Official 2023 Tour de France Thread

Vingegaard is the guy to beat, his climbing this year already looks better than last year

It will be interesting to see how Bernal does. He is not quite back after the crash so he may be better in week 3 than in week 1.

1) Pogacar

2) Vingegaard

In the US, it is sure not as easy to watch this year. It's no longer on NBC for 3 weeks. It's NBC for the first and last stage and Peacock the rest of the time.
I just realized xfinity dropped peacock from the package as of tomorrow. wtf!

Bernal is out. Here is a good preview:

I love that:

However, the prosecutor said that because a fine would have little
impact given Sagan’s income, a three-month suspected prison sentence was
a more fitting sanction. His driving license is also withdrawn for
three months.

Props to a country that takes drunk driving this seriously. He was on a scooter and gets a prison sentence. I am really surprised that total energies didn't kick him off of the tour team. i would think the sponsors would not be happy with this.

Everything i read shows Bernal is in.

You are right. My apologies.

The race has started with a bang.

Yeah, this sucks. I just discovered today that I won't be able to watch the rest of the stages. On the other hand, CNBC broadcast the Lausanne DL meet one day late today, and tomorrow they'll show the Stockholm meet.

Peacock has live stages and can replay them as well, and one month subscription cost $4.99/mo. Just signed up.

Agreed, it's not much money but dammit, it's the principle of the thing. My husband's a tennis fan, so I suppose we'll watch Wimbledon instead, without paying anything extra.

How about that stage 1 ending? The Yates twins getting to duke it out for a win and the yellow! Tadej and Jonas look ready to rumble. Powless (American) takes the polka dots!!

Hopefully Nielson has more in him - rough, rough day for EF

great first stage

I think he’s in good form and should have a shot of ending up with the jersey in Paris. Sounds like that’s an actual goal for EF. Carapaz is a bummer. If he doesn’t abandon he’ll be crippled. It looked like his knees were pretty jacked up after that crash.

So much climbing this year. I think we’re in for some pretty dramatic weeks with the GC.

Mas and Carapaz out. Hopefully they recover quickly and maybe we see them at the Giro

I meant the Vuelta, not Giro

Damn my favorite rider Carapaz out.