Tour of the Alps 2023: The most important info on the Giro dress rehearsal
Thomas Goldmann
· 17.04.2023
Around two and a half weeks before the start of the Giro d'Italia the Tour of the Alps 2023 is one of the most important preparatory races for the Tour of Italy starting on 6 May. The Tour of the Alps evolved from the Giro del Trentino, which was first held in 1962. In the first two years, the Giro del Trentino was a one-day race; after a break, the format changed to a stage race from 1979, with the exception of 1986, when it was a team competition. Since 2017, the race has been called the Tour of the Alps. It is part of the UCI Pro Series, which is located below the World Tour.
Tour of the Alps 2023: Big names in cycling at the start
The stage race, which is characterised by the European region of Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino, is very popular with many riders who want to fine-tune their form for the Giro d'Italia on the mostly very mountainous sections. Although Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) are the two top favourites to win the Giro, but with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), there are two candidates at the start who could also finish at the front of the Tour of Italy. The Ineos line-up is particularly impressive. In addition to Thomas, Thymen Arensman, former Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pavel Sivakov have also signed up.
Tough test for Lennard Kämna
In addition to Vlasov, the German team Bora-Hansgrohe is also bringing Lennard Kämna to the Tour of the Alps 2023. For the German professional cyclist, the stage race is the last endurance test before the Giro, in which he wants to ride a three-week national tour on the overall classification alongside Vlasov for the first time. Matteo Fabbro, Florian Lipowitz, Patrick Konrad, Cian Uijtdebroeks and Maximilian Schachmann complete the Bora squad.
From an Austrian perspective, hopes of a good position in the overall classification rest primarily on the shoulders of Felix Gall. The 25-year-old from AG2R-Citroën recently finished tenth in the Tour of the Basque Country and is therefore starting with a tailwind.
Tour of the Alps 2023 route - the stages
Stage 1 | Monday, 17 April | Rattenberg - Alpbach | 127.5 kilometres | 2470 vertical metres
- Official start: 11:55 am
- Arrival at the finish: ~15:06 - 15:27
The Tour of the Alps 2023 kicks off with almost 2,500 metres of climbing. The second part of the stage is particularly tough with three climbs. The first is Brandenberg with four crisp kilometres of climbing, followed by the Kerschbaumer Sattel, the most challenging climb of the day: 5.2 kilometres with an average gradient of 10.1 per cent. Here it's worth getting your team together and feeling out the competition. The final climb to Alpbach should not be difficult enough to open up large time gaps. However, the 13 per cent ramp on the last kilometre should not be underestimated.
Climbs and map of the 1st stage
Stage 2 | Tuesday, 18th April | Reith im Alpbachtal - Ritten | 165.2 kilometres | 2860 vertical metres
- Official start: 10:45 am
- Arrival at the finish: ~14:59 - 15:28
The second section of the day also offers many possibilities. The first 30 kilometres or so are almost flat, then the route leads past Innsbruck over the old Brenner road to the same pass. From Brenner, the route leads the riders down to Brixen, where the climb to Feldthurns heralds the finale with the ascent to Barbian and the Mittelberg, the summit of which is reached around four kilometres before the finish. Although the favourites must not allow themselves any weaknesses here, they will probably take a wait-and-see approach, as an even more difficult and perhaps decisive stage of the tour awaits the next day.
Climbs and map of the 2nd stage
Stage 3 | Wednesday, 19 April | Ritten - Brentonico San Valentino | 162.5 kilometres | 2940 metres altitude difference
- Official start: 10:00 am
- Arrival at the finish: ~14:03 - 14:30
The third section is the stage with the most challenging finale of the Tour of the Alps 2023. The peloton first leaves Ritten and then reaches Bolzano via a rapid descent. Trento is reached after around 60 almost flat kilometres. It takes another 15 kilometres or so until the first significant climb of the day up to Lake Cei. After the descent, there is a flat section of 25 kilometres to Avio. From there, it's all uphill to the finish in San Valentino di Brentonico. 15.5 kilometres with an average gradient of 7.5 percent. If you have the legs, you can bring about a preliminary decision in the overall standings here "à la pédale", as the jargon goes - in other words, through sheer strength.
