TOUR DE FRANCE 2023 – STAGE 12
ROANNE – BELLEVILLE-EN-BEAUJOLAIS

2X3: THE JOY AFTER THE LONG WAIT
Spain won 2 stages in 3 days after going 99 stages without a win. And it’s the first time they won twice in such a short timespan since Alberto Contador and Juan Manuel Garate in 2009 won on the 23rd and 25th of July.

12: ANOTHER LONG WAIT IS OVER
Ion Izagirre won his second stage 6 years 11 months and 20 days since his first one (Morzine 2016).
This is the 12th longest timespan between first and second win in history.
The record belongs to Cedric Vasseur: from La Châtre 1997 to Marseille 2007 (his only Tour wins) he had to wait 10 years and 8 days. Vasseur is Ion Izagirre’s manager at the head of Cofidis.

2: FROM NOTHING TO THE RECORD
Cofidis first won this year with Victor Lafay in San Sebastian after a wait of 15 years (since 2008) without a single win at the Tour.
In this edition they already posted 2 wins, equalling their best Tours (2004, 2008).

12: SWEET 12
This was the first time Mathieu van der Poel raced stage 12 of the Tour, after he had abandoned on stage 9 in 2021 and in stage 11 in 2022, and he went on to claim the most aggressive rider for the first time.

2015: INCREDIBLE TURNAROUND FOR SPAIN
For the first time since 2015, Spanish riders take two victories in a single edition of the Tour. And the two winners are at least 33 years old… which only happened in 2015 for Spain:
• Joaquim Rodriguez won at Huy and Plateau de Belle at 36 years old, Ruben Plaza won in Gap at 35 years old.
• Pello Bilbao won in Issoire at 33 years old and Ion Izagirre is 34 years old.
In 1964 Federico Bahamontes alone won 2 stages within 10 days of his 36th birthday.

3: UNLUCKY ASTANA
3 abandons for Astana, out of a total of 9 so far in this edition (33%).
Their three retirements came from three crashes: Luis Leon Sanchez, Mark Cavendish on day 8 and now David De la Cruz.

24/34: YOUNG OR OLD?
Both Mathieu Burgaudeau and Matteo Jorgenson scored their first Tour top-3 placement.
They are 10 years younger than today’s winner Ion Izagirre (24 to 34).

124: BECOMING A LUCKY NUMBER
Number 124 (Izagirre’s one) hadn’t scored a single win at the Tour from 1995 to 2020, then it was winner in two Tours out of three: Ben O’Connor in Tignes 2021 and Izagirre today.
Last year #124 went close to winning with Louis Meintjes: 2nd at Alpe d’Huez.