Tour de France 2023: guide

Tour de France begins tonight in Bilbao, Spain and continues across 23 days to most famous boulevard in the world, the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Throughout the 21 stages of the Tour, there will be eight flat stages, four hilly stages, eight mountain stages – including four summit finishes – and one individual time trial for the cyclists to tackle. Within the 40 picturesque towns the Tour will travel through, there will be 12 debutant stage starts. Visiting all five of France’s Mountain mastiffs – the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Alps and the Vosges – the 2023 Tour route will be a challenging one that best suits the dynamic climbers.

SBS Director of Sport, Ken Shipp said: “SBS is proud to be Australia’s unrivalled home of cycling, headlined by our exclusive coverage of the Tour de France – one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Our team will be the forefront of all the action and astonishing sporting moments that the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift deliver. SBS is incredibly excited to continue to deliver world-class coverage with expert commentary to Australian audiences, providing exclusive access to the stars of world cycling and spotlighting our Australian contenders.”

The SBS commentary team will be on the ground capturing all the action in Spain and France.

Dr Bridie O’Donnell
Bridie raced in the Australian National Team, and Professional Italian teams in Europe and the United States, representing Australia at three World Championships between 2008-2012. From 2013-2017, Bridie managed and raced for Rush Women’s Team in the Cycling Australia National Road Series. In 2016, she broke the UCI Hour World Record. In 2017, she was appointed the inaugural Head of the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation by the Victorian Government and in 2018, her cycling memoir: “Life and Death” was published, detailing her experiences as a professional cyclist in Europe.

Matthew Keenan
2023 will be Matt’s 17th year commentating on cycling’s biggest event, the Tour de France. After two seasons of amateur racing in Europe, Matt turned to commentary, having since commentated on the Commonwealth Games, Tour of Spain, Paris-Nice, Giro d’Italia and Tour of Qatar. Known for his supreme cycling knowledge and ability to recall detailed information about individual cyclists, Matt is recognised internationally as one of the leading commentators in the business.

Gracie Elvin
Gracie is a two-time national road cycling champion. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, has been to two Commonwealth Games, and competed in eight world championships in road cycling and mountain biking. Gracie has won UCI races in Europe, took second at the Tour of Flanders, and was team captain at many team victories. She was also a co-founder of the first international women’s cycling union – The Cyclists’ Alliance.

Simon Gerrans
Simon Gerrans is the first Australian to have won a stage in all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. He found competitive cycling as a teenager on the suggestion of Australian cycling legend Phil Anderson. Simon has been a proud ambassador and active fundraiser of the Chain Reaction Challenge Foundation since 2010 and was the founder of the Victorian Inter-School Cycling Series.

Christophe Mallet
Christophe is a television presenter, podcast host and long-time Executive Producer of SBS Radio’s French program. In 2017 he was awarded a National Order of Merit – he was incredibly honoured to be introduced as a Knight of the Order of Merit in France. Over his 10+ years at SBS, he has been involved in many projects including hosting the Tour de France highlights show and has been heavily involved in SBS’s coverage of the Dakar Rally.

David McKenzie
David made his first cycling appearance for Australia at just 16. He joined his first professional cycling team in 1997 after a stint at the Australian Institute of Sport and in 1998 won the Australian National Road Championship. On the pro-cycling circuit David has competed in Australia and throughout Europe for various teams, winning stages at a number of events including the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Japan and Tour Down Under.

Mark Renshaw
Mark Renshaw rode professionally between 2004 and 2019 for the Française des Jeux, Crédit Agricole, HTC–Highroad, Belkin Pro Cycling, Etixx–Quick-Step and Team Dimension Data teams. His most notable wins are the overall general victory in the 2011 Tour of Qatar, Tour Down Under Stages, Tour of Britain Stages and Tour of Turkey stage victory, and the one-day race Clásica de Almería. He raced in the Tour de France 10 times. In 2004, he also raced in the Olympic Games in Athens on the track cycling points race.

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

The SBS Tour de France podcast also returns, hosted by Mallet and McKenzie, along with experts and special guests. Covering both the men’s and women’s event, the podcast features updates on the race, interviews with riders and fascinating conversations on the distinctly ‘French’ things that make this cycling race special.

Plat du Tour

As an accompaniment to the Tour De France, renowned French-Australian chef Guillaume Brahimi returns to SBS with Plat du Tour on Saturday July 1. Guillaume will travel through France following the Tour de France locations and take viewers on a culinary journey exploring wonderful French food culture from each region, while meeting some of the best food producers in the country. Airing during SBS’s coverage of the Tour de France, the series will feature 21 recipes, for the 21 Tour de France stages, with Guillaume plating up his ‘Plat du Tour’ with delicious traditional French meals that correlate to the culture and traditions of each city and town on the Tour.

Guillaume journeys across the most beautiful locations in Spain and France covering all stages of the Tour, including the official Tour de France starting line Bilbao Spain where he cooks on the terrace of the Guggenheim Museum. Guillaume also visits Bordeaux France where he discovers a city cuisine secret, and the picturesque French village of Saint Gervais where he visits a chocolatier and learns how to make a local sweet specialty.

Plat du Tour recipes sure to make your mouth water include a delicious Burned Basque Cheesecake from the Spanish Basque region, the classic French stew Le Coq au Vin in the historical Rhone wine region, and delicious Crayfish and Saffron Risotto in Passy, a quaint and picturesque French town just 30km from the Italian border.

Plat du Tour segments will be available on SBS Food Online and SBS On Demand and will air as special episodes on SBS Food from July 27 after the 2023 Tour de France has concluded. Plat du Tour is produced by Blink TV for SBS.