Tour of Scandinavia 2023

The women's WorldTour returns with a five-day stage race around Denmark and Norway

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Tour of Scandinavia

Dates 23 Aug - 27 Aug
Race Length 570 kms
Race Category Elite Women

Updated: August 22, 2023

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 overview

The Tour of Scandinavia, which takes place from August 23 to 27, is the only Women's WorldTour race in Scandinavia and a chance for the region to show off their talented crop of home riders and big international names on a challenging, varied course.

Born out of the Ladies Tour of Norway, the race is a uniquely designed stage race that traverses Scandinavia in the space of a week. The first edition in 2022 visited Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and this year the racing will take place in Denmark and Norway.

Since expanding from the former Tour of Norway to include the other Scandinavian countries, the race has also gone from four to five stages, making it one of the longer races on the women's calendar.

The 2023 edition of the race is set to be the hardest one yet, repeating the mountain-top finish to Norefjell, as well as a tough opening stage to Halden and an individual time trial on stage 4.

The old iterations of this race used to be Marianne Vos territory - she won three editions in a row - but is now more of an all-round test, suiting the traditional general classification riders, like 2022 overall winner Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig.

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 key information

All the important details you need to know about this year's Tour of Scandinavia.

Dates: August 23-27, 2023

Country: Denmark and Norway

Category: 2.WWT (Women's WorldTour)

Editions: 1 (as of 2022)

First winner: Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig

Most recent winner: Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 route

The organisers of the Tour of Scandinavia have put together the most varied route yet for 2023, featuring stages for every type of rider: sprint finishes, punchy kicks, longer climbs and even an individual time trial.

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 route map

The key climb, up to the top of the Norefjell ski resort in Norway, is not as big as the mountains seen in the Tour de France Femmes and Giro Donne - it’s 11.1km in length, peaking out at 791m - but will be enough to draw out the stronger climbers of the peloton.

The overall winner will have to contend with a lot more than just climbing, though, with punchy finishes on stages 1, 4 and 6 and crucially a 16.4km time trial on stage 5. For the purest sprinters, it’s only really stage 2 that is a straightforward fast and flat finish, but many of the best sprinters - such as Lorena Wiebes or Marianne Vos - will also be able to tackle some of the more punchy finales.

Stage 1: Mysen → Halden (Norway) (124.6km)

Stage 2: Vikersund → Norefjell (Norway) (150.5km)

Stage 3: Kongsberg → Larvik (Norway) (134.9km)

Stage 4 (ITT): Herning → Herning (Denmark) (16.5km)

Stage 5: Middelfart → Haderslev (Denmark) (143.9km)

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 contenders

Who are the top riders at this year's Tour of Scandinavia? One of the key favourites for this race will most certainly be defending champion Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), who would have the chance to take victory in her home nation as the race finishes in Denmark this year. Something of an all-rounder with good climbing abilities, this kind of race suits Uttrup Ludwig well, perhaps more so than the mountains in the Tour and Giro.

Last year’s runner-up Liane Lippert (Movistar) should also be in the conversation, especially as she has been working on her climbing and GC competitiveness since her move from DSM to Movistar over the winter, and comes here off the back of a Tour de France Stage win. Movistar are also bringing Annemiek van Vleuten to Scandinavia, though, as her penultimate stage race, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the Dutchwoman try to go for the overall.

If Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) takes to the start, she will surely be a favourite for the flatter finish, but she should have a big challenge in the form of Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich). Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), who is a prolific stage winner in Norway, can also be put in the sprinter category, though it will be the punchier stages that she has her eyes on.

Tour of Scandinavia 2023 teams

All 15 WorldTour teams will take part in this year's Tour of Scandinavia, plus two Continental teams and the Danish national team.

FDJ-SUEZ
dsm-firmenich
Jayco AlUla
Israel Premier Tech Roland
Lidl-Trek
UAE Team ADQ
Fenix-Deceuninck
Liv Racing TeqFind
Uno-X
Movistar
Human Powered Health
SD Worx
EF Education-TIBCO-SVB
FDJ-SUEZ
Canyon-SRAM
Jumbo-Visma
Coop-Hitec Products
Lifeplus-Wahoo
Denmark

What happened in the 2022 Tour of Scandinavia?

The 2022 Tour of Scandinavia started in Copenhagen before travelling to Sweden and then to Norway for the finale. The first three stages were all won by a very in-form Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), before Alex Manly (BikeExchange-Jayco) survived from an attacking group to win the fourth stage and end Vos's streak.

Stage 5 was the decisive GC day as the race headed to the Norefjell climb, which saw Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) take the win and the race lead, which she then successfully defended on stage 6 - won once again by Vos - to secure her first stage race GC victory.

Tour of Scandinavia race history

The Tour of Scandinavia started life as the Ladies Tour of Norway, which was first organised in 2014. That edition - just two stages long - was won by Anna van der Breggen (Rabobank-Liv), and in fact her team took a full sweep of the podium, with Marianne Vos in second and Kasia Niewiadoma in third.

The race grew to three stages in 2016, four in 2019, and most recently a full six days of racing since 2022. Previous winners have included Lucinda Brand, Annemiek van Vleuten, and Marianne Vos on three occasions.

Last year, in its first season as the expanded Tour of Scandinavia, it was Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) who took the maiden victory, putting decisive time into Lianne Lippert (Team DSM) and Alex Manly (BikeExchange-Jayco) on the Norefjell climb and defending her advantage on the final day in Halden.

The race is organised by the Moberg family - race director Roy is the father of retired pro Emilie Moberg, who raced for Hitec Products, Team Virtu and Le Col Wahoo during her 12-year career.

Explore the tabs above to find out more about the route and start list of this year's race, as well as the stage results and standings.