The PPC Cycling Tour of Greece 2023 was completed with the best organizational and racing impressions. The foreign missions said goodbye to our country with a big smile, many “well done” and countless words of encouragement to continue this effort and – why not – to grow in the future. Greece gets the Tour it was missing and seeks to make it a “protagonist” in the coming years.
Young and old came out to the towns and villages where the group of athletes (peloton) was passing through, to applaud their effort, but also to see, if only out of curiosity, what exactly is this otherwise unprecedented sporting event that concerns the their place.
Streets, paths, squares, were filled with people of all ages who waved flags, cheered the athletes and wanted in every way to be part of the event!
There were also protests for the absolutely necessary traffic regulations by the traffic police. But it is certain that in the coming years, it will be emphatically perceived that the few minutes of “suffering” is compensated by multiple benefits to local communities, such as the promotion of their place, the improvement of infrastructure, economic development, the support of sustainable mobility, the investments that will be opened thanks to its conduct.
The PPC Cycling Tour of Greece is a major sporting event that was absent from the country for a number of years and now it seems that after its revival last year by the Deputy Minister of Sports Lefteris Avgenakis, it is finding its… footholds year after year, attracting racing interest from the public and the mass media, while gradually becoming familiar to the general public.
In fact, a sports decentralization is taking place, capable of upgrading the region, improving its infrastructure, changing the sports fan “culture” and of course giving the impetus needed by the most wronged sport in our country, cycling.
This year, starting from Heraklion and the Karteros Beach Sports Center, the Tour started on May 2 with the Prologue (6 km individual time trial) and continued with 4 stages (routes) of infinite beauty and historical importance.
Heraklion, Mycenae, Kalamata, Costa Navarino, Kyparissia, Ancient Olympia hosted starts and finishes.
With images shared through 44 channels of international reach in 174 countries, the PPC Cycling Tour of Greece 2023 managed to highlight areas of the country with little exposure worldwide, while providing great racing thrills in the battle for the winner of the general classification, which was decided in last mass sprint at Ancient Olympia.
The Organizing Committee set up by Lefteris Avgenakis almost a year and a half ago, with George Leventakis as president, worked day and night to bring this great project to fruition.
Helpers in the effort of the Deputy Ministry of Sports were the sponsoring companies that supported the event since last year in its revival:
PPC as naming sponsor, Kotsovolos, Betsson and of course EOT, who saw that the Tour is a powerful means of promoting the country’s tourism from the first moment of its “birth”.
Together, in this effort to support the PPC Cycling Tour of Greece, Sixt was added this year, which covered the needs of the organization in vehicles, and also Costa Navarino, which hosted the athletes in the Peloponnese stages, leaving them with excellent impressions, as can be seen from the messages they sent and continue to send to the Organizing Committee about their impressions of the race!
There was also great participation in the Parallel Activities of the Round, which took place in Heraklion, Kalamata, Kyparissia and Ancient Olympia and aim to introduce the bicycle into the daily life of citizens
The PPC Cycling Tour of Greece 2023 at a glance:
– 650.5 kilometers, traveled by cyclists
– 380 people worked on the final result
– 3 Regions, Crete, Peloponnese and Western Greece, in which the peloton (the group of athletes) moved
– 23 Municipalities through which the race passed
– 19 teams (out of the originally announced 20), finally took part in the match (MedellÃn withdrew at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances that prevented their passage to Greece)
– 98 cyclists finished the race out of the 114 who started in the Prologue
– 4 stages (i.e. routes): Heraklion – Heraklion, Mycenae – Kalamata, Costa Navarino – Kyparissia, Costa Navarino – Ancient Olympia
– 7,174 meters of total altitude difference were covered by the athletes.
– 8 intermediate sprints (2 in each stage, except the prologue)
– 9 sprint climbs / 1st category (2), 2nd (5) & 3rd (2)
– 4 big winners in the individual classifications and scores of the Round: Yuri Leitao (Caja Rural), winner of the General Classification & PPC blue jersey, Yuri Leitao (Caja Rural), winner of the Points ranking & red jersey Kotsovolos, Andreas Militiadis (National Cyprus ), winner of the Sprint Climb standings & orange Betsson jersey, Logan Carey (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), best young athlete U23 & white EOT jersey.
Flashback to the competitive development of the Round
The PPC Cycling Tour of Greece 2023 concluded at noon on Saturday (6/5) in Ancient Olympia, with Yuri Leitao of Spain’s Caja Rural winning the blue jersey in a thrilling final full of suspense.
The general classification battle developed into an impressive “bra de fer” between the 24-year-old Portuguese and last year’s winner, New Zealand’s Aaron Gate, from the first to the last day of the race. Gate took the leader’s jersey after winning the prologue and held it until the end of stage 2. But Leitao (who after Karteros was 20″ behind the New Zealander), with his consecutive high placings (2nd in Heraklion, 3rd in Kalamata) and the bonus seconds he won, halved the difference (10″).
The turnaround came in the 3rd stage, where the two-time European track champion (2020 & 2022, both on scratch), gained 1″ in the intermediate sprint and crossed the finish line first in Cyparissia, adding 11″ total bonus seconds to the harvest which brought him to the top of the overall, with a difference of just one second from Gate!
The New Zealander responded in the 4th and final stage, taking 1″ in turn in the first intermediate sprint, which put him back on top as a virtual blue jersey, just 17 milliseconds behind Leitao!
The Portuguese was now obliged not only to finish in the top three at Ancient Olympia to win the race, but also to make sure he finished ahead of Gate. He achieved both, after coming 2nd (plus 6″), while his great rival was limited to 23rd place.
So Yuri Leitao (Caja Rural) climbed to the top step of the final podium, taking the blue jersey, where he was flanked by 2nd Aaron Gate (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) and 3rd Stanislav Aniolkowski (Human Powered Health).
The Polish sprinter of the American team was also the multiple winner of this year’s event with his two first places in Heraklion and Ancient Olympia. As we already mentioned, Gate was the winner in the prologue, Leitao in Cyparissia and Timothee Dipon (Tarteletto Isorex) in Kalamata. Leitao also took the red points jersey, with Caja Rural leaving the Tour, having won the two most important jerseys of the race and a stage.
As far as the “king of the mountains” is concerned, there we had the very great performance of Andreas Miltiadis of the Cyprus National Team, who entered the battle of the climbs from the 1st stage, collected points all days, took the lead in the specific standings after 3rd stage and increased it even more in 4th, combining the orange jersey with 6th place overall, just 19″ behind Leitao.
Finally, Logan Carey (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) was named best young athlete U23 and won the white jersey, which he wore from the first day of the Tour, after the prologue and kept it in his possession until the end.
We close with the Greek National Team, where Giorgos Bouglas had the best overall ranking (34th out of 48″), but also an honorable mention to Nikiforos Arvanitou (Sofer Savini Due OMZ), who came 5th in the ranking of the white jersey, 39 behind Curry.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
