tours in history.

Tadej Pogacar, the Slovene rider looking for his third straight Tour win, finished second overall, 2:43 behind Vingegaard, after fighting Vingegaard for the lead until the race’s final days. Geraint Thomas of Britain, the 2018 Tour winner, was third, 7:22 off the pace. Every other rider was at least 13 minutes behind Vingegaard.

“I think the battle between me and Jonas was really something special,” Pogacar, 23, said Saturday, acknowledging the eventual outcome. He offered Sunday’s only hint of a surprise: a late sprint into the lead on Sunday’s final lap, though he was immediately reeled back into the lead group.

“It’s going to be an interesting couple of years ahead for us,” Pogacar said of his nascent rivalry with Vingegaard. “He’s stepped up from last year, he’s taken control of things from the beginning, and he’s proved he’s a strong rider.”

Going into this Tour, Pogacar most likely expected Vingegaard to be his greatest rival after Vingegaard’s improbable second-place finish last year.

In 2021, Jumbo-Visma’s top rider, Primoz Roglic, had dropped out of the Tour after a crash and Vingegaard took it upon himself to show what he could do . His performance was breathtaking — and unexpected. On the daunting Mont Ventoux, he left Pogacar behind to record one of the fastest times ever for that legendary climb.

Vingegaard’s entire career has been nothing short of a fairy tale played out on two wheels and on fast forward.

Six months before joining Jumbo-Visma in 2019, he was working part-time in a Danish factory where he gutted, cleaned and packed fish into ice-filled boxes. Before that, he worked at a fish auction. He credits those days of waking at 4 a.m. and all that hard manual labor in the shivering cold with helping him get to where he is now, at the top of the cycling world.

His Jumbo-Visma team, especially van Aert, was at his side all the way.

Van Aert had his own remarkable race, spending every day of the Tour except the first in the green jersey, which is awarded to the rider who accumulates the most points for stage finishes and in midrace sprint sections. But his biggest achievement over the past three weeks might have been his support of Vingegaard.

Van Aert was there for Vingegaard when his teammate needed him the most on the grueling Hautacam climb that turned out to be the deciding stage in the overall competition. He took off on a breakaway and mercilessly dictated a fast pace, challenging the notion, at 6-foot-3, that light, smaller riders like Vingegaard and Pogacar are naturally the best climbers.

Pogacar, who was battling Vingegaard for the overall lead, couldn’t keep up. As Vingegaard and van Aert kept climbing, Pogacar faded, looking like a car with a sputtering engine as the Jumbo-Visma teammates powered ahead.

The Jumbo-Visma team had won six of the Tour’s 20 stages entering Sunday’s finale. After Saturday’s stage, though, Vingegaard faced questions about his fairy-tale career. One reporter asked him about his rapid rise in the sport, and about how he could have finished 22nd in the 2019 Danish national time trial and then go on to nearly win Saturday’s time trial after three weeks of the Tour.

If Vingegaard was familiar at all with Tour history, or Danish racing history, it was possible that he expected the question. The only other Dane to win the Tour was Bjarne Riis in 1996, and a decade later Riis admitted that he had doped to win the race. Many past winners, though none recently, have either been caught doping or have admitted to doing so.

No, Vingegaard said, he did not go fast because he had doped. It happened because he and his team improved his aerodynamics by toiling in the wind tunnel and adjusting his body position and bike.

“We’re totally clean,” he said in his news conference, broadening his denial to include his entire team. “Every one of us. I can say that to every one of you. No one of us is taking anything illegal.”

High-altitude training camps and attention to detail — in food, in equipment, in preparation — were behind Jumbo-Visma’s rise, he said. “That’s why you have to trust,” he said.

Vingegaard appears to take sportsmanship seriously. On one descent during Stage 18, Pogacar crashed on a section of gravel as he and Vingegaard zoomed down a hill nearly side by side. But instead of taking advantage of Pogacar’s fall, Vingegaard waited for him down the road, allowing his rival to catch up .

After coming back together, Pogacar reached out in an expression of gratitude and the two clenched hands in a moment that will be replayed for years as an example of the good side of sports.

But only one of them was invited to climb atop the podium in Paris and celebrate on the Champs-Élysées. Only one got to pose for photos and family memories that will last a lifetime. And only one will be celebrated in his home country this summer as the king of cycling.

A series of ceremonies honoring Vingegaard already has been scheduled in Copenhagen, the city that hosted the start of this year’s Tour — the kickoff to Vingegaard’s ride to victory.

Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France for 2nd straight year

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Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France for a second straight year as cycling’s most storied race finished Sunday on the Champs-Élysées.

With a huge lead built up over main rival Tadej Pogačar, the 2020 and 2021 winner, Vingegaard knew the victory was effectively his again before the largely ceremonial stage at the end of the 110th edition of the Tour.

The 26-year-old Vingegaard drank champagne with his Jumbo-Visma teammates as they lined up together and posed for photos on the way to Paris.

“It’s been a long journey, yet it went by so fast,” Vingegaard said. “Day after day, it was a super hard race with a super nice fight between me and Tadej. I’ve enjoyed every day. I hope to come back next year and see if I can take a third win.”

It had been a three-week slog over 3,405 kilometers (2,116 miles) with eight mountain stages across five mountain ranges. Vingegaard seized control of the race over two stages in the Alps.

Little had separated the two rivals until Vingegaard finished a time trial 1 minute, 38 seconds ahead of Pogačar on Tuesday, then followed up the next day by finishing the toughest mountain stage of the race almost 6 minutes ahead of his exhausted rival.

“I’m dead,” Pogačar said.

The Slovenian rider responded by winning the penultimate stage on Saturday, but Vingegaard still had an insurmountable lead of 7 minutes, 29 seconds going into the final stage – a mostly ceremonial stage which is contested at the end by the sprinters.

“We have to be careful not to do anything stupid,” Vingegaard warned Saturday, “but yeah, it’s amazing to take my second victory in the Tour de France.”

Vingegaard kept that lead and was able to celebrate early Sunday as organizers decided to take the times one lap before the finish when it started raining on the cobblestones of the Champs-Élysées. The decision invited the sprinters to fight for the stage victory – the only remaining uncertainty.

Belgian cyclist Jordi Meeus prevailed in a photo finish between four riders on the line, just ahead of Jasper Philipsen, Dylan Groenewegen and Mads Pedersen.

“It was my first Tour. It was a super nice experience already so far, and to take the win today is an indescribable feeling,” said Meeus, who clocked a top speed of 68.8 kph (42.8 mph) on the last kilometer.

Pogačar, who attacked after just one lap of eight altogether on the Champs-Élysées, was wearing the white jersey as the best young rider for the 75th day – extending a career Tour record. The 24-year-old Slovenian rider has won the best young rider classification every year since 2020.

But Pogačar had to be content with second place in the general classification again.

British rider Adam Yates, Pogačar’s teammate, finished third overall, ahead of his twin brother Simon.

Colombian rider Egan Bernal, the 2019 Tour winner, completed the race as he made his impressive comeback from a life-threatening crash. The 26-year-old Bernal said he narrowly avoided becoming paralyzed after an accident with a bus while training in Colombia in January 2022.

“It’s difficult to compare with the year I won but it’s almost the same feeling because for me it’s a great victory,” Bernal said. “Yesterday, in the last climb, I was so lucky I was alone and could enjoy the last kilometers. I was so emotional.”

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Jonas Vingegaard safely completes final stage to claim Tour de France glory

Jonas Vingegaard has come home safely to win the Tour de France in Paris while Jasper Philipsen powered to victory in the final stage on the Champs-Elysees.

Denmark's Vingegaard, the leader of the all-conquering Jumbo-Visma team, had effectively sealed his triumph in Saturday's time trial and was shepherded home in 77th place on the largely ceremonial 21st and final stage on Sunday.

