Cycling, calendar and teams for 2023: from Australia to Lombardy in search of Evenepoel

After two years of absence due to Covid, the Tour Down Under in Australia, in the Adelaide area, is once again the opening round of great cycling: six stages until Sunday with champions such as Froome, Thomas and Simon Yates, and the Azzurri Bettiol and Moscon. The World Tour world circuit will end on Saturday 7 October with the Giro di Lombardia. Overall, there are 530 riders on the World Tour: France leads with 82, then Belgium 58 and Italy 54. At the Professional category level, i.e. the formations that need to be invited to the big races, Italy has three teams: GreenProject Bardiani-CSF, Eolo Kometa and Team Corratec. There are 67 Italian professionals included in the Professional category (we are the second nation behind Spain: 74). So the total of Italian pros for the 2023 season is 121 (54 WorldTours plus 67 Professionals).

the teams

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The WorldTour is made up of 18 teams: since 2017 there is no longer any Italian team. The list:
Belgium: Intermarché-Wanty, Soudal-Quick-Step, Alpecin-Deceuninck
France: AG2R-Citroën, Cofidis, Groupama-FDJ, Arkéa-Samsic
United States: EF Education, Trek-Segafredo
If: Team Dsm, Jumbo-Visma
Germania: Better-Hansgrohe
Australia: Jayco-AlUla
Bahrain: Bahrain-Victorious
United Arab Emirates: UAE Emirates
Spain: Movistar
Great Britain: Ineos-Grenadiers
Kazakhstan: Astana

January 17-22 Tour Down Under (Aus)
March 4th Strade Bianche (Ita)
March 5-12 Paris-Nice (Fra)
March 6-12 Tyrrhenian-Adriatic (Ita)
March 18 Milan-San Remo (Ita)
April 2nd Tour of Flanders (Bel)
April 9th Paris-Roubaix (Fra)
April 16th Amstel Gold Race (Ola)
April 19th Walloon Arrow (Bel)
April 23rd Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Bel)
6-28 maggio Tour of Italy
June 4-11 Delphinate Criterion (Fra)
June 11-18 Tour of Switzerland (Svi)
July 1-23 Tour de France
August 6th World Cup in Glasgow (GB): test online
August 11th World Cup in Glasgow (GB): time trial
August 26-September 17 Return (Spa)
October 7th Tour of Lombardy (Ita)

in mondiali

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The novelty of the season are the Grand World Championships, organized every four years by the UCI, the international federation, with road, track, mountain bike and BMX races. They will take place in Glasgow, Great Britain, from 3 to 13 August. From 2024 they will return to their traditional date after the Vuelta.

the protagonists

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The world champion, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, will aim for an encore in Liège-Bastogne-Liege and above all for the pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia. The Dane Jonas Vingegaard, winner in 2022, will meet the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar on the roads of the Tour. The great classics will live on the challenge between the Belgian Van Aert, the Dutch Van der Poel and the French Alaphilippe, plus the blues Alberto Bettiol and Filippo Ganna . The sprint is the realm of the Dutchman Jakobsen.

the surprises

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The 20-year-old Spaniard Juan Ayuso, third in the Vuelta 2022, the Belgian Cian Uijtdebroeks (winner of the Tour de l’Avenir), the French Romain Gregoire and Lenny Martinez, and the very fast Belgian Arnaud de Lie are eagerly awaited.