2023 Tour de France: A visual guide to cycling's most challenging race

The 110th edition of the Tour de France, the most challenging and best-known bicycle race in the world, starts July 1 in Bilbao, Spain, and ends 2,115 grueling and painful miles later on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 23.

In France, the tour is more than a three-week race – it’s a cultural phenomenon. Ten million to 12 million racing fans will line the roads of the course to cheer on 176 riders among eight teams.

Around the world, millions will watch on broadcast TV or streaming services. 41.5 million viewed the 2022 race on the French public service broadcaster France Télévisions alone.

And while nearly 200 riders compete, only one will win.

The race: More than 2,100 miles in 21 days

The Tour de France is actually a collection of 21 single-day races, called stages, over 23 days. (Two rest days are built in.) The stages range from:

• Flat (8 stages): While the route is not always flat, racers usually ride together in a large group called a peloton. Flat stages end with riders breaking away by themselves or a large group sprinting together.
• Hilly (4 stages): Considered more arduous than a flat stage but less difficult than a mountain stage.
• Mountain (8 stages): First introduced in 1910, mountain stages are the most challenging. This year, riders will climb the 6,939-foot Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees.
• Time trial (1 stage): Individual riders race against the clock. The 2023 time trial is 13.7 miles. The other stages average to 105 miles, and the longest stage is 130 miles.

Tour route is different every year

The Tour de France has been held annually – except for war years – since 1903. While the format stays the same, the route changes every year, alternating between a clockwise and counterclockwise circuit of France.

It’s designed by two men, Christian Prudhomme, a former TV journalist who is general director of the tour, and Thierry Gouvenou, a former pro racer who is the tour’s race director. Prudhomme decides the general route and Gouvenou maps out details, linking towns and cities together.