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Mark Cavendish said the start to the 2023 Tour de France “is going to be the hardest I’ve seen in my career” after the men’s route was announced.<\/span><\/p>\n The 21-stage 3,404km race will start in Bilbao, Spain, on 1 July and include all five of France’s mountain ranges before finishing in Paris on 23 July.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n There will be one 22km time trial stage, with eight mountain stages and four summit finishes.<\/span><\/p>\n “It’s exciting, it’s going to be a good show,” said Cavendish, 37.<\/span><\/p>\n “It will change things up with the GC [general classification] riders dictating things early on instead of settling into it.<\/span><\/p>\n “But if the sprinters can survive the mountains, they’ve got ample opportunities for real bunch sprints. Long boulevard finishes of more than a kilometre of a final straight. It will make for exciting days all around.<\/span><\/p>\n “There are maybe seven or eight sprint opportunities. It’s a lot, you know. Real sprint opportunities.”<\/span><\/p>\n Cavendish was left out of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s team for the 2022 Tour de France and is yet to confirm his team for next season. <\/span><\/p>\n He will be chasing a record breaking 35th stage win in the race if he does compete <\/span>after drawing level with Eddy Merckx<\/span><\/a> on 34 stage victories in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n Last year’s men’s race was won by Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma after he broke Slovenian Tadej Pogacar’s two-year stranglehold on the race for UAE Team-Emirates.<\/span><\/p>\n Dutch legend Annemiek van Vleuten won the women’s race last year – the first time it was held as a stage race for more than 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n