TOUR DE FRANCE FEMME S
Established 2022 Editions 2 Recent winners Demi Vollering (2023); Annemiek van Vleuten (2022)
THE TIMING OF THE 2024
Olympics in Paris has forced this, the third edition of the race, back in the calendar, to three weeks after the conclusion of the men’s Tour. This is arguably good news, distinguishing it further from the men’s race and ensuring its own spot on the calendar, untethered from the attention black hole of Le Tour.
This will be the race’s first start outside of France, in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, and it won’t make it back until after the halfway mark, midway through stage 5. Although it’s again eight stages long, there’s a throwback split-stage on the 13 August, with a stage for the sprinters on stage 2 followed by a short 6.3km time trial on stage 3. Stage 4 pulls the best of the Ardennes Classics, including the Cauberg from Amstel Gold and La Redoute from Liège–Bastogne–Liège for a crackerjack parcours. Stage 5 will be a third opportunity for the sprinters after stages 1 and 2, before a hilly stage to Morteau.
By the weekend we’re into the Alps for the toughest finish in the race’s short history. First up is a summit finish, although not an especially difficult one, at Le Grand-Bornand in the HauteSavoie, though the complexity of the route to that point will mean tired legs. They’ll need to be awakened quickly, however, as the finale sees the peloton climb the Col du Glandon (19.7km at 7.2%) before a summit finish on Alpe d’Huez (13.8km at 8.1%). This showpiece climb made famous by the men’s race will provide madefor-television racing.
The race to date has seen the race’s outstanding climber (Annemiek van Vleuten in 2022, Demi Vollering in 2023) grab the race by the scruff of the neck as soon as the race has hit the high mountains. The task of the organisers is to make the course even enough to stop a single rider dominating, and that’s the question again this year, with a finish on Alpe d’Huez, one of the toughest in the French Alps. Van Vleuten and Vollering have shared the win in the first two editions, but with the retirement of van Vleuten, where will Vollering’s major rival come from? Kasia Niewiadoma has finished third twice and, though a consistent rider, has few wins to her name. Will a new, younger rider make a name for themselves this year?