Tour de France Rate Tour de France 2023

[titan31]

I gave it a 6 but could see a 7. First week was great, 2nd week had too much caution and the 3rd week was something I guess. Bunch of issues then too with some piss poor organisation and the moto issues didnt help either. Missed some good things too cos of crashes (what could Mas and Carapaz have done, Hindley likely fares better without his and could Cav have won a stage)

 

[SHAD0W93]

An 8

Pros
The GC and Jumbo vs UAE battle was close for two weeks with both teams giving everything they had and all their riders being fatigued,
Pog’s wins despite some thinking he won’t win any stages,
Philipsen’s domination and proving all the hate he got in 2021 was wrong,
Adam getting the podium despite the hate from some beforehand,
The breakaway wins especially Kwiatkowski, Izagirre, Asgreen, and Mohoric,
The KoM battle going any way and multiple riders going for it,
7/10 of the top 10 getting a stage win,
Lotto and Quickstep coming to life after their sprinters abandon,
Cofidis getting not one but two wins,
Cav showing he could win a stage

Cons
All the crashes; specially to Carapaz, Mas, Hindley, Kuss, and Cav,
The spectator and motor controversies,
Vinge recovering from dead to Super Saiyan three,
GC for 1st settled after the TT,
Jumbo trying to play us for fools with their remarks after the TT,
Philipsen and MVDP controversy with their sprints and Philipsen’s attitude the last week,
Concussion protocol (hard to believe Kuss or Rodriquez didn’t get one),
Pinot and Cav not getting a stage

 

[Escarabajo]

7. The ectasias of the race was deflating. Everything else was good.

 

[Tonton]

No surprise, I give this Tour an 8 .

Pluses:

- Even if it didn't go all the way to Stage 20, the fight for yellow was spectacular.
- A Tour that the Yates brothers will watch with their grandchildren. Bravo to them.
- Poels and Kwiat' winning stages felt good.
- Ciccone is a legit climber and having him in the polka-dot jersey is a good outcome.
- Pinot in the lead, through that crowd on Stage 20. Wow!

Minuses:

- Bilbao not winning in Bilbao
- Motorcycles...
- No French winner on Bastille Day
- ASO should be ashamed of these Jura stages: where was the Jura in them?
- Thibaut didn't win 5 or more stages

It was a very good but not great Tour.

 

[Gigs_98]

I gave it an 8. Yeah the gc battle didn't end up going down to the line, but c'mon, this is cycling. What did you expect? How ever the third week went, nothing can ever take away the incredible battle on a knives edge we were able to witness for the first 15 stages. That the race ended up dipping clearly in one riders favor is just the nature of the sport.

Also, as much as stages 16 and 17 took the excitement out of it, they were still at least one thing. Iconic. That TT and Pogacar cracking on the Col de la Loze will go down in Tour history. Really this entire sequence of Tours will do just that. Let's just hope Pogacar and Vingegaard have a few more battles left to give. Until then, vive le Tour.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

I gave a 7. The last week was a little better than expected but not enough to push to an 8. Didn't bother watching 16 or 21 (nor should I), 18 finale was good, 19 was a great stage but 20 was kind of dull until the final climb. Even then the most interesting thing was Felix Gall showing his devotion to the WvA School of Cycle Machine Racing.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

7.
I was originally going to give it a 6, but then I thought that that would be too much points deduction for my favorite rider losing and succumbed to the peer pressure.
It really seemed like the Tour has a different atmosphere around it than the Giro for example, which showed itself through the crazy breakaway fights and especially the last three stages. Stage 19 was incredible for the third week, it‘s probably the first time that such a strong break is actually recaptured by teams wanting to get into the break.
Stage 9‘s finish with Woods coming past Jorgenson after an epic chasedown on the Puy de Dôme was another breakaway classic and I also liked Wout Poels‘s solo win. Stage 5 was of course absolutely a highlight as well, Hindley broke away and took an unlikely yellow jersey, yet with the caveat that the stage only played out that way because it was clear that Jai would not be a threat to the two dominant climbers of the race when all was said and done.