"It's just incredible — I finally won the Tour. Nothing can go wrong anymore," the 25-year-old said, holding his young daughter

"It's the biggest cycling race you can win and now I've done it and no-one can take it away from me.

"I'm super happy about my victory. I want to relax, celebrate — but I also want more."

That bodes well for a thrilling new era for the sport after Slovenia's Tadej Pogačar, winner of the two previous editions, finished second overall 3 minutes 34 seconds behind the winner.

Britain's former champion Geraint Thomas took third place.

The irrepressible Pogačar may have been dethroned but he still had the cheek to launch his own attack in the denouement in Paris, before it was quickly pulled back.

Belgian Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) proved a dominant winner in the sprint finale to the 115.6km stage, racing away from runner-up Dylan Groenewegen, the star sprinter of the Australian outfit Team BikeExchange-Jayco, and Norwegian Alexander Kristoff.

"I cannot believe it, it's a childhood dream coming true," said Philipsen, who also won his maiden Tour victory this year on stage 15 in Carcassonne.

"This will take a while to realise. I'm just super proud of the team. That we could finish a Tour like this is the cherry on the cake."

Once again, luckless Australian star Caleb Ewan missed out, failing to find the right position to strike in the denouement and finishing eighth.

He also became only the second Australian ever to win the Lanterne Rouge, the accolade bestowed on the slowest finisher after the three-week slog.

Finishing last of the 135 riders who finally made it across the line, the Sydneysider — who had to battle through two crashes en route — had been in the saddle for 85 hours, 14 minutes, 2 seconds.

In contrast, Vingegaard finished in 79:33:20, some five hours 40 minutes quicker.

He was the first Danish rider to win cycling's biggest race since Bjarne Riis's largely discredited triumph in 1996 after he admitted later to doping.

The top Australian finisher on the Tour was BikeExchange-Jayco's Nick Schultz, who ended up 23rd, 1:39:41 down on Vingegaard.

Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) was 35th, Chris Hamilton (DSM) was 38th, and stage winner Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) was 78th.

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In the hotly anticipated mountain battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar on stage 14 of the 2023 Tour de France , the winner was a rider nobody expected: Carlos Rodríguez.

Dropped on the final climb of the Col de Joux Plane as overall first and second duelled for bonus seconds, the 22-year-old Spaniard caught up and pushed on alone on a fast and technical descent to claim a stage win in his debut Tour and a second victory in two days for Ineos Grenadiers.  

After two weeks of racing this Tour remains a battle of seconds. Victory in Morzine catapulted Rodríguez into third on the GC by just one second from Jai Hindley.

After Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates wrestled for control of the stage, Jonas Vingegaard added one second to his lead over Tadej Pogačar in the fight for the overall Tour.

In truth, that one second only tells one half of the story. The stage saw a remarkable and intriguing duel between the two best GC riders in the world on the hot and sweaty ascent of the Col de Joux Plane. 

Pogačar launched one of his signature attacks with 3.5km to the summit and opened up a gap as he had done on previous stages to Cauterets and the Puy de Dôme. However on this occasion, Vingegaard clawed his way back to his rival’s wheel and set up a track sprint for the bonus seconds on offer at the top of the climb.

That fight tells the story of a Tour contested by two riders so closely matched in ability that the bonus seconds offered by race organisers may ultimately prove the difference between failure and success. 

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One last push by Pogačar with 600m to the Joux Plane summit was curtailed by the presence of a press motorbike and that misfortune put the Slovenian off his stride. Vingegaard exploited his rival’s hesitation to nab the seconds for himself; Rodríguez exploited it to catch the leaders and push on to victory.

Pogačar downplayed the significance of the incident in his post-race interviews but time will tell just how important that may turn out to be. For now, it is yet another twist in this fascinating and potentially era-defining battle for the Tour.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The 2023 Tour's first serious alpine stage was called to a halt after just 8km when a large crash on the greasy roads out of the Geneva suburbs brought down a swathe of the peloton and occupied the Tour's medical staff. 

Organisers neutralised the race for 20 minutes to allow for treatment of the riders; Esteban Chaves and Louis Meintjes were the two biggest name riders to abandon the race while a further blow was dealt to Chaves' EF Education-EasyPost team when James Shaw crashed out along with Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich) not long after the race had resumed. 

While one sole second might not have been the ultimate gain that they were hoping for, it was evident from the start of the stage that Jumbo-Visma had a clear plan for the day. 

Such was their control over the peloton that attacks were never allowed more than a minute up the road. Even an 11-strong group containing some of the world's best climbers - Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Mikel Landa, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Gorka Izagirre, Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Mike Woods, Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) - was caught on the penultimate climb of the Col de la Ramaz. 

The Dutch squad then set about whittling down the remaining bunch. Tom Pidcock was the biggest victim of the sustained pressure; the Brit ceded 30 seconds to the GC group over the top of the Ramaz and never got back on, eventually finishing over eight minutes down on the stage and dropping from eighth to 11th overall. 

Wout van Aert let rip on the approach to the Joux Plane but when Wilco Kelderman peeled off, it suddenly looked like UAE Team Emirates - who had been content to sit in the wheels all day - had the upper hand.

However a remarkable resurrection from near standstill saw Van Aert roar back to the front of the race, drop Majka with a brutal acceleration, and put the plan back on track.

Sepp Kuss led a select group of seven up the Joux Plane before Adam Yates set Pogačar up for his attack. A game of cat and mouse between first and second on the GC allowed Carlos Rodríguez the time to ride back up to the front of the race and the opportunity to spring a move of his own over the one last little uncategorised kicker before the descent down to the finish line in Morzine. 

His gap of five seconds was small, but it was mighty enough to endure on the narrow and technical drop off the mountain side, particularly when Vingegaard and Pogačar only had eyes for each other. 

Such skill and sang-froid suggests there is yet more to come from Rodríguez. With another high alpine stage tomorrow, there is definitely much more to come from this Tour. 

TOUR DE FRANCE 2023, STAGE 14: ANNEMASSE > MORZINE LES PORTES DU SOLEIL, 151.8KM 

1. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers

2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 5 seconds

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma at same time

4. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates at 10 seconds

5. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma at 57 seconds

6. Jai Hindley (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe at 1-46

7. Felix Gall (Aut) Ag2r-Citroen at same time

8. Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain Victorious at 3-19

9. Simon Yates (GBr) Jayco-AlUla at 3-21

10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis at 5-57

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 14

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma in 57-47-28

2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 10 seconds 

3. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers at 4-43

4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe at 4-44

5. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates at 5-20

6. Sepp Kuss (USA) Jumbo-Visma at 8-15

7. Simon Yates (GBr) Jayco-AlUla at 8-32

8. Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain Victorious at 8-51

9. Felix Gall (Aut) Ag2r-Citroen at 12-26

10. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 12-56

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Richard Abraham is an award-winning writer, based in New Zealand. He has reported from major sporting events including the Tour de France and Olympic Games, and is also a part-time travel guide who has delivered luxury cycle tours and events across Europe. In 2019 he was awarded Writer of the Year at the PPA Awards.

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Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck won the fastest ever Milan-Sanremo Classic in a photo finish on Saturday to claim the first Monument of the season, a 288-km ride from Pavia to Sanremo.

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Jonas Vingegaard wins Tour de France for 2nd straight year

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Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France for the second straight year as cycling's most storied race finished Sunday on the famed Champs-Élysées in Paris.

With a huge lead built up over main rival Tadej Pogačar, the 2020 and 2021 winner, Vingegaard knew the victory was effectively his again before the largely ceremonial stage at the end of the 110th edition of the Tour.

Vingegaard drank champagne with his Visma-Jumbo teammates as they lined up together and posed for photos on the way to Paris.

