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2023 Tour of Scandinavia - Battle of the North, WWT, August 23rd to 27th

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Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

Sep 26, 2020
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After the male peloton competed in races in Denmark and Norway last week, it's now time for the women to compete in a race in Norway and Denmark.
The 9th edition of what used to be known as the Ladies Tour of Norway was originally scheduled to have 6 stages just like last year, but the Swedish partners pulled out and the start was then moved back a day.

ToSc-stage1-2023.png


Stage 1 sees the return of the climb to the Fredriksten fortress in Halden, which has been used a few times before.
Last time was in 2018, where Marianne Vos and Coryn Labecki duked it out for the win (I wonder who won?). They'll be climbing it twice, but the finish line has been moved to the city centre, around 6 km after the top.


Stage 2 is the queen stage to Norefjell, which we’ve come to know over the past two editions. However, there's a twist this year. When the riders have made it from Vikersund to Noresund, they won't be turning on to Norefjellveien. Instead, they'll continue on to Eggedal, where they'll start the climb to Djupsjøen. The road towards the Deep Lake is a bit easier than the other Norefjell ascent, but it seems to be a bit more irregular. The other climb has seen Annemiek van Vleuten and Liane Lippert make the decisive attacks in pretty much the same spot, a few km from the top. There's also a steep section a few km from the top here, but it's longer. The maximum gradient is allegedly over 20%. From the QOM point, there’s still 9 km left to the usual finishing straight in Norefjell. It'll be interesting to see if the stage plays out differently with this new finale.

ToSc-stage2-2023.png


Stage 3 takes the riders to Porsgrunn and Larvik for the first time. There are a few climbs along the way to an uphill finish in Larvik. We saw in Glasgow that similar climbs could blow the race apart, and with some tired riders after the MTF, you’ll never know what will happen, but I still expect a fairly big group to make it to the finish together.
Lorena Wiebes is probably still the favourite, if she’s fully fit again, but the likes of Uttrup-Ludwig, Lippert/Sierra/Norsgaard and Roseman-Gannon won’t be without a chance here. Current forecast suggests that there could be a bit of rain on this stage, so that may have an effect on the race.

ToSc-stage3-2023-1.png


The riders will then travel to Denmark by ferry/plane ahead of the next stage. The race has had prologues in the past, but never a longer ITT. 16.5 km await the riders in and around Herning, known in the cycling world for hosting the GP Herning as well as the Grande Partenza in 2012 and the European Championships in 2017, and of course for being the home town of Bjarne Riis.
The course doesn’t appear to be too technical and there isn’t much elevation either, so it’ll probably be won with a decent average speed.

ToSc-stage4-2023.png


The final stage starts in Middelfart (haha) on the island of Funen/Fyn from where the riders will cross one of the Little Belt Bridges to get back to Jutland/Jylland. Once they’ve passed the first QOM sprint and made their way to Kolding, the next 30 km will be identical to stage 3 of last year’s Tour de France, including a QOM sprint at Hejlsminde Strand. They won’t take the main road from Christiansfeld to Kolding like the men did, but instead visit Vojens on the way to Haderslev. The main obstacle on the 7.5 km finishing circuit, is Chr. X’s Vej, which will be climbed 4 times. The main part of the climb is about 800 m at 5% before it flattens out near the top. Expect a sprint finish, but perhaps bonus seconds can still affect the final GC in one way or another.

ToSc-stage5-2023-3.png


christian-x-s-vej-haderslev.png



Projected finishing times: Around 18:00 local time (stage 1, 2 and 4) and 14:25 (stage 3 and 5)

Start list:
firstcycling.com

2023 Tour of Scandinavia

The 2023 Tour of Scandinavia.
firstcycling.com firstcycling.com

Favourites: The biggest favourite is of course the 2021 winner, Annemiek van Vleuten. We did see how Anna van der Breggen alreday retired mentally during/after the Tokyo Olympics, so you never know how motivated AVV will be ahead of her last races, but she doesn't usually line up just to be a spectator.

Last year's winner Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig, Liane Lippert, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Niamh Fisher-Black and Ricarda Bauernfeind will all be in contention for a podium spot, if they have good legs this week.

The race will also mark the return to the European peloton for Movistar's Sarah Gigante, plus EF-TIBCO-SVB's Zoe Bäckstedt and Krista Doebel-Hickok are also returning to pro racing here.

