As part of its "Riding into the Future" programme to promote sustainable mobility, the Tour de France launched the "Tour de France Cycle City" label in 2021, encouraging all initiatives taken by municipalities to promote daily cycling.
For this third edition, the Tour de France has received candidatures from 32 cities, including six outside France. This year, 20 of the candidate cities are on the route of the 2023 edition, and three are on the map of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The jury will deliberate on Thursday, 13 April, with the results announced on 11 May.
The "Tour de France Cycle City" label aims at making the link between the cycling of champions and daily cycling. Since its launch in 2021, 108 cities have received the label for their commitment to the development of cycling. Whether they are French or foreign, rural or urban, cities applying for the label must emphasise in their application all the existing measures to encourage cycling and present local short and medium-term development plans (deployment of infrastructure, improvement of cyclists' safety, learning with the "Know how to cycle" programme, parking and combating theft, maintenance and repair, etc.). All of these measures contribute to the development of cycling as a means of transport, a source of leisure and an essential tool for sport.
At the end of the application phase, 32 cities submitted a complete file for the Tour de France organisers. The diversity of the candidatures is once again an important marker: from Cork to Bilbao, from Collonges-la-Rouge to Paris, all of them are highlighting their assets on their own scale and according to their own country in order to be rewarded. The Tour de France's European friends are also loyal to the event: Spain, where the Tour will start this year, is the leading candidate country with the four host cities of the 2023 Grand Départ in the Basque Country (Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Donostia-San Sebastián and Amorebieta-Etxano); Switzerland is in the forefront with Aigle, the host city of the start of stage nine of the 2022 Tour de France, where the UCI headquarters are located, in the heart of the World Cycling Centre; and finally Ireland, which is remembered for the Tour de France, with Cork, stage city in 1998.
In France, 16 cities on the route of the 2023 Tour and three others on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift have submitted a file. Clermont-Ferrand, which appears on both maps, is joined by eight French candidate cities with a population of less than 10,000, including Collonges-la-Rouge (483 inhabitants), La Salle-les-Alpes (935 inhabitants) and Laruns (1,200 inhabitants), which are the three smallest cities. Eight French towns that have received the award in the past have applied. Seven cities that have received the label in the past have requested a re-evaluation of their score, hoping to be rewarded for their efforts. The jury is now reviewing all the applications. The deliberations will take place on Thursday, 13 April 2023 and the results will be announced to the candidate cities on 11 May 2023 during the Mai à vélo event.
The composition of the jury for the " Tour de France Cycle City" label:
Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France; Olivier Schneider, president of the FUB; Émilie Defay, deputy editor-in-chief of France Bleu Paris; David Lazarus: mayor of Chambly and president of the "Sports" working group of the Association of French Mayors; Jean Ghedira, director of communication, sponsorship and general secretariat of LCL; Karine Bozzacchi, head of CSR for the Tour de France.
Candidate cities for the 2023 award process:
Aigle, Amorebieta-Etxano, Annemasse, Bayonne, Belleville-en-Beaujolais, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Bourg-en-Bresse, Changé, Châteauroux, Clermont-Ferrand, Cluses, Collonges-la-Rouge, Combloux, Compiègne, Cork City, Donostia-San Sebastian, Issoire, La Salle-les-Alpes, Laon, Laruns, Le Touquet Paris-Plage, Les Gets, Mauriac, Mont de Marsan, Moulins, Paris, Passy, Roanne, Saumur, Tarbes, Vitoria-Gasteiz.
