Pogacar's first reactions on 2023 Tour de France: "The third week is really, really hard"

Many of the world's best were united today in Paris for the presentation of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes. Tadej Pogacar made his trip over to France, and has talked about his first impressions on the 2023 route.

“I really like the course, the first stages are really hard, and the third week is really, really hard, so it’s going to be fun, I think. I cannot wait for July,” the two-time race winner told reporters after the reveal. “I think it’s good that early in the Tour will come the harder stages and it makes it so much more interesting.”

The route features a climber-suited route. Despite his time-trialing capacity, it should be a route that suits the UAE Team Emirates, with eight mountain stages and four summit finishes included, a race packed with climbing from top to bottom. “I’m really motivated to win it again and we will try to do everything we can to win it,” Pogacar continued. 

“We will see how the other teams will race. It’s really hard from here to see the shape, but I would love to continue to race like this, attacking always. The Tour de France maybe sometimes you need to wait until the final, but we will see," he said after the event.

The riders surely knew of the rumours, and will be riding the Puy de Dôme ascent competitively for the first time in their competitive career. “I don’t know a lot, but it looks like a really tough climb," Pogacar said of the return of the ascent of the Massif Central.

"I expect it to be a tough finish there and a battle for the GC. It looks like a nice climb, it will be my first time there. When the snow melts in the Pyrenees and the Alps, we will start to do the recons.”

Another feature that has widely been commented is the lack of time-trialing kilometers. Only 22 in fact, in a day that favours the climbers - and will certainly see a big absence of the specialists in the race. “It looks like a really interesting time trial, which I should like, it’s going to be a GC battle on the TT," he concluded.