Tour de France 2023: Five unconventional predictions

Never mind who will win the general classification, here's five wild predictions for what will and won't happen this July

Tadej Pogacar and Mikkel Bjerg at the teams presentation
(Image credit: Getty)

After months of build up, the 2023 edition of the Tour de France finally gets underway in the Basque Country this weekend.

Ahead of the opening stage, a hilly circuit around Bilbao, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) has vowed to attack, whereas Jonas Vingegaard dismissed the Slovenians attempts at mind games and shrugged off being labelled the favourite for overall victory. 

Many of the Basque locals will be backing their man Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious for the victory whereas British hopes lie on the shoulders of Tom Pidcock. Whatever happens, there’s bound to be fireworks and watching on at home you can expect the unexpected.

With that said, here are Cycling Weekly’s five unconventional predictions for this year’s edition of the French Grand Tour.
 

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Tom Thewlis
News and Features Writer

After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.

With contributions from