"It's been an amazing year. What a Tour de France for us," Vingegaard said. "We started the plans early, and once again, I could not have done it without my team. It's been an amazing Tour for us, and I'm so proud of every one of us.

"Tonight we will celebrate, have a good dinner. It will be a nice evening. Thanks to my opponents, who have been amazing. It's been an amazing three weeks fighting with you guys."

It had been a three-week slog over 2,116 miles with eight mountain stages across five mountain ranges. Vingegaard seized control of the race over two stages in the Alps.

Little had separated the two rivals until Vingegaard finished a time trial 1 minute, 38 seconds ahead of Pogačar on Tuesday, then followed up the next day by finishing the toughest mountain stage of the race almost six minutes ahead of his exhausted rival.

"I'm dead," said the 24-year-old Pogačar, who won the white jersey as the best under-25 rider for the fourth year in a row.

The Slovenian rider responded by winning the penultimate stage Saturday, but Vingegaard still had an insurmountable lead of 7 minutes, 29 seconds going into the final stage -- a mostly ceremonial event that is contested at the end by the sprinters.

Belgian cyclist Jordi Meeus won the final stage in a photo finish between four riders on the line, just ahead of Jasper Philipsen, Dylan Groenewegen and Mads Pedersen.

"It was my first Tour. It was a super-nice experience already so far, and to take the win today is an incredible feeling," Meeus said.

British cyclist and Pogačar teammate Adam Yates took third place overall, while Belgian rider Jasper Philipsen won the green jersey for the points classification and Italian competitor Giulio Ciccone took the polka-dot jersey for the mountains classification.

Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma won the teams classification.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Tour de France 2022 odds, field, predictions: Proven cycling expert locks in surprising picks, best bets

Sportsline's gene menez correctly predicted the winners of the yellow, green and white jerseys in the 2019 tour de france.

A band of challengers will try to end Tadej Pogacar's reign in the world's most famous bike race when the 2022 Tour de France begins on Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 23-year-old Pogacar has won the Tour the last two years but will need to fend off several rivals to win his third Tour. Those include the runners-up the last two years, Jonas Vingegaard ('21) and Primoz Roglic ('20), 2018 champion Geraint Thomas and Russian upstart Alexander Vlasov. 

Pogacar is the -170 favorite (risk $170 to win $100) in the latest 2022 Tour de France odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Vingegaard is second in the odds at +450, while Roglic is +500. The Tour de France 2022 ends on July 24 with its traditional finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. With so many variables in the 2022 Tour de France, you'll want to see the latest 2022 Tour de France predictions from SportsLine senior writer Gene Menez . 

A former reporter and associate editor for Sports Illustrated, where he covered an array of sports for almost 14 years, Menez has been obsessed with the Tour de France for almost four decades. He has been following the iconic three-week race since the mid-1980s when Greg LeMond was riding to three yellow jerseys. In 2019, Menez correctly predicted the winners of the yellow, green and white jerseys, and last year he nailed the winner of the white jersey.

Menez has analyzed the 2022 Tour de France favorites, route, and top contenders and has picked his top-three finishers for the yellow jersey, as well as the winners of the green jersey (best sprinter), polka dot jersey (best climber) and white jersey (best young rider). He's sharing all of his expert Tour de France 2022 picks only at SportsLine . 

Top 2022 Tour de France picks

One shocker: After studying the route and the results of the contenders in the race, Menez has landed on Fabio Jakobsen (+550) taking home the green jersey even though he is not the betting favorite. (Wout van Aert is, at -140.) Jakobsen has been the best and most consistent sprinter in the world this year, with 10 victories. He also has won the green jersey in three stage races this year: Valencia, Algarve and Hungary.

Menez prefers Jakobsen over van Aert because the latter will likely be asked to help teammates Vingegaard and Roglic in the mountain stages, which could take a lot of starch out of his legs. On the other hand, Jakobsen's team will dedicate all of its resources to Jakobsen's green jersey quest. "I'll gladly take +550 on the fastest man in the race," he says.

How to make 2022 Tour de France picks

Menez's pick to win the Tour de France is a rider who "is in terrific form." He's also is high on a "strong climber" at "nice odds" to win the King of the Mountains jersey. He is sharing all of his 2022 Tour de France picks only on SportsLine .

So which rider wins the Tour de France 2022? Who finishes on the podium? And who captures the green, polka dot and white jerseys? See the 2022 Tour de France odds below and  visit SportsLine to see Menez's detailed Tour de France expert picks , all from the SportsLine senior writer who has been intensely following the sport for more than three decades.

2022 Tour de France favorites, odds, top contenders

See Tour de France picks, predictions and best bets here Tadej Pogacar -170 Jonas Vingegaard +450 Primoz Roglic +500 Geraint Thomas +2200 Alexander Vlasov +2200 Daniel Martinez +3500 Ben O'Connor +5000 Adam Yates +8000 Enric Mas +8000 Romain Bardet +8000 Nairo Quintana +10000 Jakob Fuglsang +10000 Johan Esteban Chaves +12500 Rigoberto Uran +12500 David Gaudu +15000 Wout Van Aert +15000 Louis Meintjes +15000 Jack Haig +15000 Damiano Crauso +15000 Thibaut Pinot +17500 Sepp Kuss +17500 Alexey Lutsenko +20000 Brandon McNulty +25000 Michael Storer +25000 Michael Woods +25000 Chris Froome +25000 Lennard Kamna +25000 Thomas Pidcock +30000 Guillaume Martin +30000 Guilio Ciccone +30000 Steven Kruijswijk +30000 Pavel Sivakov +40000 Warren Barguil +40000 George Bennett +40000 Rafal Majka +40000 Marc Soler +40000 Andreas Leknessund +40000 Mathieu Van Der Poel +50000 Bob Jungels +50000 Ion Izagirre +50000 Pierre Latour +50000 Patrick Konrad +75000 Maximilian Schachmann +75000 Mattia Cattaneo +75000 Joseph Dombrowski +100000 Matej Mohoric +100000 Marc Hirschi +100000 Tiejs Benoot +100000 Matteo Jorgenson +100000

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Tour de France 2023: Kwiatkowski wins stage 13 as Pogacar grabs time – as it happened

Michal Kwiatkowski produced a superb solo ride on Grand Colombier while Tadej Pogacar reduced Jonas Vingegaard’s lead

• 14 Jul 2023 Top 10 on stage 13
• 14 Jul 2023 Vingegaard now leads overall by nine seconds
• 14 Jul 2023 Michal Kwiatkowski wins stage 13!
• 14 Jul 2023 Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) abandons
• 14 Jul 2023 Mike Teunissen takes the intermediate sprint
• 14 Jul 2023 Stage 13 begins!
• 14 Jul 2023 Preamble

115km to go: That previous group of six was shut down. Now it’s Pacher, Van Gils, Oliveira and Teunissen out front, a group of four, and they have 13sec.

117km to go: One of the sports directors comes on the radio, saying that UAE Team Emirates have let it be known that they want to control the race today and go for the stage win. On commentary, Sean Kelly and Robbie McEwen poo-poo this idea. Neither believe UAE Team Emirates will expend the energy to control this.

119km to go: Cavagna (Soudal–Quick-Step), Castroviejo and Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers), Cort (EF Education–EasyPost), Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Coquard (Cofidis) are the six up front.

121km to go: Six riders bust away from the clutches of the peloton once again. Is that Mohoric up there? I think it may be. Anyway six riders have five seconds on the bunch, but the bunch is still trying to shut all this silliness down.

We’re told the front group is moving at 56km/h. That’s a spicy meatball!

122km to go: Cavagna, the Frenchman who hails from Clermont-Ferrand, has a crack off the front again. It is Bastille Day, after all. Not Metronomy Day or Friendly Fires Day.