Alright, about the GC battle, perhaps the clearest two-horse race you‘re ever likely to see in a Grand Tour: It started off looking quite like a one-sided beatdown, Tadej Pogačar not being able to drop Vingegaard on his favored terrain of short hills at the Grand Départ in the Basque Country, before being made to look uncompetitive on the Col de Marie Blanque when Vingegaard absolutely flew away from Pogačar within the final kilometer of the climb and extended his gap all the way to the line.
This set up for a kind of mysterious second day in the Pyrenees. Some posters on here (@Andy schleck )predicted that Jumbo-Visma would try to decide the Tour right then and there on the Col du Tourmalet, a somewhat bold 47 kilometers from the finish line. I was convinced that JV would not follow this plan, as such an aggressive riding style would be completely unprecedented. As the stage progressed I first became convinced that this would actually happen, because Jumbo were riding in a tactically fine tuned way, then changed my mind after Van Hooydonck controlled the pace for a long time, then finally, Jumbo-Visma launched Vingegaard, but this time, Pogačar stuck to his wheel. On the final climb up to Cauterets-Cambasque, he even distanced Vingegaard by a full 24 seconds and celebrated a convincing victory, that translated to a big swing in momentum, but I have to give Vingegaard a lot of credit for his aggressive racing.
Then, the GC battle entered a period of much talk about little time gains, as Pogačar defeated the heat on Puy de Dôme, and the (somewhat) long climb on the Grand Colombier.
But the next day, Stage 14, was meant to be the big day for Jonas Vingegaard, as his team set a furious pace throughout the whole stage. But on the final climb, the Col de Joux Plane, it was Pogačar who went on the offensive, leaping clear about 3.5 kilometers from the top, only for Vingegaard to slowly grind back up to him over the course of two kilometers. Another Pogačar attack was thwarted by the inconsiderate placement of motorbikes in front of the duo near the top of the climb and he wound up losing time bonuses to a more focused Vingegaard and the stage to a more aggressively descending Carlos Rodriguez. From here on out, the momentum swung back in Vingegaard‘s favor, as he was able to follow Pogačar on the final climb the following day. All things considered, a common idea was that Pogačar could take the yellow jersey in stage 16‘s Time Trial while Vingegaard was favored on Wednesday‘s queen stage.

And that is where it all fell apart: Vingegaard steamrolled Stage 16 by an incredible margin of 1:38 on a slightly underwhelming Pogačar, who then proceeded, affected mentally by the beatdown in the race of truth and physically by a fall taken earlier in the stage and his iffy preparation, to be distanced from the favorites‘ group under the tempo of Michal Kwiatkowski of all people. Vingegaard predictably took two minutes on Adam Yates, but was not able to catch Felix Gall, who hung on from the opportunistic bunch of GC riders up the road. Stage 20 was underwhelming as Carlos Rodriguez lost his podium chances to his front wheel and Tadej Pogačar showed interest in the stage, chasing down crowd favorite Pinot in his last ever Tour with the help of Felix Gall and won a sprint after Vingegaard did not seriously attempt to add a road stage by not attacking. So, one week of GC action, one of shadowboxing and one of dominance and irrelevance.

The fight for the points classification was sadly over before it even started because of (Jerome) Van Aert and Van der Poel as Jasper Philipsen took whichever bunch sprints occurred beside an uphill sprint he lost to Pedersen and the Champs sprint he lost to new fastest man in Belgium Jordi Meeus, while Pogačar was finding out that you can‘t drive a breakaway and then attempt a finisseur move.

In the KOM classification, at least it did not go to the Tour winner who would most likely trade you the jersey for a new TT bike. But while Ciccone fought hard he was always dropping back by the end of stages and seemed to face the toughest competition from Felix Gall who took out the most important climb by circumstance and from Neilson Powless who is nice but is also Neilson Powless, who additionally went way too hard to gain points on the first three stages, trying to remain in the polkadots.

All in all, barely one close competition, a deflating and offputting anticlimax in Stage 16 and 17 and just a race that was exhausting to watch. I think I was too obsessed with the bike race, yet it still had too many upsides and most Grand Tours have more downsides and less of a gravity about them, less than 7 would be harsh. I‘ll change it to 6.

 

[The Clogger]

9.5

Vingo GC and stage
Pedersen stage
Asgreen stage

I missed seeing Magnus Cort in breaks, he was absent the entire tour. With a bit of luck Pedersen and/or Asgreen could have won a second stage. Skjelmose did well, but I had hoped he would be top 10 GC contender.

I'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a flat/rolling time trial

 

[topcat]

7.
I was originally going to give it a 6, but then I thought that that would be too much points deduction for my favorite rider losing and succumbed to the peer pressure.
It really seemed like the Tour has a different atmosphere around it than the Giro for example, which showed itself through the crazy breakaway fights and especially the last three stages. Stage 19 was incredible for the third week, it‘s probably the first time that such a strong break is actually recaptured by teams wanting to get into the break.
Stage 9‘s finish with Woods coming past Jorgenson after an epic chasedown on the Puy de Dôme was another breakaway classic and I also liked Wout Poels‘s solo win. Stage 5 was of course absolutely a highlight as well, Hindley broke away and took an unlikely yellow jersey, yet with the caveat that the stage only played out that way because it was clear that Jai would not be a threat to the two dominant climbers of the race when all was said and done.

