The 2023 Tour de France Femmes rolls out of Clermont-Ferrand on Sunday morning for every week of racing that climaxes within the Pyrenees, with a frightening summit end at the towering Col du Tourmalet, adopted through a flat, rapid time trial targeted on Pau.
Both phases are inventions in a race that was once rebooted in 2022 through the Tour de France promoter, ASO, after a peripatetic life for the previous 30 years or so. The 2022 Tour de France Femmes, which began in Paris, as the lads’s race ended, was once a runaway luck with each enthusiasts and sponsors.
The 2023 version is greater, extra adventurous and, with the inclusion of the Pyrenees and a time trial, a some distance sterner take a look at. After a gap level that loops out and again from Clermont-Ferrand, the peloton heads south into the hills of Cantal, Correze, Dordogne and Tarn with finishes in Mauriac, Montignac-Lascaux, Rodez and Albi.
After a flatter level to Blagnac, within the suburbs of Toulouse, subsequent Saturday’s Pyrenean level takes within the climb of the Col d’Aspin sooner than the 17km haul to the two,110 meter summit of the Tourmalet.
The Tour de France Femmes race director, Marion Rousse, mentioned the verdict to transport the begin to Clermont-Ferrand was once as a result of, through beginning in Paris, in 2022 “the baton has already been passed between the men and the women”. “By starting in Clermont-Ferrand, we can go straight into the Massif Central and we can have more dynamic and interesting stages right from the beginning. It also means we can easily head south and include the Pyrenees.”
The 2022 Tour did not include a time trial, something most in the peloton felt was a missing ingredient, and this year’s final stage, from Pau’s Place Verdun, south to the Pyrenean foothills and back is very similar to the 2019 men’s Tour time trial, won by Julian Alaphilippe.
“Yes, it’s true that we’ve added the high mountains, but we wanted to make it a little bit more historical,” said Rousse.
“The Tourmalet is a mythical climb and all the champions want to write their names into the record books by winning there. We didn’t have a time trial last year, but we know that to be the leader and the winner of a Grand Tour, you have to be the best in every terrain, including the time trial.”
The 2022 winner, Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar, will defend her title against stiff opposition with last year’s runner-up, Demi Vollering, again expected to be her main rival. But Van Vleuten, and also Vollering’s SD Worx team, may face stiffer opposition than a year ago, as the strength in depth of the women’s peloton continues to grow.
Among those likely to be in contention is the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini, of Lidl-Trek, third overall in June’s women’s Tour of Switzerland. Among her teammates is Lizzie Deignan, riding in her first Tour de France Femmes.
“I want to be a valuable key player in the team,” Deignan, the former world champion, said. “We really want Elisa to get on to the podium so I want to be able to contribute to that in a significant way.”
Deignan, a previous winner of La Course, the Tour Femmes’ predecessor, mentioned she had reconnoitred best the primary of the 8 phases. “Time has run out for me in terms of having the opportunity for me to recon stuff,” she mentioned, “but the team has done much more.
“I’ve ridden the Tourmalet in training so I know what to expect from that point of view. I’m pretty used to turning up at races and not knowing what’s coming. We have so much technology now that it’s not daunting to me.”
Deignan said she was enjoying finally racing in a women’s Tour de France. “There’s a different atmosphere to this race,” she said. “I thrive on pressure and a big occasion and hopefully that brings out my best.”