124km to go: Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) are on the move up front. They have impressively built a lead of eight seconds over the chasing peloton. But chasing is the operative word: the main bunch aren’t having any of this, and are trying their hardest to close it down … Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is taking charge of the chase, and predictably given his ludicrous power, he shuts it down in double-quick time. All back together.

125km to go: You already know about today’s climb. Stage 13’s intermediate sprint comes at Hauteville-Lompnes, with 50.5km to race. It’s on the way to the top of the long, but uncategorised ascent that comes as an hors d’oeuvre for Grand Colombier.

128km to go: “Huge day,” emails Paul. “But why have the French declared a national holiday named after a middling but erudite indie synth band? Can any Francophile readers explain? Not knowing is driving me MAD but I’ll wager that it’s do with why we needed to leave the EU and that. I predict we will see Pogacar in yellow today (the colour, not the middling but erudite Swiss synth band).”

129km to go: Cofidis up front now. There’s a gaggle of riders up ahead of the peloton again. Again they are going to be reeled in. At this pace, we’ll be faster than the fastest predicted stage finish, I’d bet.

130km to go: EF Education–EasyPost now have two riders up front trying to snap the elastic.

“Good afternoon!” emails Bill.

“It’s France! It’s Bastille Day! It’s a big mountain finish! It’s Thibaut’s time! Pinot is going to get a huge stomp on, and the final climb is going to be thrilling heorics in the red all the way to the top. He will take a brilliantly emotional victory on his farewell Tour de France .

“It will be marvellous.”

132km to go: The situation is fluid up front … but now that latest attempt to break away is closed down and we are back together again. This isn’t going to be a nice, relaxed start to the three looming days in the mountains, that’s for sure.

134km to go: Rémi Cavagna (Soudal–Quick-Step) now has a dart. There are four riders who have a few metres on the peloton. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Circus–Wanty) gets across and swells the group. Six there now … but I fancy this is going to get pulled back as well. They only have a few metres and it’s strung out at the front as the riders try to pull it back.

136km to go: That first attempt to break away is shut down. But more attacks come almost immediately. Mike Teunissen (Intermarché–Circus–Wanty) is the next to have a bash. He springs out of the peloton on the left-hand side of the road. And several riders give chase.

137km to go: Victor Campanaerts is one of two Lotto Dstny riders up front, trying to form the breakaway. Three Uno-X men are giving chase. They are speeding along at 50km/h.

Stage 13 begins!

And they’re off. Lotto Dstny are on the attack.

On the telly, there’s a beautiful shot of the Alps looming in the far distance.

Andrey Amador (EF Education–EasyPost) needs a front wheel change following a puncture.

Here we go then. The peloton are rolling along in the neutralised zone. 1.2km until they race.

Jens Voigt believes the break has zero chance of survival today. I don’t agree – and not just because Pogacar said UAE will be keeping their options open …

As mentioned earlier, De Gendt won on this day in 2016, the same day that Chris Froome went for a jog on Mont Ventoux:

On Eurosport , pundit Dan Lloyd points out that going really deep today may cost riders over the weekend: perhaps not tomorrow, but Sunday. Managing effort over the next three days is going to be so important.

Now Vingegaard speaks , and is asked by Eurosport if this is a climb for Pogacar? “Yes, it suits him better. It’s only one climb in the end. In that case we’ll try to ride a bit defensively today.

Are you going to leave everything to UAE? “Basically, yes.

“I have the lightest options for today [bike and equipment].

“It’s a very, very hard climb. It’s 17km. Especially the bottom of it is very hard. It’s a hard climb to predict. In the bottom it’s steeper … we’ll see what plans everyone else has.”

He looks nervous, in my view, but that’s only to be expected …

Tadej Pogacar speaks to Eurosport, and is asked about how today may play out: “A lot depends on the break … then we have to decide if we go for it, or we let go.”

Is Grand Colombier a good climb for him? “I think yes, it suits me good. Three years ago was really nice memories . It would be nice to have it again. But today might be totally different than three years ago.”

And what did he think of Jumbo Visma’s tactics yesterday? “It was a bit crazy. They really wanted to go for the break. It was strange to see. But for us, it was OK, we had a good day yesterday. We focus on ourselves, and do our own thing.”

The headline in GC is that Vingegaard leads Pogacar by 17sec.

Top 10 before stage 13:

Vingegaard 50hr 30min 23sec Pogacar +17sec Hindley +2min 40sec Rodriguez +4min 22sec Bilbao +4min 34sec A Yates +4min 39sec S Yates +4min 44sec Pidcock +5min 26sec Gaudu +6min 01sec Pinot +6min 33sec

Mark Cavendish gives an update following his unfortunate departure from the race . He says his broken collarbone is slightly complicated by a previous injury – the one he sustained when he crashed in Harrogate in 2014. Anyway, aside from that, he sounds upbeat and thanks everyone who’s sent him messages of support. It’s been “wicked”, he says.

An update on @MarkCavendish from his hospital bed 🤕 #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/YqY0pM7i8y — ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 14, 2023

One more next year … ?

Any thoughts on today’s stage? You can email me or tweet . Allez!

Ion Izagirre mounted a superb lone breakaway yesterday to snaffle Cofidis’s second stage win of this Tour. Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report, kicking off with some “Hell yes, I’m tough enough” thoughts from Vingegaard on the looming battle with Pogacar on Grand Colombier:

Chris Froome enjoyed some good times on Mont Ventoux, of course, but things are rather different now. Sylvan Adams, Israel-Premier Tech’s owner, took the opportunity yesterday to point out that the four-times Tour winner has not provided value for money since signing for the team in 2020:

Seven years ago today: everyone’s favourite Belgian breakaway specialist, Thomas de Gendt, won the stage on Mont Ventoux. (Being pedantic, it wasn’t “atop” Mont Ventoux as the Lotto Dstny tweet states. The finish was at Chalet Reynard, I think, but certainly not atop the mountain as you can see from the photo.)

Throw🔙 Seven years ago, a memorable win atop Mont Ventoux for @DeGendtThomas on #BastilleDay ! pic.twitter.com/11l7mSLDCa — Lotto Dstny (@lotto_dstny) July 14, 2023

It’s the 14th of July – Bastille Day – a time for French pride and, perhaps, a French stage winner?

Here’s a picture of Tony Gallopin (Lidl-Trek) waving the flag, a proud Frenchman, but not the type of rider who will be in contention for today’s win.

Below that, a hint from the Tour’s official Twitter that we may see an appearance from the Patrouille acrobatique de France.

🇫🇷 Bastille day on the Grand Colombier 🇫🇷 Fête nationale au Grand Colombier ! #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/J32EMuqRAv — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 14, 2023

The omens could hardly be better for UAE Team Emirates today. In 2020, Tadej Pogacar won stage 15 atop Grand Colombier on a day that Egan Bernal’s attempt to defend his title with Team Ineos disintegrated. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) remained well placed for the overall win, or so it seemed before that fateful final time trial.

Have you got much planned for this weekend? The Tour de France certainly has: three mountain stages, beginning today, that may even determine the overall winner. The race hits the Jura Mountains this afternoon before two punishing days in the Alps on Saturday and Sunday. This afternoon’s route is relatively short, at 137.8km, but very sharp with a summit finish atop Grand Colombier, 17.4km long, peaking 1,501m above sea level.

We will almost certainly see a full-on early fight to form a breakaway among the peloton’s climbers who fancy a stage win, but regardless of how the rest of the stage plays out, attention will be focused on Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar on that final, attritional ascent. The Slovenian Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is just 17sec behind his Danish rival in the general classification. Vingegaard, of Jumbo-Visma, may still lead the race, but there is a sense Pogacar is getting stronger and merely waiting for his moment.

