The three grand tours of 2023 showcased a Vuelta a España that many analysts called the toughest in decades, perhaps ever, with a route that challenged climbers and endurance riders alike. The Tour de France leaned heavily into the mountains, while the Giro d’Italia distinguished itself as the hardest three-week battle, testing riders more than any other edition this season. The season’s hardest race by distance and difficulty fell to the Giro in overall challenge, with the Vuelta and Tour close on its heels.
Meanwhile, the Italian course, noted for its traditional emphasis on time trials, saw fewer of these stages in the Tour and nearly vanished from the Vuelta’s design. Over the years, the pace of individual time trials has trended shorter, yet the discipline continues to swing with big gaps. The maps of the routes show a preference for mountain days—regardless of how many steep ravines are listed and how rugged each course proves.
More time against Italy
Last year marked a notable moment: the single largest gap of the season appeared in the Vuelta during the Alicante time trial, where Remco Evenepoel sealed a decisive victory. That highlighted how time-trialling remains decisive even amid relentless climbing. The Giro still offers the most clock kilometers, totaling about 70.6, while the Tour often features the fewest, around 22, with a rare ascent in the Alps. The calendar also saw the Barcelona team time trial of 14 km and 25 individual efforts in Valladolid truncated once the race began, reshaping the time-trial landscape for this year.
High ends
The 2023 Vuelta stood out for the sheer number of high-end finishes, a statistic that reads as a cycling drummer’s rhythm: one strong lead over rivals, with ten high finishes, seven for the Giro and four for the Tour. Spain’s race also boasted a cadence of climbs concentrated in the final act, with a string of ports culminating in the penultimate stage near the Sierra de Guadarrama, even if some climbs are categorized lower in grade.
Ports at 2,000 meters
The Giro leads the way in high-altitude ascents, routinely pushing into 2,000+ meter terrain. This year, several ascents crest higher elevations, including Saint Bernard Pass looming around 2,465 meters with the Alps hosting numerous passes above 2,000 meters. The Tour, by contrast, offers fewer climbs at that altitude, relying on Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada heights to test contenders. The Tourmalet’s 2,400-meter presence and Andorra’s 2,000-meter passes remain part of its repertoire, while some 2,000-meter routes on the Iberian Peninsula stay rare.
Inequality of the round
The Tour’s mountain-heavy profile marks a historically steep path, with stage profiles pushing into the high 5,100 meters of elevation gain across the race. The route’s most intricate junctions and the steepest ramps have tested riders in Saint Gervais, Mont Blanc, and Courchevel, with sections reaching as steep as mid-twenties in percent. In 2023, an especially demanding port in the Cueña Les Cabres region gained notoriety, while the Asturian ascent claimed the title of one of the toughest climbs for sprinters and climbers alike.
Kilometer counts
The overall distance for the Giro and Tour runs close, with Italians compiling around 3,448 km and the French about 3,404 km; the Vuelta, notably, clocked in at about 3,153 km. This year’s calendar followed a new rhythm after the World Cup, with heat adding another layer of difficulty. French July stages were famously warm, and even the famed Foix stage in 2022 delivered near 40-degree heat—an element that often compounds fatigue for riders in the Vuelta as well.
The three-week race landscape of 2023 left an unmistakable mark: the Vuelta stood as the final act in a trio of grueling tours, following the Giro and the Tour. The season’s heat and high-altitude climbs contributed to a distinctive challenge, and the cycling world watched as athletes navigated a calendar that demanded peak form and resilience in equal measure.