Tour de France 2023 - 21st stage | Sunday, 23 July | Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - Paris | 115.1 kilometres
Rolf Aldag's assessment of the 21st stage of the 2023 Tour de France: Another battle for green?
There have been many opportunities for green jersey contenders to rack up points in this Tour up to Paris. In fact, there are very different sprinters in the peloton who fall into this category. They have different strengths, but all of them - Wout van Aert, Sam Bennett, Jasper Philipsen, Caleb Ewan - also have what it takes and the teams to set the sporting benchmark in Paris.
Of course, the ideal scenario is that the winner of this classification will actually be decided today. In any case, the final sprinters have marked this day in bold in their calendars. The stage points to the future even before the start in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Today's start location will host the track cycling competitions at the 2024 Olympic Games. The winner's triumphant ride leads to the heart of the capital with the usual champagne shots and many happy faces. Then another race with show attacks and real battles for position ensues. The remaining field completes eight laps before the most prestigious sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées.
One in particular is working towards this day: Mark Cavendish. After his winning sprint at the Giro d'Italia, it would be cinematic if he could set the Tour stage record in Paris.
Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of the 21st stage of the Tour de France 2023
- Neutral start: 16:30, sharp start 16:40
- Estimated arrival time: between 19:28 and 19:47
- TV broadcast: ARD - from 17:30, Eurosport - from 16:20
- 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 and 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!