Perhaps the GC teams will seek to control things, and let Vingegaard and Pocagar duke it out for the stage win as well as precious seconds in the GC at the front of the race? However it shakes down, the relatively short distance and the finely-balanced situation at the top of the standings means it’s going to be gripping entertainment anyway.

Scheduled stage start time: 12.55 BST

• Tour de France 2023
• Tour de France

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Tour de France

30 days to the tour de france: why this year’s race could be one for the ages, pogačar vs. vingegaard, cavendish's merckxian challenge, sagan's long goodbye, us stage-hunters: here are five story lines that will make the 2023 tour stand out..

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The Giro d’Italia is in the rearview mirror. The spring classics are already gathering dust in the history books.

It’s showtime, and the 2023 Tour de France is only one month away.

Riders and teams are putting the finishing touches of their months-long quest to be “Tour thin,” and are bracing for elite men’s cycling’s biggest and most prestigious stage race.

Every-day sports fans know it. The yellow jersey brings the mystique and prestige to engage the world’s media once each summer. Every July, the sporting world turns its gaze to France.

Teams’ fortunes ride on being at the start line, riders sacrifice for months to be at the razor-thin line in the quest for elusive form, and a stage win, a spell in the yellow jersey, or a spot on the top-three final podium on the Champs-Élysées can catapult anyone into the stratosphere.

There’s no road race like the Tour.

The 2023 Tour starts July 1 in Bilbao, and ends July 23 in Paris.

Here are five story lines that will make the 2023 Tour stand out:

1. Questions about Pogačar: Which version will show up?

On paper, this Tour de France looks like UAE Team Emirates might have had a hand in designing the course. The route, on paper at least is tailor-made for the two-time winner.

Yet one month out of the Tour, there are major question marks on which version of Pogačar will show up in Spain’s Basque Country. It’s all but certain Pogačar will race, but doubts linger both about how his broken hand and wrist suffered at Liège-Bastogne-Liège will impact his ability to race, and of his overall fitness.

Pogačar is back on the road for training, and team trainers told Velo’s Jim Cotton that they expect the Slovenian, still only 24, to be able to bounce back from the injury.

The biggest question mark is whether or not he can handle the punishing stresses of racing. Doctors will be cautious not to put Pogačar in a dangerous position, but the steep and rough Basque Country hill country is far from an ideal way to start the Tour. Steering, climbing, descending, and braking put tremendous pressure on the hand and wrist, and the lumpy first week will quickly reveal if Pogačar will have any race-threatening difficulties.

Perhaps less worrisome but still a concern will be Pogačar’s form at arrival. Though he’s never far from top fitness, and even though the forced training break due to injury came at a time when he was going to have some down time after lighting up the classics anyway, any injury stop can have some unforeseen implications.

One or two percentage points off peak form is often the difference between victory and the top-5. The climb-heavy course also favors Jonas Vingegaard.

Pogačar will also be racing into the unknown during this Tour. Up until now, luckily he’s never seriously been injured, and no one knows how a rider will react on the comeback trail. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

2. Last dance: Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Thibaut Pinot, Greg Van Avermaet

Some of the peloton’s biggest names will be racing their final edition of the “grand boucle,” and the race will serve as a three-week-long parade for riders who marked a generation.

Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, and Thibaut Pinot are all expected to race their final Tour. All three were central characters in every narrative of the Tour over the past decade or more.

Each will be chasing one last hurrah on cycling’s biggest stage.

Cavendish, of course, is racing for history. Tied with Eddy Merckx at 34 stage victories, the 38-year-old sprinter needs one more stage win to set an all-time Tour stage-win mark. Granted, Merckx also won mountain stages, time trials, and a record-tying five yellow jerseys, yet Cavendish’s track record even if his Tour wins all came in bunch sprints cannot be discounted.

Cavendish victory during the Giro d’Italia last month is a preview of what he’s likely going to face during the Tour de France. Throughout the Giro, he was forced to freelance the sprints and even counted on former teammate Geraint Thomas from Ineos Grenadiers to lead him out in Rome in the Giro’s final stage. Without the “Wolfpack” leading him out, Cavendish will have a rough go, but as everyone agrees, never count out Cavendish.

Sagan, too, will be angling for one final coup at the Tour. The Slovakian was the superstar of his generation, but a string of illnesses and injuries has seen him leave the Tour without a stage win since 2020. Ever proud, Sagan will be racing for glory.

Other big names riding in their final Tour will be Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r-Citroën) and likely Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The French climber fell short of winning stage at the Giro, but brought home the best climber’s jersey.

3. Hardest opening day ever

Adios to opening prologues, and the sprinters won’t even have a have a prayer to win the first yellow jersey in 2023.

The 182km opening stage up and down the steep climbs in and around Bilbao is the hardest opening stage the Tour de France peloton has ever faced.

The rollercoaster stage hits five officially rated climbs, but there’s barely a flat road on tap. The stage opens with a climb in the opening 15km, and after packing in three more climbs, the course hits the decisive Côte de Pike and summits with about 10km to go. The climb is about 2000m long and averages with peloton-splitting 10-percent grades.

The road plunges to Bilbao, only to hit the flamme rouge and a 5 percent gradient to the line.

The course favors a rider who is explosive enough to attack over the climbs, and then save some horsepower for a reduced bunch sprint. The stage will pit GC favorites like Pogačar and Vingegaard against Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock.

With the Jaizkibel on tap the following day in stage 2 into San Sebastián, and the opening weekend could see significant GC differences even before crossing back into French territory.

The Basque Country “gran départ” will set the tone for this Tour that should see plenty of plot twists and turns.

4. North Americans rising: Powless, Jorgenson looking to leave mark

North American riders will play a starring role during this Tour de France, with several top names expected to return with ambitions of making their presence felt.

Mike Woods and stage-winner Hugo Houle are expected to race for Canada with Israel-Premier Tech, and another stage victory will be their paramount goal.

The number of U.S. riders is still unconfirmed one month out, but Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) are expected to be the headliners.

Both will be chasing a breakthrough stage win. Both came close last year, and Powless will also be testing his GC legs, and try to stay in the hunt for the top-10 going into the final week. Jorgenson, who rode into three winning breakaways in 2022, is putting everything on a stage victory.

Other likely starters could include Lawson Craddock (Jayco-AlUla), who will be at the service of Simon Yates and the team’s sprinters, as well as possible returns of Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), hot off pacing Primož Roglič to victory at the Giro, Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), and possibly Joe Dombrowski (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), who also raced the Giro. Magnus Sheffield could be tapped for his Tour debut at Ineos Grenadiers.

Kuss in 2021 is the last U.S. Tour stage-winner. The current generation seems poised to increase that number.

5. Year of the outsider: Can someone deliver a stunner?

On paper, this Tour is poised to see a repeat of the Vingegaard-Pogačar clash of 2022.

At first glance, it’s very likely the pair will dominate the conversation for the yellow jersey.

Pogačar seemed poised to rattle off a string of yellow jerseys until his stunning loss last year to the power play executed by Jumbo-Visma on the Col du Galibier and Vingegaard’s superior climbing legs.

Pogačar’s been on a revenge rampage since then, but his Liège crash and subsequent injury stop could throw up hurdles for the otherwise seamless Slovenian.

This Tour will be one of confirmation for Vingegaard. Any first-time winner is inevitably under pressure to defend their title, and with the backing of the very deep Jumbo-Visma lineup, the determined Dane starts as the pre-race favorite.

Almost no one behind the pair brings legitimate Tour de France credentials.

The only other former winners who be racing could be Chris Froome and Egan Bernal. Froome’s best days are well in the rear-view mirror, while Bernal is still battling back from his devastating crash and remains firmly on the bubble on whether or not he’ll race. And both start, neither are expected to be racing for yellow by the third week if they make that long.

