Tour de France 2023: today’s stage and the route

TARBES – The Tours stay on Pyrenees with some of its symbolic climbs. There Tarbes-Cauterets-Cabasque144.9 km, has four gpm scheduled, two first category and one HC and promises of an absolute show, especially after what happened in Pau-Laruns.

After the departure from Tarbes and about twenty km in the plain, you immediately go up on the Cote de Cavern-les-Bains (5.6km at 4.8%), certainly suitable for selecting the escape for the day. After a stretch on a slight slope here is the myth Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%), long and regular, never terrible, never easy. Here those in difficulty already risk paying, also because the pace, given the brevity of the route, will already be wild. A quick descent then takes you to Campan and the foot of the Tourmalet (17.1 km at 7.3%), 2115 meters of altitude. You discover nothing: it is the most famous climb in all of cycling, the most popular in the Tour, an icon of the sport. For once it won’t be Souvenir Henri Desgrange: the Cole de la Loze, in the Alps, surpasses it in altitude.

The descent, even in bad weather, can make a further selection in view of the climb Cauterets-Cambasque (16km at 5.4%), very long but never very hard. By then, however, the differences will have already emerged. And the Tourmalet will probably be the judge of this day destined to make the history of this Tour.

Departure: 1.25pm
TV and streaming: 2.45pm-6pm Rai2; 12.45-18.00 Eurosport 1 / Eurosport, Discovery+, GCN