Alright, about the GC battle, perhaps the clearest two-horse race you‘re ever likely to see in a Grand Tour: It started off looking quite like a one-sided beatdown, Tadej Pogačar not being able to drop Vingegaard on his favored terrain of short hills at the Grand Départ in the Basque Country, before being made to look uncompetitive on the Col de Marie Blanque when Vingegaard absolutely flew away from Pogačar within the final kilometer of the climb and extended his gap all the way to the line.
This set up for a kind of mysterious second day in the Pyrenees. Some posters on here (@Andy schleck )predicted that Jumbo-Visma would try to decide the Tour right then and there on the Col du Tourmalet, a somewhat bold 47 kilometers from the finish line. I was convinced that JV would not follow this plan, as such an aggressive riding style would be completely unprecedented. As the stage progressed I first became convinced that this would actually happen, because Jumbo were riding in a tactically fine tuned way, then changed my mind after Van Hooydonck controlled the pace for a long time, then finally, Jumbo-Visma launched Vingegaard, but this time, Pogačar stuck to his wheel. On the final climb up to Cauterets-Cambasque, he even distanced Vingegaard by a full 24 seconds and celebrated a convincing victory, that translated to a big swing in momentum, but I have to give Vingegaard a lot of credit for his aggressive racing.
Then, the GC battle entered a period of much talk about little time gains, as Pogačar defeated the heat on Puy de Dôme, and the (somewhat) long climb on the Grand Colombier.
But the next day, Stage 14, was meant to be the big day for Jonas Vingegaard, as his team set a furious pace throughout the whole stage. But on the final climb, the Col de Joux Plane, it was Pogačar who went on the offensive, leaping clear about 3.5 kilometers from the top, only for Vingegaard to slowly grind back up to him over the course of two kilometers. Another Pogačar attack was thwarted by the inconsiderate placement of motorbikes in front of the duo near the top of the climb and he wound up losing time bonuses to a more focused Vingegaard and the stage to a more aggressively descending Carlos Rodriguez. From here on out, the momentum swung back in Vingegaard‘s favor, as he was able to follow Pogačar on the final climb the following day. All things considered, a common idea was that Pogačar could take the yellow jersey in stage 16‘s Time Trial while Vingegaard was favored on Wednesday‘s queen stage.

And that is where it all fell apart: Vingegaard steamrolled Stage 16 by an incredible margin of 1:38 on a slightly underwhelming Pogačar, who then proceeded, affected mentally by the beatdown in the race of truth and physically by a fall taken earlier in the stage and his iffy preparation, to be distanced from the favorites‘ group under the tempo of Michal Kwiatkowski of all people. Vingegaard predictably took two minutes on Adam Yates, but was not able to catch Felix Gall, who hung on from the opportunistic bunch of GC riders up the road. Stage 20 was underwhelming as Carlos Rodriguez lost his podium chances to his front wheel and Tadej Pogačar showed interest in the stage, chasing down crowd favorite Pinot in his last ever Tour with the help of Felix Gall and won a sprint after Vingegaard did not seriously attempt to add a road stage by not attacking. So, one week of GC action, one of shadowboxing and one of dominance and irrelevance.

The fight for the points classification was sadly over before it even started because of (Jerome) Van Aert and Van der Poel as Jasper Philipsen took whichever bunch sprints occurred beside an uphill sprint he lost to Pedersen and the Champs sprint he lost to new fastest man in Belgium Jordi Meeus, while Pogačar was finding out that you can‘t drive a breakaway and then attempt a finisseur move.

In the KOM classification, at least it did not go to the Tour winner who would most likely trade you the jersey for a new TT bike. But while Ciccone fought hard he was always dropping back by the end of stages and seemed to face the toughest competition from Felix Gall who took out the most important climb by circumstance and from Neilson Powless who is nice but is also Neilson Powless, who additionally went way too hard to gain points on the first three stages, trying to remain in the polkadots.

All in all, barely one close competition, a deflating and offputting anticlimax in Stage 16 and 17 and just a race that was exhausting to watch. I think I was too obsessed with the bike race, yet it still had too many upsides and most Grand Tours have more downsides and less of a gravity about them, less than 7 would be harsh. I‘ll change it to 6.

@Libertine Seguros

 

[Tonton]

In hindsight I shoulda rated last year an 8.

