Analysis Tour de France 2023: Brilliant Tour de France for Spanish cycling despite Movistar and Landa
Cycling
Five years had passed since the last victory of Spanish cycling in the Tour de France. Since Omar Fraile in 2018 no cyclist had been able to win. However, the start of the Basque Country has given luck to the Spaniards and after so much drought 3 triumphs have come in one go: Pello Bilbao, Ion Izagirre and Carlos Rodríguez.
Thus, analyzing the Tour de France of the Spaniards, we must give an overall grade of outstanding. The first victory came from Pello Bilbao, who managed to end the curse in the tenth stage finishing in Issoire by being the strongest of a high quality breakaway and finishing ahead of Georg Zimmermann, Ben O'Connor and Krists Neilands. This breakaway allowed him to climb positions in the general classification to finish sixth, close to fifth place. Brutal his Tour.
The second win went to a man who had already won on the Grande Boucle, Ion Izagirre. The Cofidis climber won stage 12 in Belleville-en-Beaujolais after blowing away his breakaway companions on the final climb with 30km to go, descending with his trademark class and soloing to the finish to beat a group that included the likes of Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Thibaut Pinot and Mathieu van der Poel.
Last but not least, we must give another outstanding performance to Carlos Rodríguez who finished fifth overall after fighting hand in hand with the Yates brothers for the podium and who managed to beat Tadej Pogacar and Joans Vingegaard in the Morzine stage after an anthological descent. Has a new star for Spanish cycling been born?
On the positive side, it is worth mentioning the Tour de France of Jonathan Castroviejo and Omar Fraile working for Carlos Rodríguez in INEOS and that of Marc SOler for Tadej Pogacar in UAE. Juanpe Lopez had a long first Tour, although he had stretches in which he was a good gregario in the mountains for Lidl-Trek.
Disappointments.
Movistar Team failed. It is true that the abandonment by fall in the first stage of Enric Mas has conditioned the whole race, but they have not been able to adapt and, except for a couple of good performances of Matteo Jorgenson who could not close two breakaways in which he seemed the strongest, we can not highlight anything. Bad Rúben Guerreiro, bad Gorka Izagirre and bad Alex Aranburu;
The other failure is Mikel Landa. Much was expected from the Spaniard in a Tour de France that started from the Basque Country, but his performance has been very bad. He finished 19th, more than an hour behind Jonas Vingegaard. Not a single day has he been with the overall and not a single day has he had a chance to be even close to winning a stage. Very poor performance;
Juan LarraCycling Journalist
Juan Larra is a writer for Cyclinguptodate and editor-in-chief of Ciclismoaldia, where he has played a central role since its inception. Under his leadership, the website has become a trusted source for professional cycling coverage, offering in-depth analysis, news, and feature stories.
A sports journalist with over 20 years of experience, Juan earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Seville in 2007. He began his career covering a wide range of sports—including football, basketball, Formula 1, MotoGP, tennis, and cycling—for platforms such as the official La Liga app, Vodafone and Movistar websites, NBA Blogdebasket, and Cadena Cope, honing his skills in writing and editorial management.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Juan contributes to Cyclinguptodate and serves as editor-in-chief for the tennis-focused site Tenisaldia. Throughout his career, he has conducted exclusive interviews with cyclists and sports figures, provided detailed analysis of competitions ranging from local Spanish races to major international events, and acted as a special correspondent at prestigious races including Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.
Juan’s combination of experience, expertise, and direct access to athletes has established him—and the platforms he leads—as authoritative voices in professional cycling.
claps 4visitors 1
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- ❤️Lozza15-11-2026
- The greatest ever is a crazy claim. But in discussions about sport in our local media, among people with no particular interest in cycling, he has been the first person they've thought of when giving examples of exceptional athletes.Hills3315-11-2026
- Urska may be less keen on a cafe if keeping it afloat will fall to her, so maybe just a nice dream!Hills3315-11-2026
- Raise thine hand if the money you have made for retirement slips away on poor investments.Most of us will outlive our financial comforts because we don't have the financial acumen to ensure a comfortable lifelong retirement and that is a statistical fact not my opinion.Many millionaires have pissed their money away or had it taken away by so called conniving "financial advisors".The world of wealth is a dangerous place that most of us will never experience nor appreciate.
Brucegel15-11-2026 - You are interested in Pogi for one reason only, you feel like you are somehow related because you share some vague geographical identity. Other than that you have very little interest in cycling as all your posts show, if it can’t be connected to Pogi you have nothing to post. That said, recent activity here shows we are attracting quite a crowd from his region.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- From knowing past cycling stars with shops I can only say, think it through. Not only is it mundane after a while but it really doesn’t take you out of the limelight, in the end you’ll be trying to stay away from the place yourself whilst all your fans keep coming for you.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Careful investment? I think he can live very comfortably with zero investments, what does he need more? The world would do well if more people set a target for how much they need or would make them “happy” and then stop worrying about perpetually having to make more.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Yes, Roglic could theoretically have beaten Sepp. Jonas must have had complete confidence that he could come back and win the Vuelta another year. Visma had not allowed Roglic to ride the Tour that year, so his future did not look so bright, despite his narrow Giro win..Hills3315-11-2026
- So far, a good series about riders before my time, even if the text feels AI generated like so much on this site. About the rider, he seems like one of many who are active fan favorites but don’t survive in the stories of cycling, a few decades later - I didn’t really know anything about him and this was a good read, thank you!RidesHills15-11-2026
- A calm, honest documentary, a bit of hagiography but mostly not too much. When he talks about a coffee shop, it aligns with several things in his world - he might want calm, but he does (more than a little bit) have someone near him (his fiancee) who makes sure that things happen the way he expects. Many atheletes have retired only to find out just how much others were taking care of their lives for them. If they work out (I'm old, things happen), I am sure it will take a renegotiation, which is a good thing. I truly enjoyed watching it, seeing him, seeing her, seeing the whole system built around him.RidesHills15-11-2026
Loading
DON CARLOS RODRIGUEZ CANO 🎩 Talento. Clase. Inteligencia. Fuerza. Ambición. El ciclismo español esta muy vivo 🔥
Write a comment