The other contenders are on a second tier. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) will be the only other former grand tour winners in Bilbao.

The climb-heavy course, however, could open the way for a surprise winner.

The Tour’s history is laden with one-off winners, especially in periods between the emergence of dominating riders. Pogačar and potentially Vingegaard both could be well on the way to more yellow jerseys, so surprise might require seeing both of them suffer a significant setback.

Carapaz won his 2019 Giro in large part playing the role of the spoiler. The opportunistic EF Education-EasyPost team always races with unconventional playbook. Hindley and Yates both should thrive in this climb-heavy Tour profile.

Hometown hero Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) will likely be racing conservatively with an eye on the final podium, while it’s unlikely Enric Mas (Movistar) will be trying anything too crazy as he is also setting his sites on the final podium.

Who could play the role of script-breaker?

There are rumors that Giro winner Primož Roglič could race, and he’d line up with no pressure with the ability to follow in the wake of the leaders to ride into the third week to give the team a second ace in the hole. If anyone could do it, Roglič might just be the one.

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Tour de France 2024 to be held from June 29 to July 21

For the first time, the Grand Tour cycling race will start in Florence, Italy and finish in Nice, bypassing Paris due to the upcoming Olympics.

The Tour de France 2024 is all set to begin with the Grand Depart on June 29 and will wrap up on July 21.

To accommodate the preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympics, set to begin on July 26, several adjustments have been to this year's route.

Now in its 111th edition, the Tour de France will flag off from Florence and roll through a total distance of 3,492km underlined by 52,000m of elevation gain. The tour will reach Nice after 21 stages and for the first time, will bypass the French capital.

Spread across 23 days that includes two days of rest, the Tour de France will have two individual time trials. Four mountain-top finishes, a series of gravel sections for the first time, and a hilly time trial to Nice.

With Florence hosting the Grand Depart event this year, this is the first time that an Italian city will get the distinction. Last year, the Grand Depart was hosted by Spain.

The first stage will comprise a hilly 205km stretch from Florence to Rimini on the Adriatic coast while the second is set to depart from the Emilia-Romagna town of Cesena and end in University town Bologna. The third goes from Piacenza to Turin.

The fourth stage will also start in Italy at Pinerolo following which the action is set to move to France.

On July 20, the riders will resume from the Promenade des Anglais on a route up to the Col de la Couillole. On July 21, the 21st and final stage will be contested as a time trial between Monaco and Nice, instead of a traditional sprint on the Champs-Elysées.

This will be the first time since 1989 that the Tour will end in a time trial.

Jonas Vingegaard, who won his second straight title last year, will be the defending champion.

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Tour of Flanders Women 2024 - Analysing the contenders

A s spring takes hold across Europe, the women's WorldTour moves into the peak of the Spring Classics , and behind Paris-Roubaix Femmes the Tour of Flanders represents the pinnacle of the season.

As usual, the race will treat us to ascents of the famed Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg over the race's 163km route.

Last year, Lotte Kopecky made history as the first Belgian back-to-back winner of the Tour of Flanders in a dominant display, but that certainly doesn't make the race a foregone conclusion. 

The field of this year's 21st edition has a striking strength in depth, and so here are Cyclingnews' key favourites in the women's race.

Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Spring Classics- including reporting, breaking news and analysis from the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and more.  Find out more .

Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime)

SD Worx arrives at the Tour of Flanders with a dream team that includes World Champion and two-time defending champion Lotte Kopecky and Tour de France winner Demi Vollering. The pair finished first and second in Oudenaarde last year.

Kopecky, also Belgium's double national champion, is very much the centrepiece of the cobbled Classic , where crowds will undoubtedly line the steep hellingen , cobblestone sectors and finish line straightaway just to watch her compete in the nation's most prized one-day race.

Back-to-back wins at Strade Bianche and Nokere Koerse, along with a pair of second places at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, have proven that Kopecky is on track to reaching her peak form at the right time ahead of her targetted Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Vollering is much more of a wildcard this year, having only raced at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (6th) and Strade Bianche (3rd), but she arrives fresh off of an altitude training camp and ready to compete at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders followed by the Ardennes Classics, of which she won all three last year.

Together, Kopecky and Vollering form a tough-to-beat duo. The team also includes 2020 Tour of Flanders winner Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and European Champion Mischa Bredewold. With a team this powerful, the Tour of Flanders is SD Worx's race to lose.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Marianne Vos' sparkling career palmares, Spring Classics experience, and recent winning sprint at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad , where she beat Lotte Kopecky in Ninvoe, make her one of the favourites for the Tour of Flanders victory.

The multiple-time cross-discipline World Champion has won many races during her career; in fact, there are very few races that she hasn't won. Her last victory at the Tour of Flanders was back in 2013 when she beat Ellen van Dijk, Emma Johansson, and Elisa Longo Borghini in a breakaway sprint in Oudenaarde.

Vos will be a major player across the cobbled Classics, and we can anticipate that her goal is to peak through Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix. 

Fem van Empel has recovered from a hugely successful cyclocross campaign, during which she won a second consecutive world title, and is now turning her attention to the  Spring Classics , where she gives Visma-Lease a Bike a potential second card to play at the Tour of Flanders.

Van Empel was expected to make her 2024 road season debut at Gent-Wevelgem , but she didn't start the race. The team said she wasn't quite yet ready to start the season, but she is still on the roster for Tour of Flanders. Although a podium at the biggest one-day Classics of the season would be a tough ask, Van Empel is one to watch nonetheless.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek)

Lidl-Trek also lines up with a powerful team that includes the 'two Elisas': Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo. Of the pair, Longo Borghini will likely be the one to watch at the Tour of Flanders.

The Italian Champion won the Tour of Flanders in 2015, and she finished third last year behind Kopecky and Vollering in Oudenaarde. This year, Longo Borghini has finished third at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, second at Strade Bianche and won Trofeo Oro in Euro. Although she finished 33rd at the recent Gent-Wevelgem, her teammate Elisa Balsamo was second.

The pair work well together and support one another on the varying terrain of the Spring Classics. The flatter races tend to better suit Balsamo, and the more challenging terrain shifts the target toward Longo Borghini.

Balsamo has had an outstanding start to this season with wins at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Brugge-De Panne, and second places at Ronde van Drenthe and Gent-Wevelgem.

The team also have a powerful roster that includes Lizzie Deignan, Lucinda Brand, Shirin van Anrooij and Lauretta Hanson.

Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM)

Kasia Niewiadoma, the gravel World Champion, is always a contender for the Spring Classics, and she has once again shown her early-season strengths with a seventh at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and fourth at Strade Bianche.

She was devastated by her result in Siena , a testament to how much she loves that Italian one-day race and how many times she has been so close to victory: four times on the podium and nine times in the top 10.

At the Tour of Flanders, Niewiadoma has also finished in the top 10 on six occasions. Her highest place was last year, where she finished fifth in the breakaway sprint behind Kopecky, Vollering, Longo Borghini and Silvia Persico.

Canyon-SRAM also brings a strong team with multiple options, including Chloé Dygert , Elisa Chabbey and Soraya Paladin. Dygert, the individual time trial World Champion, returned to the Spring Classics after an early season injury at Brugge-De Panne, where she finished a promising sixth place, and she was then 36th at Gent-Wevelgem.

She competed in just one other Classics event during her four-year term with Canyon-SRAM, riding at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2022. However, she suffered from leg pain following that race and then spent 14 months recovering from a variety of health issues.

It will be interesting to see her progress at the Tour of Flanders and as the season continues toward the Paris Olympics , where she will focus on both road and track.

Pfeiffer Georgi (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL)

One of the peloton's most versatile riders, Pfeiffer Georgi, is both Charlotte Kool 's trusted lead-out in the sprints and Team dsm-firmenich PostNL's most valuable card to play in the Spring Classics .