I was sure 13x stage winner Marianne Vos would be riding too after she was in Sweden for the UCI gravel series, but that isn't the case. Nothing is decided yet of course, but Lorena Wiebes could very well win 3 out of the 4 stages, but let's hope for some more variety when it comes to winning riders and teams.

Things to look forward to: Beautiful Norwegian scenery, possible echelons, race director Roy Moberg and perhaps other members of his family being dressed in chicken costumes.
 
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Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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This was a race that I slated last year for its boring, all flat bar the one mountain stage parcours.

After close reflection, however, I realised that Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won the only GC-relevant stage and with it the GC, and that in fact I had been mistaken and the race was actually the best thing since sliced bread.

Looking at the route, it's better this year, actually with the ITT the normall Norefjell MTF would perhaps have been preferable, but the fact that the ITT is long enough to open up some decent gaps means that we ought to see some action enticed elsewhere in the course, as opposed to last year where although the result was to my liking (and trust me, that result was a thing of greatness), the actual race was somewhat underwhelming.
 
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Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

Sep 26, 2020
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Libertine Seguros said:
This was a race that I slated last year for its boring, all flat bar the one mountain stage parcours.

After close reflection, however, I realised that Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won the only GC-relevant stage and with it the GC, and that in fact I had been mistaken and the race was actually the best thing since sliced bread.

Looking at the route, it's better this year, actually with the ITT the normall Norefjell MTF would perhaps have been preferable, but the fact that the ITT is long enough to open up some decent gaps means that we ought to see some action enticed elsewhere in the course, as opposed to last year where although the result was to my liking (and trust me, that result was a thing of greatness), the actual race was somewhat underwhelming.
Click to expand...
I also like this year's route much better, but it probably also helps that it's now only 5 days instead of 6. There are two certain GC days, but hopefully there's also going to be some excitement on stage 1 and 3.

I think it's fine, if Vejle never becomes a main feature in this race, but I do hope they'll the area visit soon. Unlike in the men's Tour of Denmark, you'd be able to do a lot more varitions there, because you wouldn't a) need to have as hard a parcours and b) you wouldn't always have to include Kiddesvej as the pinnacle either.
 
Valv.Piti

Valv.Piti

Aug 3, 2015
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Samu Cuenca said:
I also like this year's route much better, but it probably also helps that it's now only 5 days instead of 6. There are two certain GC days, but hopefully there's also going to be some excitement on stage 1 and 3.

I think it's fine, if Vejle never becomes a main feature in this race, but I do hope they'll the area visit soon. Unlike in the men's Tour of Denmark, you'd be able to do a lot more varitions there, because you wouldn't a) need to have as hard a parcours and b) you wouldn't always have to include Kiddesvej as the pinnacle either.
Click to expand...
I like this, get creative with the routes and throw stuff into the wall and see what sticks. Lots of other stuff than Kiddesvej in that area that can provide good raicng!
 
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Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

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We got some exciting racing in the end. Wiebes thanked her own team, but she obviously has to send a thank you basket to Trek as well. Not that Trek and other teams did anything stupid, because they obviously had to think about the GC/trying to get the stage win themselves, but Wiebes wouldn't have won without their help, since Fisher-Black would never have been able to close the gap.

If only the curcuit had been a few metres shorter :(
Cille has a small advantage now, but she also had to use quite some energy to only finish third in the end. A victory would have been a nice birthday present.
Lippert and Moolman-Pasio also looked good today, so we'll hopefully get another fine stage tomorrow.
 
Y

yaco

Jun 20, 2015
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Samu Cuenca said:
We got some exciting racing in the end. Wiebes thanked her own team, but she obviously has to send a thank you basket to Trek as well. Not that Trek and other teams did anything stupid, because they obviously had to think about the GC/trying to get the stage win themselves, but Wiebes wouldn't have won without their help, since Fisher-Black would never have been able to close the gap.

If only the curcuit had been a few metres shorter :(
Cille has a small advantage now, but she also had to use quite some energy to only finish third in the end. A victory would have been a nice birthday present.
Lippert and Moolman-Pasio also looked good today, so we'll hopefully get another fine stage tomorrow.
Click to expand...

It was actually Canyon who chased Lippert and Ludwig when they had no sprinter - Trek finished off the job.
 
Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

Sep 26, 2020
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I'm not too surprised to see Cadzow riding well here, but I hadn't expected Marturano to have this level.

Cille looks strong and may very well be the strongest in the sprint, but the Lippert group might still come back.
 
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