The Tour de France 2023 was once again characterized by the exciting duel between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Sports show reporter Uli Fritz remembers.
The duel – once again it fascinated me, like millions of others: Jonas Vingegaard against Tadej Pogacar – the Dane and the Slovenian in the fight for seconds, two thin men on their high-tech bikes who give each other nothing, absolutely nothing.
The Dane is in the lead again at the end, like in 2022. Pogacar has previously won the tour twice.
The tour has become more exciting than I have ever experienced before: I have been there since 1996 – with only one interruption in 2012.
Tour de France needs uncertainty and spectacle
Route planning has become more imaginative and innovative in recent years. The organizers of the tour sometimes counter the increasing scientific nature of cycling with the dominance of wattage, calorie counting and optimized equipment with wild routes.
Ramps of 18 percent and more in the final, often difficult descents before the finish line, because the watt meters are of no use, preferably cobblestones and gravel roads – because luck and chance should also be involved, no matter how bad it may be for the individual , when planning for an entire year is lost due to a fall or an untimely defect.
But the tour needs uncertainty and: the spectacle. This includes the fans at the side of the track, especially in high mountains. And there are more and more, more and more. Yes, then a camera motorcycle even has to stop and slow down Tadej Pogacar because the line has become so dense.
Hindley gives Bora the yellow jersey
Bad luck, but hand on heart: These are images that are also part of the tour, like pity and joy. With Georg Zimmermann from Augsburg, for example, who gets better every year and crossed the finish line in second place on the tenth stage, only narrowly beaten.
With Jay Hindley giving the German team Bora a stage win and the yellow jersey for a day – I was particularly happy about that, because my colleague Marc Drumm had chosen that day to accompany the team boss up close – such emotional images and a small film of great class.
Tour de France – always an adventure
The Tour de France is always an adventure for our small team – we move from place to place and everything has to fit. Our commentators Florian Nass and Fabian Wegmann drive the stage every morning: Nothing can go wrong, especially in the mountains.
We sometimes put our nerve-racking presenter, Michael Antwerpes, on high peaks again in the hope that the technology would work. You always need a bit of courage to take risks on the tour.
When, right at the start after the first stage in Bilbao, the satellite dish on our modest broadcast van could no longer be folded down, something that none of our technical crew had ever experienced before, and then a replacement vehicle had to arrive overnight, I thought: This can be done yes, become cheerful.
But somehow, with a lot of creativity and experience, we managed to broadcast to Germany every day and continue to tell our audience about the fascinating Tour de France, on television, on the radio, online, on social media. Twenty-one stages, a different backdrop every day, always new stories, for one hundred and twenty years – the tour. I’m happy to be there.