Deep Impact
The Tour de France Femmes, a huge moment in the development of women’s racing, is finally here. Amy Jones walks us through the big talking points ahead of the racing in July
Unstoppable Annemiek On the cusp of 40, van Vleuten remains the rider to beat
Thirty-nine-year-old Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), ranked number one in the world as we go to press, will go into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TDFF) as the outright favourite to win the general classification. The 2019 world champion, who has won just about everything, has her name written all over the parcours, in particular that final stage summit finish, and has proven herself over long stage races on myriad occasions, including two Giro Rosa overall wins. Long climbs are what van Vleuten does best and the Super Planche des Belles Filles will play into her hands, giving her a springboard to surge up the classification or a chance to cement her superiority.
Standing in her way, however, will be a fortified peloton, the collective strength of which has proven a much tougher nut to crack for the former world champion this season. After a few years of the two-tier team system with its mandatory minimum salary for WorldTour riders and increased live coverage, the women’s peloton has seen significant steps forward in terms of depth, with more riders than ever able to contest the win.
When van Vleuten attempted her usual long-range solo moves throughout the Spring Classics she found riders sticking to her wheel this time around and was bested on all but one occasion, at Liège-BastogneLiège. The long climbs of the Tour de France are a different beast but, with riders targeting and peaking for the race, she will no doubt once again have company more often than not.
For whom the Belles toll A grandstand finish awaits
When the course details were revealed last year, many were pleasantly surprised by the difficulty of the route. Eight years of La Course, the one-day race stationed within the men’s Tour de France, offered a pedestrian approach to course design that did not match the growing level of women’s racing. As such, expectations were relatively low when it came to finding out what was inside the TDFF. The eight stages of the race, however, are well thought-out and structured around a growing intensity and difficulty as the race progresses.
After seven hard days, the TDFF culminates on one of the most iconic climbs of the men’s race, the Super Planche des Belles Filles, in the Vosges. With a name attributed to the suicides of 17 young girls during the Thirty Years’ War, it has played a decisive role in the men’s Tour and will no doubt go a long way in determining the overall winner of the women’s race, too. A summit finish will provide an appropriate climax, making the race gruelling to the last, with the final kilometre, on gravel roads, averaging 10 per cent.
Double trouble Two grand tours in a month poses dilemmas
Van Vleuten will have the 10 stages of Giro d’Italia Donne – the new name for the Giro Rosa – to get through before she lines up in Paris. Unlike the men’s peloton, the women’s Giro (30 June-10 July) ends just two weeks before the TDFF begins, so those who are targeting both will have a gargantuan month on their hands.
The Movistar rider isn’t the only one taking this approach to both races. Some of the top Tour contenders are opting to head to Sardinia for the Giro, which comprises 10 stages over 11 days. Naturally, many of the riders who are said to be heading to both races are Italian, including 2022 ParisRoubaix winner and Italian national champion Elisa Longo Borghini (TrekSegafredo), Amstel Gold and La Flèche Wallonne winner Marta Cavalli (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) and 2007 world champion Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ).
Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) is also provisionally down to race both and will be a favourite to take at least one stage win at each. The question remains as to what effect this unprecedented double-header will have on riders’ TDFF performances.
The women’s Giro ends just two weeks before the TDFF begins, so those who are targeting both will have a gargantuan few months on their hands
Rough edges Gravel sectors not new to the women’s peloton
Before the race reaches the Super Planche des Belles Filles, the women will tackle roads not yet seen in the men’s race in the form of gravel sectors in the Champagne region. Stage four, from Troyes to Bar-sur-Aube, is one of the shorter stages at 126km but features four chemin blanc, or white road, sectors.
White gravel roads are not new to the women’s peloton, who for years now have raced the rough, hilly Tuscan roads of Strade Bianche. Nor is this the first grand tour to include loose surfaces, with the 2020 Giro Rosa featuring a controversial gravel road stage that featured surfaces some felt didn’t belong in road racing.
Like it or not, gravel has become ubiquitous on the WorldTour calendar and as such, being able to race over it is a requisite for any ‘complete’ rider of the kind who will win the overall at the TDFF. It’s testament to the organisers’ faith in the abilities of the women’s peloton that they will be tested across multiple surfaces as well as distances and climbs.
Green with envy The points jersey will be hotly contested in this debut Tour
If the spring races are anything to go by then the battle for the green jersey will be hotly contested. Team DSM’s Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes has been the undisputed queen of the sprints for a couple of seasons and is still largely the one to beat in a fast-finish. However, 2022 has seen the emergence of some serious competition.
While Movistar will be focusing on the GC with Van Vleuten, their Danish sprinter, Emma Norsgaard, will be battling for the green jersey with Wiebes. The Le Samyn des Dames winner can climb better than her Dutch rival, which might favour her in the latter stages of the race.
World champion Elisa Balsamo (TrekSegafredo) has proven a formidable finisher even after a hard day such as March’s Trofeo Alfredo Binda one-day race.
The Italians appear to be at the forefront of women’s sprinting this season, with Valcar Travel & Service fielding two fast riders, in the form of Chiara Consonni and Silvia Persico, and offering a leadout train.
Elsewhere, Kopecky or her teammate Demi Vollering could be pulling on green by default thanks to their ability to get over climbs better than most riders who are blessed with fast-twitch fibres.
French Fancied Pressure as ever is on the home favourites
French riders cannot escape the expectation of their nation at the men’s Tour and the women will be under the same pressure. The only French Women’s WorldTour team, FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, will no doubt bear the brunt of the scrutiny, especially with national champion, Évita Muzic, in their ranks.
The team made a point of their multileader approach at the start of the season, but after Marta Cavalli won two Ardennes classics in the absence of the other riders in the same role, they may want to re-think that tactic ahead of the TDFF.
Outside of the ranks of the FDJ team, French fans have plenty of other riders to offer their support to. In their bid for the yellow jersey, Juliette Labous (Team DSM) has a decent outside chance if her Dutch team aren’t all-in for their own country’s rider Floortje Mackaij or the German Liane Lippert.
Meanwhile, the former national champion, and current time-trial champion, Audrey Cordon-Ragot has had a rough spring after a bout with Covid but she cannot be discounted for a stage win, springboarded by her strong TrekSegafredo teammates.
Tour de France Femmes effect Why it’s the race everybody wants to enter
The looming prospect of the Tour de France Femmes has had an impact on the women’s peloton so far, for both better and worse. With teams desperate to secure invites to an event that guarantees the greatest exposure available within the world of women’s cycling, some picked up WorldTour licences without the resources or the rosters to back it up.
With 71 race days on the Women’s WorldTour calendar in 2022 – nearly double the 37 of last year – but with rosters of around 10 to 15 riders, some teams are finding their resources – and budgets – stretched already this season.
Securing a WorldTour licence purely to gain entry into the world’s biggest bike race is a move that some men’s teams also employ, the difference being their significantly bigger coffers give them the ability to field full teams in the rest of the WorldTour races too.
At the opposite end of the scale, the Tour de France Femmes has elevated multiple facets of women’s cycling, not least its profile. Riders are now able to say that they race the most well-known bike race in the world and will turn up to it with suitably raised standards of performance.
Whatever you may think about the stronghold that ASO, the organiser of the race, has over the sport and allowing that monopoly to spread into the women’s peloton, the creation of the Tour de France Femmes – as well as Paris-Roubaix in 2021 – is helping to build an unstoppable momentum for the growth of the sport.