"We dreamed and expected a battle of the leaders and we have it" - Christian Prudhomme sees Tour de France vision come to fruition

Since 2007, Christian Prudhomme has been the race director at the Tour de France. In all those many years, few if any Tour de France's have been as action-packed as the 2023 edition of the race, something that has left Prudhomme understandably delighted.

"We dreamed and expected a battle of the leaders. And we have it, since the first stage and the Côte de Pike," the 62-year-old Frenchman tells Cyclism'Actu in a rest day interview. "In the last week, the time trial and the Col la Loze will be essential, then the last stage of the Vosges, which was designed to have a real upheaval possible, with real difficulty for the teams to control the race."

Barely a stage has gone by so far at the 2023 Tour de France without plenty of drama and/or excitement, and the battle between Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates and Jonas Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma have made it a real race for the ages. A truly memorable chapter in the long history of the Tour de France.

"There is this fight between the leaders, but there is also this team-against-team fight, with opposing strategies. We have the feeling that at all levels, whether it is sports for leaders, sports for teams, but also logistics," continues Prudhomme. "It's a terrible showdown, a boxing fight. I don't know if it will end in points, or maybe there will be a knockout at the end, but in any case, in the meantime, it makes us salivate, that's for sure."