Tour de France 2023 - 18th stage | Thursday, 20 July | Moutiers - Bourg-en-Bresse | 184.9 kilometres
Rolf Aldag's assessment of the 18th stage of the 2023 Tour de France: Sprint royal with a pitfall
The agony is finally over for the sprinters, provided they made it to the airport in Courchevel. Their legs certainly won't feel fresh today, but at least they now have another chance. That motivates them immensely when they've worked so hard to get through before. The route is very flat by Tour de France standards, there are around 1300 metres of elevation gain - that doesn't pose any problems even for heavier muscle packs.
So I don't find any hidden agenda on today's stage. The route leads from the Alps to the north-west, where a sprint finale awaits in Bourg-en-Bresse. Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd have already cheered here, both in their time a reference for the perfect sprint finish. That's why I'm also expecting a sprint royal, as the direct finish is designed for it. It's a straight line over 800 metres to the timekeeping. However, there is one detail to bear in mind that can make the difference between victory and defeat when it comes to the timing of the final kicks with the 56 chainrings.
It's too late to change gear here, so precise orientation is extremely important. It's all about the last 100 metres, where the road climbs a little. This is a decisive factor for the correct use of power. The road to the destination can suddenly feel longer.
Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of the 18th stage of the Tour de France 2023
- Neutral start: 13:05, sharp start 13:35
- Estimated arrival time: between 17:31 and 17:53
- TV broadcast: ARD - from 14:10, Eurosport - from 12:55
- Live stream: ARD one, sportschau.de, GCN+, Discovery+, Eurosport
Our expert Rolf Aldag
As a professional cyclist, our expert Rolf Aldag rode the Tour de France ten times up to 2004; as manager and sporting director, he has led various top teams through France and will once again be in charge of the German team Bora-Hansgrohe as sporting director at the Tour de France this year. There are few people who can tell so vividly what can happen on the stages of a grand tour and within the peloton. For TOUR, the 54-year-old sports manager has once again scrutinised the elevation profiles and march tables of this year's Tour de France.
In his predictions, he names the teams and riders he sees at the front on each day, assesses the difficulties of the routes and says where he expects attacks from whom. Will there be a bunch sprint? Will a breakaway group make it to the finish? Aldag also assesses for TOUR what role each stage plays for the classification jerseys: The more coloured jerseys our expert assigns to a stage, the greater their significance for the respective classification. The yellow jersey symbolises the weight of the stage in the overall classification, the green jersey stands for the importance of the best sprinter in the points classification and the red dotted jersey for the mountain classification, i.e. for the best climber. With these first-hand predictions, you can follow the TV broadcasts well informed and with profit!
