Thousands of people have packed the esplanade of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum this afternoon to attend the official presentation of the teams that will take part in the 2023 Tour de France, which will have its great start from the Biscayan capital this Saturday and two more stages that will run by Euskadi, with the participation of 176 cyclists from 22 teams.
Some of the most significant cyclists have led the bike parade of each participating team between the Euskalduna Palace, the starting point of the circuit, and the esplanade of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, where the stage has been located.
The presenters of the event, who have greeted the public and have guided the presentation in four languages: Spanish, French, Basque and English, have remembered the cyclist Gino Mäder, who died after a fall in the Tour of Switzerland a couple of weeks ago, and a minute of silence has been observed in his memory.
The first team to go up on the big stage set up next to the Guggenheim Museum was Bahrain Victorius, led by the cyclist from Alava Mikel Landa, and also accompanied by the ex-cyclist from Gernika Joane Somarriba as “route captain”.
The rest of the cyclists from all the participating teams went through the stage, also accompanied by “route captains” such as Agurtzane Elorriaga, Miguel Mari Lasa, David Etxebarria, Abraham Olano, Marino Lejarreta, Iban Mayo, Roberto Laiseka, Julian Gorospe, Juan Manuel Garate, Fede Etxabe, Javier Murgialdai, Jose Nazabal, Igor Gonzalez Galdeano, Haimar Zubeldia, Amets Tchurruka, Igor Anton, Iker Camaño, Unai Osa, Beñat Intxausti, Jon Unzaga and Iñaki Gaston.
After an exhaustive presentation of the three stages that will run through the Basque Country: Bilbao-Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz-San Sebastián and Amorebieta-Etxano-Baiona, the most significant characteristics of the rest of the stages of the 2023 gala round have been revealed.
Miguel Indurain, the five-time winner of the Tour de France, who has recognized the Danish Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the 2022 Tour de France, as the favorite to win the 2023 edition and the one with “the most options” has also participated in the presentation. Jumbo Visma team, but, as he has assured, he has seen “a few of them looking good to be winners”. As he pointed out, in the Basque Country there are many fans and that “the Tour comes to the door of the house will surely encourage many to try the bike”.
Precisely, the 2022 Tour champion, Jonas Vingegaard, accompanied by his teammates Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, Sepp Kuss, Christophe Laporte, Wout van Aert, Nathan van Hooydonck and Dylan van Baarle, has closed the presentation of the teams. To end the event, a tribute was paid to the Gipuzkoan runner Txomin Perurena, who died on June 8 at the age of 79.
Despite the moments of intense rain that has unloaded on Bilbao, most of those attending the presentation have remained in the place under umbrellas, raincoats and, even, covered with the flags that they carried from the different countries of the participating teams. Those who have stayed have been able to witness the irrintzi with which Juul-Jensen, a Team Jayco AIUIa rider, has dared, or get hold of one of the water cans thrown by the Groupama-FDJ cyclists. The fans have not stopped cheering the cyclists, especially the Basques.
The official presentation, aimed at all audiences, took place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., although from 5:00 p.m., different activities have been carried out, which have started with a ‘kalejira’.
After the end of the official presentation, the pre-Tour atmosphere continued with DJ Oihan Vega and performances by Hortzmuga, Demode Quartet, ETS
