And that was that, the men’s Tour de France is over for another year, what once seemed like it would be the closest race for the yellow jersey since 1989 turned into a one-horse race, but it was still packed with drama and intrigue for 21 gruelling stages.
Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma did triumph for the second year running, surely fuelling a Tadej Pogačar revenge Tour in 2024, but he won’t be the only challenger looking to dismantle the Dane’s dynasty.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, 2023 was a fine vintage, with action from the very first flag in the Basque Country. In case you need reminding, or just want to re-live it one more time before diving head-first into the Tour de France Femmes (catch up, we’re two stages in), we’ve gathered 21 of our favourite pictures of the race courtesy of GodingImages.
A great race for twins Adam and Simon Yates started with a one-two and ended with a three-four overall.
The Cofidis curse is over at last, an audacious move by Victor Lafay was too much for the reduced group behind.
Jasper Philipsen quickly asserted himself as the race’s dominant sprinter, and bagged himself four stages, denying almost all the other sprinters glory, including Wout van Aert.
A day after losing a chunk of time to rival Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar went nuclear on Stage 6 and the race was on.
The closest Mark Cavendish came to win number 35 before crashing out. Gutted.
The Puy de Dôme returned, but no fans on the mountain meant a lonely climb for many. No need for the spit though, Mathieu Burgaudeau.
The first of three emotional stage wins for Bahrain Victorious came via Pello Bilbao, who honoured his late teammate Gino Mäder.
Ion Izagirre ensured all demons were banished by soloing to Cofidis’s second stage win.
Michał Kwiatkowski got his reward for years as Ineos Grenadiers’ greatest servant, climbing to an impressive solo win on Grand Colombier.
Two motorbikes blocked the road when Tadej Pogačar launched an attack for bonus seconds on the Col de Joux Plane and Jonas Vingegaard pinched them instead. One of the bikes was carrying cameraman Bernard Papon, who took this picture. Was it worth it? Given the time gap in Paris he’d probably say yes.
Wout Poels brought Bahrain Victorious’s second win, and somehow his first Tour de France win. A long time domestique finally got his day in the sun.
Sadly the TV footage only showed him for about half a second, so we thought we’d give him two pictures here. Chapeau Wout.
Some heralded Jonas Vingegaard’s effort as the greatest time-trial in history. He put over a minute and a half into Tadej Pogačar and three minutes into Wout van Aert in third.
The very next day, Tadej gave it away. On the Col de la Loze, fatigue proved too much and Pogačar cracked, losing over five minutes to Vingegaard.
Oops. Kasper Asgreen saved Soudal-QuickStep’s Tour de France with a sprint from the breakaway, with his group of three just holding off the break’s selection of sprinters, which included Philipsen.
Asgreen almost made it two in a row but was pipped by Matej Mohorič for Bahrain’s third.
The win meant a lot to Mohorič, who was understandably emotional and gave one of sport’s greatest ever post-competition interviews.
Stage 20 in the Vosges was pretty much all about Thibaut Pinot, the local legend who got his goodbyes from thousands of adoring fans.
The stage win would go to Pogačar though, and he needed it after the disappointment in the general classification.
Ever the showman, Pogačar even put in a dig on the Champs-Élysées. Some bloke.
It was Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jordi Meeus that would take the victory in the end, not that he knew it. A photo-finish revealed our final victor.
Now, #WatchTheFemmes.