See I told you so !

 

[Ilmaestro99]

9.5

Vingo GC and stage
Pedersen stage
Asgreen stage

I missed seeing Magnus Cort in breaks, he was absent the entire tour. With a bit of luck Pedersen and/or Asgreen could have won a second stage. Skjelmose did well, but I had hoped he would be top 10 GC contender.

I'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a flat/rolling time trial

This kind of objectivity and lack of bias is why I love the expert analysis posted on this forum.

 

[ALC]

I would have given it a 10 if Cavendish had won stage 7… 😊

 

[Ilmaestro99]

I would have given it a 10 if Cavendish had won stage 7… 😊

This is not the 'rate the Tour de france 2023 if Cavendish won stage 7' thread

I would have given it at least an 8 if Landa won the GC

 

[Izzyeviel]

The greatest grand tour I've watched since 2022. Which was the best grand tour I've seen since I started watching cycling around 30 years ago.

Only criticism i have is that it was too full on. I like laid back stages so I can enjoy the scenery. Can't really do that with these two going hammer and tongs all the time.

 

[JosefK]

An 8 for me. The tension of the GC battle through the first 15 stages was the best I can recall through the first 2 weeks. Then stage 16 popped the balloon of my expectations. Stage 17 curb-stomped what remained of my hopes for a legendary GC battle in the final week of the Tour. But this Tour also featured wins by riders who were easy to cheer for. And nice redemption for Pog on stage 20. It was very, very good. It will be remembered.

 

[Rob5091]

Confirmed the "two speed" peloton. Otherwise, Gall showed some good performances and Rodriguez confirmed his promise. .

 

[Bolder]

8. Almost every stage delivered some action. That said a lot of GC contenders crashed out or underperformed, which made it hard to care about the "fight" for 4th on down. But I loved the frontloaded route.

 

[Rob5091]

Whatever ASO did to fight off Covid worked - to their great relief.

 

[Peter von]

8 from me. Despite the big time gaps in the end this gc battle was one of the more exciting ones with Pogi and Jonas both winning rounds on the gc stages in first two weeks.

 

[movingtarget]

After a horrible Giro it was easy to rate the Tour high but the final week dragged it down a bit route wise and drama wise. The Green jersey was over early, the GC was over after the TT, KOM was a good battle. White jersey was no contest. Still give it an 8 which is the highest I have rated a GT in many years. First two weeks were really entertaining. Battle for third place was good and Yates staying upright gave him an advantage over Hindley and Rodriguez but he also climbed very well in the second half of the race.. Expected a bit more from Simon Yates but 4th place was a bonus for him after the problems of others. Ewan was a major disappointment in the sprints and his career needs a boost or a change of plan with a new team.

Still waiting for a French rider to hit the podium again. Gaudu looks more like top five, top 10 rider at the moment.Pinot retiring, Bardet past his best and always seems to crash out of grand tours now. France is obviously thirsting for another Hinault, Fignon or Thevenet. Hard to believe it's been almost 40 years since the last French winner.

 

[gregrowlerson]

I think this is being underrated due to recency bias and a mostly disliked winner.

And because there was less shock with Vingegaard winning in 2023 than there was in 2022.

I voted a 9.

How many stages have been as good as stage 6 in the past 30 years? There was dramatic action between the 2 favourites on 4 stages (5, 6, 16, 17), and in 2022 really only on 3 (cobbles, Granon & Hautacam).

There is a complaint that the suspense was over after stage 17, but wasn't Hautacam 17 or 18 last year?

I don't see how the eventual gap of 4 or 7 minutes matters much.

 

[Marmot]

I gave it a 9. Day in, day out, as a collective, the riders did what we always hope they'll do, and rode aggressively/entertainingly.

I'd have given it a 10 if the green jersey competition had been more competitive. When I saw the line up before the race, I thought it was an excellent field of sprinters and was expecting a pretty even spread of wins among them.

 

[Black Betsy]

9.5

Vingo GC and stage
Pedersen stage
Asgreen stage

I missed seeing Magnus Cort in breaks, he was absent the entire tour. With a bit of luck Pedersen and/or Asgreen could have won a second stage. Skjelmose did well, but I had hoped he would be top 10 GC contender.

I'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a flat/rolling time trial

Yeah, Asgreen stage most probably my 3rd all time favorite thus far. A strong 7, 5 for this stage alone

 

[rallybanana]

Minuses:

- Bilbao not winning in Bilbao

Bilbao lost 21 seconds to the favourites group in Bilbao. In the end that cost him a top 5 result. That's more disappointing than not winning in Bilbao .

