Christian Prudhomme made an impassioned speech about the 2023 Tour de France route not including a time trial.

The Tour de France director announced Thursday that the route will pass through all five French mountain ranges during a stage at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

This will effectively be the lightest time trial in the modern history of the Tour. Prudhomme tried to point out that the 2015 Tour was much less, but his view did not recognize the 28 km team time trial in the middle of that year's race.

Furthermore, the only time trial in the 2023 Tour will take place on a mountainous course and feature a steep climb on the Côte de Domaincy.

"Time trials tend to paralyze a race," Prudhomme told reporters in Paris.

"I want to see the champions shoulder to shoulder from the first weekend. You all know that very well. It's much better to have a shoulder-to-shoulder battle than to have riders setting one time after another."

Prud'homme added, "I'd like to see the champions go shoulder-to-shoulder from the first weekend.

Prudhomme referred to a new generation of all-rounders based on the current style of the world's top riders. While today's pure climbers may still be fighting against the clock to wear out their time, last year's top time triallists in the Tour, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) and Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates), were also top climbers.

"When I was little," Prudhomme asserted, "there was a duality, a stylistic conflict, between climbers and time triallists. [And Federico Bahamontes, the Toledo eagle, made an impact in the mountains but lost time in the time trial. By introducing a time trial, you balance the styles."

"Now we are back to aggressive cycling.

"The lack of a time trial means that the climbs are record-breaking, and the 2023 menu has 30 categorized climbs, starting with the hilly Basque Country and covering all the French mountain ranges, including the Pyrenees, Massif Central, Jura, Alps, and Vosges.

A punchy opening in Spain is followed by relatively light Pyrenean mountains and the long-awaited summit finish on the Puy de Dome on stage 9. The second week will feature a second summit finish at Grand Colombier in the Jura mountains, followed by a finish in Morzine and a summit finish at Le Bétex.

Week 2 opens with a time trial, with stage 17 being the hardest day of the Tour. The race then heads into the Vosges Mountains, climaxing in Markstein after a 7km climb.

"No matter what anyone says, the Tour is always made for climbers. If you don't climb well, you can't win the Tour de France," Prudhomme said. [I dream of a real showdown between the pure lurkers who work hard in the mountains and the great climbers who are not good on the clock, as they were 60 years ago. That's not the case now, but it could happen again."

"I'd like to see a real showdown between a pure lurker who works hard in the mountains and a great climber who is not good with the clock.