The Basque Country will be the protagonist this Thursday, the 27th, in the presentation in Paris of the Tour de France 2023 route. The 110th edition of the Grande Boucle will start from Bilbao on July 1 and the first three stages will pass through Basque lands.
The first of them seems that it will not give opportunities to the sprinters, something unusual in the opening stages of the grand tours. The organization has already warned, it will be "the most mountainous route ever presented on an opening day of the great gala round".
The second stage will take the runners from Vitoria to San Sebastián, "baptized Le Petit Paris", according to the organization of the Tour.
A 210-kilometre route "no less demanding" than that of the first stage and that "will lead the peloton through the heights of Udana, Aztiria and Alkiza to face Jaizkibel on the opposite side of the usual San Sebastián Classic".
In the third stage, the last through the Basque lands, the starting point, the Biscayan town of Amorebieta, is known, but not the finish line, which "will be revealed at the presentation ceremony on Thursday." The only clue currently is that it will end up in French-Basque territory.
Finally, the Tour highlights "The Basque Country as the cradle of cycling" from which we have seen fantastic professionals such as Marino Lejarreta, Julián Gorospe, Abraham Olano or Mikel Landa, among others. The Tour de France is a party and what better place to open its 110th edition than the Basque Country.
