Lidl-Trek (France) - Press Release: Lots of climbing and a ton of opportunity.

Our men’s team gets to premier their new Lidl-Trek kits in front of the cycling-mad fans in the Basque country, as the Grande Boucle departs from beautiful Bilbao in Northern Spain. The route is very balanced but also relentless: expect there to be never more than two days in a row where the GC riders aren’t going head to head. The fireworks actually start as early as stage 1, with 3,300 meters (10,000 feet) of climbing on the menu and the first yellow jersey on the line. The first major mountains arrive early, on Stage 6 (Col du Tourmalet) and Stage 9 (Puy de Dôme). The second week has a combination of hilly stages and mountain stages and will start to shape the GC battle.

In contrast to all the climbing the riders will have to tackle, there’s only 22 kilometers of time trial in the 2023 Tour de France, at the start of the final week. From there, we have a sprint stage and two final mountain days  before the traditional procession in Paris.

With Skjelmose, Pedersen, Ciccone, Stuyven, Lopez, Simmons, Kirsch and Gallopin we are arguably fielding our strongest TDF squad in many years – a perfect beginning for the new Lidl-Trek chapter.