Climbs and map of the 3rd stage
Stage 4 | Thursday, 20 April | Rovereto - Predazzo | 152.9 kilometres | 3610 vertical metres
- Official start: 11:05 am
- Arrival at the finish: ~15:00 - 15:27
On paper, stage 4 is the toughest section of the Tour of the Alps 2023 with more than 3,500 metres of climbing. There is hardly a flat metre on the 152.9 kilometres between Rovereto and Predazzo. Shortly after the start, the route climbs for almost 16 kilometres to Passo Sommo, followed by the ascent to Lake St. Colomba and a long section through the Fiemme Valley, which is very undulating. The Passo Pramadiccio is then the last obstacle of the day. 9.7 kilometres at 6.1 per cent are no good for launching a major attack in the overall standings. Especially as it is still around 15 kilometres from the summit to the finish. Either an escape group with strong climbers will come through on this stage or there will be a sprint by a thinned-out group of favourites in Predazzo.
Climbs and map of the 4th stage
Stage 5 | Friday, 21 April | Cavalese - Brunico | 144.5 kilometres | 2910 metres altitude difference
- Official start: 11:25 am
- Arrival at the finish: ~15:01 - 15:25
The grand finale of the Tour of the Alps 2023. Many riders will warm up on the rollers before the start, as the route climbs almost ten kilometres directly to the Passo Lavaze - the highest point of the tour at 1808 metres. It takes until 37 kilometres before the finish before the second obstacle of the day is reached: the climb to Mühlbach. 7.8 kilometres with 8.2 per cent. If you want to make a difference in the overall standings, you have to attack on the first six kilometres of the climb, where the gradient is mostly in double figures. After around three and a half kilometres, there is even a ramp of 18 per cent. After taking the mountain prize at kilometre 125.1, the route leads over a kind of high plateau and a sometimes technically demanding descent to the finish of the Tour of the Alps 2023 in Bruneck.
Climbs and map of the 5th stage
Tour of the Alps 2023: TV broadcast & live stream
The Tour of the Alps 2023 will be televised on Eurosport. All five stages are available at Eurosport 1 to watch. If you are looking for a live stream, you will find it on Discovery+ and GCN+ (both via paid subscription).
The transmission times
- Stage 1 | Monday, 17 April | 14:00 - 15:30 Eurosport 1
- Stage 2 | Tuesday, 18 April | 14:00 - 15:30 Eurosport 1
- Stage 3 | Wednesday, 19 April | 12:30 - 14:30 Eurosport 1
- Stage 4 | Thursday, 20 April | 13:30 - 15:30 Eurosport 1
- Stage 5 | Friday, 21 April | 14:00 - 15:30 Eurosport 1
Tour of the Alps 2023: The start list
- 1 Thymen Arensman
- 2 Laurens De Plus
- 3 Tao Geoghegan Hart
- 4 Salvatore Puccio
- 5 Pavel Sivakov
- 6 Ben Swift
- 7 Geraint Thomas
- 11 Santiago Buitrago
- 12 Nicolo Buratti
- 13 Jack Haig
- 14 Hermann Pernsteiner
- 15 Edoardo Zambanini
- 16 Jasha Sütterlin
- 21 Hugh Carthy
- 22 Simon Carr
- 24 Jefferson Cepeda
- 25 Stefan de Bod
- 26 Merhawi Kudus
- 27 Georg Steinhauser
- 31 Abner Gonzalez
- 32 Juri Hollmann
- 33 Gregor Mühlberger
- 34 Antonio Pedrero
- 35 Oscar Rodriguez
- 36 Sergio Samitier
- 37 Ivan Ramiro Sosa
- 41 Matteo Fabbro
- 42 Florian Lipowitz
- 43 Lennard Kämna
- 44 Patrick Konrad
- 45 Cian Uijtdebroeks
- 46 Aleksandr Vlasov
- 47 Maximilian Schachmann
- 51 Geoffrey Bouchard
- 52 Felix Gall
- 54 Nicolas Prodhomme
- 55 Aurelien Paret-Peintre
- 56 Valentin Paret-Peintre
- 57 Andrea Vendrame
- 61 Jonas Iversby Hvideberg
- 62 Lorenzo Milesi
- 63 Harm Vanhoucke
- 64 Max van der Meulen
- 65 Alberto Dainese
- 66 Max Poole
- 71 Luis Leon Sanchez
- 72 Manuele Boaro
- 73 Joe Dombrowski
- 74 Vadim Pronskiy
- 75 Daniil Pronskiy
