Curtain down for the Tour de France 2023. The most famous cycling race in the world ended this Sunday, July 23 on the Champs-Élysées, in Paris, with the victory awaited for several days by Jonas Vingegaard.
The fight did take place… two weeks
Marked by the confrontation, almost fratricidal and so commented, between the Dane and his rival, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, the 2023 vintage seems to have fulfilled all the expectations of Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), in charge of the Tour. “The duel was well beyond expectationssavors Thierry Gouvenou, its technical director. We didn’t think it was going to be so strong from the first days and it was very intense for three weeks. »
In fact, the two men went blow for blow. The Dane won the first round at Marie-Blanque; the Slovenian the second, in Cauterets-Cambasque. There followed a few memorable draws, in the Puy de Dôme, the Grand Colombier or in Morzine, earning them the status of“inseparable”. Against the backdrop of mutual respect between them, despite the neck and neck finishes. “This attitude is beautiful to see”, rejoices Thierry Gouvenou.
The domination of the two champions left little room for the pursuers. For the sports historian and co-author of the book Legendary cyclists (1), Pierre Lagrue, the Tour de France 2023 was actually made up of two races: “You have a Pogacar-Vingegaard duel and a race with everyone else. On this Tour, there is no comparison, the first two are stronger. It may be sad to say this way, but it is often the case on the Tour in the end”, analyzes the enthusiast. For Pierre Lagrue, Tadej Pogacar is “probably the greatest champion we have known in a while”. As for Jonas Vingegaard, “he sets the table each time for the Tour de France and we hear less about him the rest of the year”he explains.
“I gave up, I died. »
Exhausted after a truncated preparation because of his broken wrist at the end of April, Tadej Pogacar will finally have given up in two stages. During an incredible time trial won hands down by Jonas Vingegaard, Tuesday July 18, at the start of the third and final week of competition. Then the next day, during the queen stage between Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and Courchevel, during which the Slovenian experienced the worst failure of his life. The words broadcast to his team, and broadcast live on television, alone sum up the situation: “I gave up, I died. »
Next year, the situation could change with the arrival of a third thief. After his hat-trick (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Vuelta and the world road championships) in 2022, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, 23, had to abandon the Giro last June and withdraw from the Tour 2023, due to a positive test for Covid-19. The member of the Soudal Quick-Step team will be keen, in a year, to take his revenge and challenge the two tenors of the French roads.
Are the French still lagging behind?
As for the tricolor runners, the results remain mixed. For the third consecutive year, there will be only one French victory, in this case that of Victor Lafay, of the Cofidis team during the second stage in San Sebastian. Since these promising beginnings, nothing, or almost nothing. Small consolation, the dream farewells of Thibaut Pinot, Saturday July 22, at his home, at Markstein, in the Vosges, in an overexcited atmosphere. The French bows out after a rich career made up of ups and downs, but in which notoriety has never failed.
With two Frenchmen in the Top 10 (David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin, Ed) and Thibaut Pinot, eleventh, should we be disappointed? For cycling historian Jean-François Supié, author of the book Thibaut Pinot (2), “A Top 10 must not be underestimated. You have years where there is a duel between two impregnable riders, like this year. From then on, you are competing for something else”, he explains. For the specialist, “The French are there, in the second curtain. There isn’t much missing.”
Spectators who take risks
The lackluster results of the French riders did not prevent the Tour de France 2023 from meeting new popular success. Witness the audiences measured throughout the competition (between 4.5 and 6 million viewers on average according to Médiamétrie, editor’s note).
Scores that go hand in hand with the crowds observed at the roadside, again this year. This enthusiasm is not without consequences for the safety of cyclists. At the end of the second week of competition on July 16, a massive crash took place when Belgian rider Nathan van Hooydonck, leading the peloton, lost control of his bike after being hit by a spectator. A scenario that requires “work on prevention, a methodology to guard against any risk and, in the event of failure, repression”, advocates Me Tatiana Vassine, lawyer in sports law. For the specialist, a rider or a team having suffered damage as a result of a fall would be legitimate to seek compensation, but the sanctions are rare.
There remains a reality that is difficult to counter: the organization of the Tour de France, which, from a legal point of view, has “an obligation of means”, cannot guarantee complete safety on the 3,500 km of tracks offered by the Tour. “There is never zero risk”explains Me Vassine. “We must insist, ever more, to convey this message of prevention to the spectators. Everyone’s safety is at stake.”says Thierry Gouvenou in this regard. “We are overwhelmed by a new audience that we did not expect, especially young spectators who come in groups. We will have to ask ourselves to find solutions and question ourselves.explains the leader.
Finally, not a Tour without addressing the question of doping, revived by the incredible performance of Jonas Vingegaard. The interested party had to answer the inevitable questions every day about the use or not of illicit products. “I don’t take anything that I wouldn’t give to my daughter” two years old, he said. The boss of his Jumbo-Visma team, Richard Plugge, even added that his rider was reluctant to take “paracetamol”. Enough to dispel doubts? “Suspicion, alas, is not illegitimate in view of the past”, recognized Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, interviewed by AFP. The ITA agency (International Testing Agency), which has been operating in the Tour de France since 2021, checks very regularly, and even several times a day, the main protagonists of the race. Without proven cheating, for the moment.
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No parity for rewards
The winner of the Tour,Jonas Vingegaard, wins the sum of €500,000.
Son dauphin, Tadej Pogacar, is awarded a bonus of €200,000, while the third, Briton Adam Yates, walks away with €100,000.
Note that the wearer of the yellow jersey each time he has a bonus of €500 on the days he runs with the leader’s tunic. Jonas Vingegaard obtained it on July 6 and has never left it.
The winner of the Tour de France women will receive the sum of €50,000, ten times less than the winner for the men.
His runner-up will win €25,000 and the third €10,000.
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Lotte Kopecky first yellow jersey of the Tour de France women
Belgian Lotte Kopecky won the first stage of the Tour de France women and donned the first yellow jersey of the event on Sunday in Clermont-Ferrand. The rider from the SD Worx team attacked shortly before the only difficulty of the day, the Durtol coast, nine kilometers from the finish line, and won 41 seconds ahead of her Dutch teammate Lorena Wiebes.
