FEATURE: LA COURSE BY LE TOUR
With the Tour Femmes coming in 2022, La Course 2021 may have been the last. Procycling speaks to Leah K irchmann and Chantal van den Broek- Blaak, the two riders who raced ever y edition, about how the race changed over the years
Has La Course run its course? We talk to the two riders who have competed in every edition.
2014 PARIS CHAMPS- ÉLYSÉES 89KM THE FIRST EDITION It was fitting that the rider to win the first edition of La Course was someone who played an integral part in getting it created. Marianne Vos was part of Le Tour Entier, a group who campaigned and petitioned ASO to create a women’s race at the Tour, and she also won the race’s inaugural sprint in Paris. Held on the same day as the final stage of the men’s Tour, the race featured 13 laps of the famed Champs-Élysées course, with Vos beating Kirsten Wild and Leah Kirchmann to the line. L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“I still remember how big that event was. The whole lead up was so big with the petition and I think it really showed a lot. The riders really banded together and the fans really banded together to say we really want this to happen. I was racing for Optum Pro Cycling, an American based team, at the time. When they finally announced that the race would take place and our team actually got an invitation, it was so exciting to know that we would be lining up there.
“And then the day itself... I remember it was just so magical to be there standing on the start line on the Champs-Élysées. Then to actually finish on the podium that day was a dream come true for me. It was also my first podium finish in Europe. To have it be on such a big stage was really special.
“I can still remember how much media attention I got as a rider for the podium there, especially in the Canadian media and the North American media who don’t normally cover a lot of cycling. But everybody still knows the Tour de France so the fact that I was getting so much attention told me that this transcended cycling a little bit and it had a far greater reach than a normal race would. I remember I was even getting mentions on Twitter from the Prime Minister of Canada, crazy things. Those things don’t normally happen.”
2015 & 2016 PARIS CHAMPS- ÉLYSÉES 89KM THE SPRINTER YEARS La Course returned to Paris for the next two years and gradually attracted criticism for not providing the women with a challenging enough parcours. Torrential rain marred the second edition, and made the lap of the Champs treacherous as multiple crashes caused splits. Anna van der Breggen stole the show from the sprinters, jumping away on the final lap and holding off the chase to win solo. A year later, Chloe Hosking won the sprint, ahead of Lotta Henttala and Vos. L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“I remember it was a really challenging race. The cobbles are quite rough on the course and they do drag uphill so you don’t get a lot of rest anywhere. You’re always accelerating out of corners and the speed is super high the whole time.”
CH A NTA L V D . BROEK- BL A AK
“It’s really cool to race on the Champs-Élysées, but I always had the feeling like it’s not the Tour de France. And then people call it the Tour de France, but it’s not. You win La Course, you win the Tour… It’s just the media who pick it up because it’s the Tour de France. I always had mixed feelings about it. Of course, it was nice to race like that, but the Tour is not a women’s race. We have so many harder and nicer races. It’s cool to do, but it’s not the Tour and not women’s cycling. This is not how it is, doing laps. It’s a bunch sprint for sure there.
We take it seriously because this is one of the races we get media with us, and that’s what we need to grow. But if I could
“Everybody still knows the Tour de France and the fact that I was getting so much attention told me that this transcended cycling” Leah Kirchmann
pick a race, it would not be La Course, for sure, because it was not hard enough.”
L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“I did have the feeling we were starting to expect more from the race, and we were expecting it to evolve. We showed that having a one-day race could be super successful and entertaining. I think from the riders’ perspective we wanted to show we could do even more, and maybe showcase our talents on climbs or in time trials and in a stage race.”
2017 STAGE 1 BRIANÇON > COL D’IZOARD 67KM STAGE 2 MARSEILLE > MARSEILLE 22.5KM THE TWO - DAY EXPERIMENT After three years in Paris, La Course moved to the Alps for its first mountainous course. 2017 also saw the event grow to two days. Stage 1 was effectively a long hill climb with riders covering a flat opening 57km, before tackling the historic Col d’Izoard for a summit finish. Annemiek van Vleuten won by 43 seconds ahead of Lizzie Deignan. The top 19 riders qualified for the stage 2 pursuit chase.
The experimental second stage saw riders set off in reverse order, one by one, according to their times at the top of the climb the day before. Riders were allowed to wait for rivals or team-mates and use team tactics to chase, but the gap to Van Vleuten proved too big. Despite Deignan, Megan Guarnier and Elisa Longo Borghini forming a group to chase the Dutchwoman, she won by over 1:40 in Marseille. CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“I didn’t like that year, that was the only year I didn’t like. For me, I had nothing to say there. It was just one big climb. To be honest, the first 20 could go and I didn’t even want to be in the top 20, because if you are number 20 you never made it to the next day. We just saw it as a one-day race. We tried to help Lizzie. She was my team-mate, she was second, so we did a really good race.
“But I went home the day after and in that moment I thought, yeah, it’s so much nicer when we have a few more days. Then you have a flat day, maybe a time trial, an uphill stage. That was the only year it wasn’t my favourite.”
LEAHKIRCH MANN
“I do remember 2017 was unique because they had a two-day format. It was a reverse pursuit the next day. I actually qualified for the reverse pursuit. I think it was nice to try an idea, something new, but the format didn’t really work that well. We really tried to use creative tactics, and to chase those that were ahead of us, but the time gaps were quite big on the Col d’Izoard.”
CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“I think it was a super nice climb, but in the Giro or the Tour de France it’s going to be different because you have only one stage like that. Then the climbers and the GC riders have a big chance. But for a one-day race, maybe if you made the distance a bit longer and you had more opportunities for breakaways, it’s different.”
“The Col d’Izoard was a super nice climb but in the Giro or the Tour it’s going to be different, because you have only one stage like that” Chantal vd. Broek- Blaak
2018 ANNECY > LE GRAND- BORNAND 112.5KM INTO THE MOUNTAINS The 2018 edition was the most mountainous of all eight races, featuring four major climbs and ending with the Col de Romme and Col de la Colombière before a descent to Le Grand-Bornand. A break of five went clear on the second climb of the day, as the peloton was gradually worn down to a group of around 20 chasers. Cecile Uttrup Ludwig was among those who attacked, as well as Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, but Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten proved strongest. The two descended to the line together and while Van der Breggen initially dropped her Dutch compatriot, Van Vleuten came
back to beat her in the sprint right on the line.
LEAHKIRCH MANN
“That was also a really hard edition, and compared to the Izoard which was really just a climbing time trial to the top, this presented more opportunities for tactics, having two major climbs. For example, I was in an earlier break to try to get ahead to then help - we were riding for Lucinda [Brand] that day - to try to get a head start up that first climb. I think it produced quite an exciting race on a very challenging course.”
CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“This was also for climbers, but different because all the other riders could help. You can really show how we race because our races are actually really exciting to watch. Not if you go a few kilometres flat and then there’s one big hill. 2018 was a really great edition, because we could show how we race and it was exciting to watch. Everyone, all the teams could do something.”
2019 & 2020 PAU > PAU 121KM NICE > NICE 96KM PUNCH EU R S’ PARADISE The first of three hilly, rolling circuits for La Course saw the peloton take on five laps of the 2019 Tour’s 27km TT course in Pau. While the route featured two climbs, the real challenge was the final 185m ‘wall’ to the line, up Rue Mulot,a short hill that peaked at 17 per cent. Anna van der Breggen attacked with 37km to go, drawing out an
elite 11-rider group, from which Amanda Spratt got away. She was caught at the foot of the climb with Vos accelerating away to take her second win. Kirchmann and Uttrup Ludwig completed the podium.
With the covid-19 pandemic disrupting plans for the race to return to Paris, the 2020 race instead moved to Nice, to replicate the route of the opening day of the men’s Tour that year. Annemiek van Vleuten forced the race-winning move of six riders on the Côte de Rimiez, but Lizzie Deignan won the sprint after a long descent and flat run-in to the finish, ahead of Vos and Demi Vollering.
L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“In 2019, I was just trying to save as much as possible, and survive the climbs the whole day. We had the plan that if there was a small group still together in the finish then with my qualities, having that steep climb and then the flatter finish, I’ve shown that I can be really strong in a finish like this. That last lap was so exciting because I think Amanda Spratt was away solo and my team-mates were chasing and it was super close. I think we only caught her in the last kilometres. I was again put in a perfect position by my team-mates for that last climb, and I saw Vos. She fully attacked from the climb and it was really just full gas from that point all the way to the finish.” CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“The last three years it was, I think, a really exciting race to watch, and then we can show this is how women’s cycling is.”
L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“I would agree that the last three editions, I think they’ve all been very challenging courses again, but a little bit more open to allround type riders, creating interesting dynamics in the races by giving teams an opportunity to approach the races with totally different tactics. I think they’ve also been really exciting editions for fans to follow.”
2021 BREST > LANDERNEAU 107.4KM THE FINAL RACE?
For the second year, covid-19 forced La Course to change location at the last minute, this time from a race finishing at Mûr-de-Bretagne to a rolling route to Landerneau before the opening day of the men’s Tour. A 12-rider break was eventually caught with 5km to go, and on the last of four times up the Côte de la Fosse aux Loups, a number of riders attempted to break away. However, a group of eight
were still together over the top, with Vollering beating Uttrup Ludwig and Vos in the sprint. CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“This was the nicest edition
I ever did, for sure, because it was harder. It’s really nice that we started with 50 kilometres where there were a lot of options, because we tried to get in the break. In the end it didn’t work, but it gave some opportunities for other riders. And then we did the local laps - the climb was maybe not the hardest climb, but the recovery was not much in between and that makes it really hard. I actually like that style of racing. It’s just up, down and you have to go again. It was only, I think, 10 kilometres per lap. In the first lap our climbers thought it was not hard enough, but the second lap it was already totally changed because there was no recovery in between.”
L E AH K I RCHMAN N
“It was a totally unique edition of the race, being in Brittany. It was a super hard course and just like every year with La Course, it is one of the most televised races of the year. It’s a really big race for riders to target, so the pace was on right from the start to the finish, just like every year. We were aiming for a podium, and in the end our tactics didn’t quite work out but we still felt we had a strong race. Our French rider Juliette Labous was up there in the breakaway and Liane Lippert tried to sprint in the end. I think we had a strong showing, still.
I thought it was a great course for a super hard one-day race, and it showed with how the race went that it could have played out in a lot of different ways. Having a challenging climb, there was an opportunity for a breakaway to make it, or for a rider to attack and, say, go solo. It was quite a dynamic course.”
CHANT AL V D. BRO E K-B L AA K
“I tried to attack a few times in the beginning. It didn’t work, but in the end a lot of people had to work so it made it a bit harder. We knew the climb was hard, but you have to race it to drop some people and also, for example, to make Marianne tired. That was the team tactic. Then Demi and Anna can do really well in the final. Everyone did something for the win and we shared it.”