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Gave it an 8.

For me, a 3 week stage race should be like a novel built up with highlights and downs, intermezzoes and suspense. And in fact prefer this to 21 nail-biting 10/10 stages on top of a grueling GC battle like of this edition until stage 16.

On the down side:
The battle for the green jersey was non-existent.
Polkadot: I missed more 1:1 battles between the riders going for the jersey, i.e. direct battles between Ciccone, Gall and Powless.
Yellow jersey: Unfortunately, the air went completely out of the balloon from the middle of the 3rd week on the two decisive stages, the ITT and the Loze stage.

On the other hand, we got some absolutely fantastic bike races after Loze, stages 18+19 being wildly spectacular in their own way as like "not seen before" experiences. Which is a big part of why I ended up with an 8 instead of a 7.

On other upside was also the Grand Départ in the Basque Country. Absolutely fantastic, just the kick-off on the 1st stage was extremely likable IMO.

The Vosges stage faded a bit towards the final climb, until then having been indeed very watchable, but it could not be otherwise when the stage could not be decided by eager breakaways - and a yellow jersey, which is far too humble and does not want to humiliate its nearest competitor.
Or at least that's what I thought when Vingegaard didn't counterattack Pogi up the last climb (where I don't think Gall could have done it much differently - OK maybe he should've hesitated when GC guys entered but maybe he would get rid of the excess of UAE riders, not knowing fully if Adam would concentrate fully on pulling for a Pogi stage win - but maybe my point of view about him is also due to the fact that I tried to look for explanations in his favor, because I don't want to be condescending about him after I became a fan of him on the basis of the Loze stage and other of his performances during the Tour, ok that seems a bit far-fetched, I fully admit).
But Vingegaard's attempt with the jump before the finish line, would have lead to a total knock-out on Pogi's self-confidence if he was beaten on own territory (which nevertheless left me a little surprised at his seemingly indulgence to Pogi).

But of course stage result couldn't be otherwise and quite happy about it, not only due to I've been a Pogi fan since Vuelta 2019, but because the whole cycling world needs a Pogi with confidence. A Pogi who wants to continue filling the calendar with his always optimistic approaches on how bike races should be done and succeeding here, and by that way the far the best ambassador for our sport

In hindsight, Vingegaard should probably have thought a little more about the fact that people would have liked him better if he had shown attacking courage, he had nothing to lose. I was just worried about his hesitation was due to that Ihe didn't want to look like a patronizing Lance, now that plenty clinical questions have emerged in full bloom after the eradication in Combloux.

I just watched LR's stage 21 summary on YT, among other things. mention of the promenade ride before entering Champs-Elysées and moments first with all Aussies in a row and then ditto row run with participating Danes and his conclusion that the Australians have had a better trip. I don't know if it was a joke, but I actually like his POV, as sometimes it's not just reflected by leaderboards and black/white numbers.

Which brings me to the fact that I subsequently watched Danish TV2's champagne celebrations on the Champs Ellysées with invited Danish participants around the champagne table. Quite funny that the host was counting his guests and had completely forgotten who was missing (some guy with a yellow jersey), but maybe too difficult for him with a record number of Danes in this version.
So, questioned directly to Mørkøv about his thoughts about his Tour participation, after which he answered something like "downright horrible and the worst Tour he has had'" After all, expected him to have put on the QS hat a bit and rejoiced on behalf of his teammate, who was on the opposite side of the table. But I can understand how frustrating it has been for him when his top sprinter has not been able to hold his wheel - and I interpreted it a bit as self-blame. But honestly, other sprinters had no problem jumping on Mørkøv's wheel, where Jakobsen left off. I don't know if it's some PTSD on Jakobsen's part, but I want to wish him the best of luck at DSM (even if it sounds like a wasp's nest to him, but just my personal opinion).

In any case, if all the stages and all the jerseys had been in play with as much excitement as the GC battle during first 15 stages, I would have given this version a 7 instead of a 10. Simply because I don't think my heart would have survived

All in all I felt greatly entertained.

Also though my heart ached when Pogi suffered. I had probably just had too optimistic thoughts, not only regarding his warm-up but that his closest competitor have had so one-sided focus on this bike race. And that I'm just happy for Pogi's Vosges's stage, which I sincerely hope means that he will continue with his courage throughout the calendar, as he has done until now.

But the suffering was a bit of the spicy ingredient for my personal experience of this Tour. As if emotions created by going into details for alot of riders in the peleton during most stages wasn't enough.

But due to the down sides of this edition as I mentioned I cannot give it more than 8.