- 76 Antonio Nibali
- 77 Igor Chzhan
Israel-Premier Tech
- 81 Sebastian Berwick
- 82 Marco Frigo
- 83 Omer Goldstein
- 84 Ben Hermans
- 85 Domenico Pozzovivo
- 86 Matthew Riccitello
- 87 Guy Sagiv
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane
- 91 Luca Covili
- 92 Riccardo Lucca
- 93 Alessio Nieri
- 94 Giulio Pellizzari
- 95 Alessandro Santaromita
- 96 Henok Mulubrhan
- 97 Alex Tolio
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
- 101 Torstein Traeen
- 102 Jonas Abrahamsen
- 103 Adne Holter
- 104 Magnus Kulset
- 105 Sindre Kulset
- 106 Johannes Kulset
- 107 Magnus Brynsrud
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
- 111 Carl Fredrik Hagen
- 112 Damien Howson
- 113 Gianluca Brambilla
- 114 Mark Donovan
- 115 Matteo Badilatti
- 116 Negasi Haylu Abreha
- 117 Corey Davis
Euskaltel-Euskadi
- 121 Mikel Bizkarra
- 122 Unai Cuadrado
- 123 Txomin Juaristi
- 124 Ibai Azurmendi
- 125 Asier Etxeberria
- 126 Enekoitz Azparren
- 127 Luis Angel Mate
Equipo Kern Pharma
- 131 Pablo Castrillo
- 132 Eugenio Sanchez
- 133 Giovanni Carboni
- 134 Jordi Lopez
- 135 Carlos Garcia Pierna
- 136 Jose Felix Parra
- 137 Marti Marquez
Cajar Rural-Seguros RGA
- 141 Julen Amezqueta
- 142 Joseba Lopez
- 143 Calum Johnston
- 144 Jhojan Garcia
- 145 Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael
- 146 Jokin Murguialday
- 147 Fernando Barcelo
Eolo - Cometa
- 151 Lorenzo Fortunato
- 152 Davide Bais
- 153 Mattia Bais
- 154 Andrea Garosio
- 155 Samuele Rivi
- 156 Fernando Tercero
Team Corratec
- 161 Samuele Zambelli
- 162 Matteo Amella
- 163 Davide Baldaccini
- 164 Etienne van Empel
- 165 Karel Vacek
- 166 Simone Olivero
Austria
- 171 Lukas Pöstlberger
- 172 Sebastian Schönberger
- 173 Moran Vermeulen
- 174 Alexander Hajek
- 175 Marco Schrettl
- 176 Sebastian Putz
- 177 Philipp Hofbauer
Trinity Racing
- 181 Finlay Pickering
- 182 William Smith
- 183 Fergus Browning
- 184 Liam Johnston
- 185 Adrien Boichis
- 186 Camilo Andres Gomez
- 187 Hugo Rodriguez
All winners of the Tour of the Alps (from 2017) and the Giro del Trentino (1962-2016)
- 1962 Enzo Moser (Italy)
- 1963 Guido De Rosso (Italy)
- 1979 Knut Knudsen (Denmark)
- 1980 Francesco Moser (Italy)
- 1981 Roberto Visentini (Italy)
- 1982 Giuseppe Saronni (Italy)
- 1983 Francesco Moser (Italy)
- 1984 Franco Chioccioli (Italy)
- 1985 Harald Maier (Switzerland)
- 1986 Team Carrera Jeans (the race was organised as Coppa Italia for teams)
- 1987 Claudio Corti (Italy)
- 1988 Urs Zimmermann (Switzerland)
- 1989 Mauro Antonio Santaromita (Italy)
- 1990 Gianni Bugno (Italy)
- 1991 Leonardo Sierra (Venezuela)
- 1992 Claudio Chiappucci (Italy)
- 1993 Maurizio Fondriest (Italy)
- 1994 Moreno Argentin (Italy)
- 1995 Heinz Imboden (Switzerland)
- 1996 Wladimir Belli (Italy)
- 1997 Luc Leblanc (France)
- 1998 Paolo Savoldelli (Italy)
- 1999 Paolo Savoldelli (Italy)
- 2000 Simone Borgheresi (Italy)
- 2001 Francesco Casagrande (Italy)
- 2002 Francesco Casagrande (Italy)
- 2003 Gilberto Simoni (Italy)
- 2004 Damiano Cunego (Italy)
- 2005 Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio (Mexico)
- 2006 Damiano Cunego (Italy)
- 2007 Damiano Cunego (Italy)
- 2008 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
- 2009 Ivan Basso (Italy)
- 2010 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)
- 2011 Michele Scarponi (Italy)
- 2012 Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy)
- 2013 Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
- 2014 Cadel Evans (Australia)
- 2015 Richie Porte (Australia)
- 2016 Mikel Landa (Spain)
- 2017 Geraint Thomas (Great Britain)
- 2018 Thibaut Pinot (France)
- 2019 Pavel Sivakov (Russia)
- 2021 Simon Yates (Great Britain)
- 2022 Romain Bardet (France)
