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This will be the special transfer from Paris to Euskadi of the trophy of the Great Departure of the Tour 2023

Prudhomme, at the presentation of the Bilbao stage. / igor aizpuru

Two ultra-distance runners will transfer the emblem from Paris to Bilbao, passing through Donostia and Vitoria

Igor Barcia

The Basque Government is already dreaming of the Grand Departure of the 2023 Tour, which, although it will start on July 1 from Bilbao, begins in a symbolic way after the arrival of the peloton on the Champs-Elysées in Paris on the 24th. It is usually then, at the height of celebrations for the end of the race and with the best cyclists on the podium, when the relay is also given at the start of the next edition. On this occasion, it will be the Basque representation designated for the event in Paris that will receive, from the hands of the Tour and the members of the Great Depart of Copenhagen, the trophy that symbolizes the relay, in the style of what happens every final of the Olympic games with the flag.

And for his transfer to Euskadi, the Basque Government has planned a very special event. Two ultra-distance runners will be in charge of completing the route between Paris and Bilbao with the trophy, something that has not happened in previous editions of the French round. This is a way of reflecting the importance given to starting the Tour from Basque lands, so that both cyclists will complete the almost one thousand kilometers of route with the ‘relay’, since the Basque Government’s wish is that both pass through San Sebastián and Vitoria, the other two stage venues in that Great Depart, before finishing the transfer in Bilbao.

Within a year, the Biscayan capital will be able to see in situ what the start of the Tour means, something that was experienced in Denmark as a party where thousands and thousands of fans approached the gutters to celebrate the passing of the runners. In the presentation of the three Basque stages, Christian Prudhomme praised the Basque fans, one of the main reasons for landing the Grande Boucle in Euskadi next season. It will be a very special start where the three provinces will be covered and the Tour will try to show the best landscapes of the geography. On the first day, on July 1, starting and finishing in Bilbao, the peloton will pass through Urdaibai before arriving in the capital, in what is the inaugural stage with the greatest slope in the history of the Tour. In the second, the runners will travel from Vitoria to San Sebastián, in what will be the third time that the gala round visits the Gipuzkoan capital. And in the third stage, the runners will leave Amorebieta for France.

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