She had a breakthrough season last year, winning Classic Brugge-De Panne, the British National Championships for the second time in her career, and Binche-Chimay-Binche.

She's had a strong start to this season, too, taking third at Omloop van het Hageland and fifth at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

At the Tour of Flanders, Georgi is strong enough to both ignite a successful breakaway and be part of the winning front group. A fast finisher in her own right, watch for the British Champion to be among the late-race contenders into Oudenaarde.

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)

Multi-discipline rider Puck Pieterse wasn't actually expecting to be racing the Tour of Flanders when she started her road block, but given how well it has gone, extending just a little to include the cobbled Classic became an irresistible proposition. 

The rider, who will be targeting the Olympic Games on the mountain bike, did just a couple of UCI road races last season. Even then, she came away with a  fifth at Strade Bianche.

This year, however, she has ramped it up another level. The Dutch rider's slightly extended block has included six races, five top tens, and two podiums. Given that run, there is every reason for the rider, who will focus on the mountain bike after Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders, to carry high hopes for Sunday.

“With how it’s going now, of course, you have to dream of the highest, and I think we have a really good team,” she told  Cyclingnews . “We worked really well together here at Gent-Wevelgem, so I think even winning is possible.”

Arlenis Sierra (Movistar)

The Ronde is a race where Arlenis Sierra has finished in the top ten in the past two editions, and her start to the season indicates that the Cuban Movistar rider is heading into the race with some solid form. 

The 31-year-old's block of Spanish racing yielded two second places, and she has also taken a strong fifth at Nokere Koerse and sixth at Gent Wevelgem. She has yet to claim a win this season or at one of the big Women's WorldTour Classics through her career, so she is perhaps more of a long shot than a favourite. However, particularly given that she got fourth in 2022, the podium seems a possibility.

Sierra is also not the only option at Movistar, which is still looking for its first Women's WorldTour win of the season. Emma Norsgaard has been ramping up toward the spring and has so far delivered some promising results. 

The 24-year-old's campaign started with an 11th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and fifth at Omloop van het Hageland and also included seventh place at Nokere Koerse and Brugge-De Panne.

Silvia Persico (UAE Team Emirates)

Last year, Silvia Persico was just one spot off the podium at the Tour of Flanders after coming in for a sprint behind winner Kopecky with a group of seven. Then she was one of the riders her rivals in the group were watching closely as the fast finish approached. 

No doubt the 26-year-old will be determined, if the opportunity arises again, to go at least one better this time. The 2023 De Brabantse Pijl winner is dialling back her GC ambitions this year, given her Olympic focus, and targeting one-day events and stages instead, so this could help her deliver at the Ronde.

So far this month her best results are an eighth at Trofeo Oro and Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Dwars door Vlaanderen could also provide another indication of whether she is ready to ramp it up another level at the Tour of Flanders.

There are also other options for the team, with Chiara Consonni having proven a powerful force in March, stepping up to the podium first at Drentse Acht van Westerveld with a second and then most recently at Gent-Wevelgem with a third. 

On top of that, there was a fourth at Brugge De Panne, so the rider clearly is delivering the speed needed to make a mark at the end of a long, hard day of racing.

Thalita de Jong (Lotto Dstny Ladies)

The former cyclocross world champion has shifted into her new team, Lotto Dstny Ladies, and immediately started with a slew of results inside the top ten; in fact, Thalita de Jong's worst result of the year so far is 15th. 

The 30-year-old's results also include second places at GP Oetingen and on a stage of the Tour de Normandie, plus claimed the points classification. At her latest race, Gent Wevelgem, it was an eighth.

De Jong will be riding her fifth Tour of Flanders in 2024, but it's been three years since she last lined up. She hasn't finished in the top 40 at the race before, but this season, as the senior member of the Belgian squad, she seems to be flourishing, so anything seems possible.

Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco)

Ruby Roseman-Gannon had a clear target on the spring Classics and would have been a key contender for the team at Tour of Flanders, but after a hard crash at Nokere Koerse, she was left riding through the line in eleventh place with huge streaks of blood running down both legs. 

The Australian champion hasn’t raced since and posted on Instagram over the weekend that “I’m still unable to ride and therefore I’ll miss the rest of the Flemish classics.”

However, the team has other options, one obvious one being Letizia Paternoster . She is good on short explosive climbs and brings her track-honed turn of speed to the sprint. 

The Italian has shown her strength this month with a fourth at Ronde van Drenthe, and she also has history through this patch. The rider hit the podium of Gent-Wevelgem in 2019, and when she joined the Australian squad last season, she delivered a trio of top tens last year, coming sixth at Omloop van het Hageland, ninth at Ronde van Drenthe and tenth at Nokere Koerse. 

Her Tour of Flanders debut also came in 2023, though it was an 81st place finish, however with another year of experience under the belt and Roseman-Gannon injured hopes are likely to be much higher this year.

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SD Worx-Protime expect Demi Vollering to leave after 2024 season

‘We can’t have two riders from that level in our team’ - Danny Stam reveals

Demi Vollering is expected to leave SD-Worx Protime at the end of the 2024 season after four seasons with the women super team. 

SD Worx sport manager Danny Stam confirmed the news before the start of Dwars door Vlaanderen in Waregem to GCN before team manager Erwin Janssen revealed how contract negotiations with Vollering had broken down.

"We made Demi Vollering a generous offer and indicated that this should be responded to before a certain date. Vollering's management did not respond to this. Therefore, we assume that Vollering will leave the team at the end of the year,"  Janssen said in a statement issued by the team.

"The report in the media that we recently sat down with Demi or her management is not true."

Weight of the world – Lotte Kopecky the centrepiece of the cobbled Classics

Lotte Kopecky commits long-term future to SD Worx-Protime until 2028

'Demi is worth it' - Wiebes weighs in on Vollering's reported €1 million offer

Speculation about the future of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes winner have been in doubt after SD-Worx Protime announced the long-term extension of their other big superstar, Lotte Kopecky, for another four years.

“Everyone knows that Lotte [Kopecky] has signed until 2028 and we’ve tried hard to keep the team but for Demi, [Vollering] I don’t think that it’s an option for us,” said Stam to GCN .

“Yes, that’s definitely sure” is what Stam responded when asked if her departure was definite. 

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There have been reports of Vollering being offered €1 million by UAE ADQ in an attempt to lure her away from SD-Worx Protime.

Even if the figure isn’t correct, it appears the price of keeping Kopecky and Vollering, alongside other team leaders such as Lorena Wiebes and Marlen Reusser, was too much for SD-Worx Protime to maintain.

"It’s about budget," Stam said. "You need to make a choice, and at one moment things can go away but I think it’s clear that we can’t have two riders from that level in our team."

Stam gave nothing away about which team Vollering may ride for in 2025 but the Tour de France Femmes winner salary is only within reach of a handful of Women’s WorldTour teams.

Vollering and Kopecky were far and away the best two women’s riders in 2023 taking out wins at the majority of one-day races, including the Tour of Flanders and all of the Ardennes Classics. They dominated the Tour de France Femmes, finishing first and second and taking two stage wins and the yellow and green jerseys.

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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.

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30 days to the Tour de France: Why this year’s race could be one for the ages

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This article originally appeared on Velo News

The Giro d’Italia is in the rearview mirror. The spring classics are already gathering dust in the history books.

It’s showtime, and the 2023 Tour de France is only one month away.

Riders and teams are putting the finishing touches of their months-long quest to be “Tour thin,” and are bracing for elite men’s cycling’s biggest and most prestigious stage race.

Every-day sports fans know it. The yellow jersey brings the mystique and prestige to engage the world’s media once each summer. Every July, the sporting world turns its gaze to France.

Teams’ fortunes ride on being at the start line, riders sacrifice for months to be at the razor-thin line in the quest for elusive form, and a stage win, a spell in the yellow jersey, or a spot on the top-three final podium on the Champs-Elysees can catapult anyone into the stratosphere.

There’s no road race like the Tour.

The 2023 Tour starts July 1 in Bilbao, and ends July 23 in Paris.

Here are five story lines that will make the 2023 Tour stand out:

1. Questions about Pogacar: Which version will show up?

On paper, this Tour de France looks like UAE Team Emirates might have had a hand in designing the course. The route, on paper at least is tailor-made for the two-time winner.

Yet one month out of the Tour, there are major question marks on which version of Pogacar will show up in Spain’s Basque Country. It’s all but certain Pogacar will race, but doubts linger both about how his broken hand and wrist suffered at Liege-Bastogne-Liege will impact his ability to race, and of his overall fitness.

Pogacar is back on the road for training, and team trainers told Velo’s Jim Cotton that they expect the Slovenian, still only 24, to be able to bounce back from the injury.

The biggest question mark is whether or not he can handle the punishing stresses of racing. Doctors will be cautious not to put Pogacar in a dangerous position, but the steep and rough Basque Country hill country is far from an ideal way to start the Tour. Steering, climbing, descending, and braking put tremendous pressure on the hand and wrist, and the lumpy first week will quickly reveal if Pogacar will have any race-threatening difficulties.

Perhaps less worrisome but still a concern will be Pogacar’s form at arrival. Though he’s never far from top fitness, and even though the forced training break due to injury came at a time when he was going to have some down time after lighting up the classics anyway, any injury stop can have some unforeseen implications.

One or two percentage points off peak form is often the difference between victory and the top-5. The climb-heavy course also favors Jonas Vingegaard.

Pogacar will also be racing into the unknown during this Tour. Up until now, luckily he’s never seriously been injured, and no one knows how a rider will react on the comeback trail. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

2. Last dance: Mark Cavendish , Peter Sagan, Thibaut Pinot , Greg Van Avermaet

Some of the peloton’s biggest names will be racing their final edition of the “grand boucle,” and the race will serve as a three-week-long parade for riders who marked a generation.

Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, and Thibaut Pinot are all expected to race their final Tour. All three were central characters in every narrative of the Tour over the past decade or more.

Each will be chasing one last hurrah on cycling’s biggest stage.

Cavendish, of course, is racing for history. Tied with Eddy Merckx at 34 stage victories, the 38-year-old sprinter needs one more stage win to set an all-time Tour stage-win mark. Granted, Merckx also won mountain stages, time trials, and a record-tying five yellow jerseys, yet Cavendish’s track record even if his Tour wins all came in bunch sprints cannot be discounted.

Cavendish victory during the Giro d’Italia last month is a preview of what he’s likely going to face during the Tour de France. Throughout the Giro, he was forced to freelance the sprints and even counted on former teammate Geraint Thomas from Ineos Grenadiers to lead him out in Rome in the Giro’s final stage. Without the “Wolfpack” leading him out, Cavendish will have a rough go, but as everyone agrees, never count out Cavendish.

Sagan, too, will be angling for one final coup at the Tour. The Slovakian was the superstar of his generation, but a string of illnesses and injuries has seen him leave the Tour without a stage win since 2020. Ever proud, Sagan will be racing for glory.

Other big names riding in their final Tour will be Greg Van Avermaet (Ag2r-Citroen) and likely Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ). The French climber fell short of winning stage at the Giro, but brought home the best climber’s jersey.

3. Hardest opening day ever

Adios to opening prologues, and the sprinters won’t even have a have a prayer to win the first yellow jersey in 2023.

The 182km opening stage up and down the steep climbs in and around Bilbao is the hardest opening stage the Tour de France peloton has ever faced.

The rollercoaster stage hits five officially rated climbs, but there’s barely a flat road on tap. The stage opens with a climb in the opening 15km, and after packing in three more climbs, the course hits the decisive Cote de Pike and summits with about 10km to go. The climb is about 2000m long and averages with peloton-splitting 10-percent grades.

The road plunges to Bilbao, only to hit the flamme rouge and a 5 percent gradient to the line.

The course favors a rider who is explosive enough to attack over the climbs, and then save some horsepower for a reduced bunch sprint. The stage will pit GC favorites like Pogacar and Vingegaard against Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock.

With the Jaizkibel on tap the following day in stage 2 into San Sebastian, and the opening weekend could see significant GC differences even before crossing back into French territory.

The Basque Country “gran depart” will set the tone for this Tour that should see plenty of plot twists and turns.

4. North Americans rising: Powless, Jorgenson looking to leave mark

North American riders will play a starring role during this Tour de France, with several top names expected to return with ambitions of making their presence felt.

Mike Woods and stage-winner Hugo Houle are expected to race for Canada with Israel-Premier Tech, and another stage victory will be their paramount goal.

The number of U.S. riders is still unconfirmed one month out, but Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) are expected to be the headliners.

Both will be chasing a breakthrough stage win. Both came close last year, and Powless will also be testing his GC legs, and try to stay in the hunt for the top-10 going into the final week. Jorgenson, who rode into three winning breakaways in 2022, is putting everything on a stage victory.

Other likely starters could include Lawson Craddock (Jayco-AlUla), who will be at the service of Simon Yates and the team’s sprinters, as well as possible returns of Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), hot off pacing Primoz Roglic to victory at the Giro, Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), and possibly Joe Dombrowski (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), who also raced the Giro. Magnus Sheffield could be tapped for his Tour debut at Ineos Grenadiers.

Kuss in 2021 is the last U.S. Tour stage-winner. The current generation seems poised to increase that number.

5. Year of the outsider: Can someone deliver a stunner?

On paper, this Tour is poised to see a repeat of the Vingegaard-Pogacar clash of 2022.

At first glance, it’s very likely the pair will dominate the conversation for the yellow jersey.

Pogacar seemed poised to rattle off a string of yellow jerseys until his stunning loss last year to the power play executed by Jumbo-Visma on the Col du Galibier and Vingegaard’s superior climbing legs.

Pogacar’s been on a revenge rampage since then, but his Liege crash and subsequent injury stop could throw up hurdles for the otherwise seamless Slovenian.

This Tour will be one of confirmation for Vingegaard. Any first-time winner is inevitably under pressure to defend their title, and with the backing of the very deep Jumbo-Visma lineup, the determined Dane starts as the pre-race favorite.

Almost no one behind the pair brings legitimate Tour de France credentials.

The only other former winners who be racing could be Chris Froome and Egan Bernal. Froome’s best days are well in the rear-view mirror, while Bernal is still battling back from his devastating crash and remains firmly on the bubble on whether or not he’ll race. And both start, neither are expected to be racing for yellow by the third week if they make that long.

The other contenders are on a second tier. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) will be the only other former grand tour winners in Bilbao.

The climb-heavy course, however, could open the way for a surprise winner.

The Tour’s history is laden with one-off winners, especially in periods between the emergence of dominating riders. Pogacar and potentially Vingegaard both could be well on the way to more yellow jerseys, so surprise might require seeing both of them suffer a significant setback.

Carapaz won his 2019 Giro in large part playing the role of the spoiler. The opportunistic EF Education-EasyPost team always races with unconventional playbook. Hindley and Yates both should thrive in this climb-heavy Tour profile.

Hometown hero Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) will likely be racing conservatively with an eye on the final podium, while it’s unlikely Enric Mas (Movistar) will be trying anything too crazy as he is also setting his sites on the final podium.

Who could play the role of script-breaker?

There are rumors that Giro winner Primoz Roglic could race, and he’d line up with no pressure with the ability to follow in the wake of the leaders to ride into the third week to give the team a second ace in the hole. If anyone could do it, Roglic might just be the one.

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