Following the success of the inaugural ‘Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift’ in 2022, this year’s event will take place from 23 to 30 July and looks set to be another epic race.
What is it?
Last year the event was heralded as the return of the ‘Women’s Tour de France’ and drew the world’s top cyclists as well as huge crowds and TV viewers. There was previously a women’s Tour de France, which took place alongside the men’s race from 1984 until its demise, due to financial problems in 1989.
The women’s race was over 18 stages and each stage followed around 80km of the men’s route, finishing on the same finish line, two hours ahead of the men. In the years that followed, there was the Tour Cycliste Féminin and then the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale. Neither were an official women’s Tour de France but as they were one of the biggest women’s stage races during that time, they were regarded as the women’s equivalent, until the Grand Boucle ended in 2009.
Last year’s historical version of the race was billed as the reinstatement of the Women’s Tour de France and saw the riders leave Paris to race over eight stages in the Northeast of France. The official title of the race is now ‘Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift’, as the virtual cycling platform Zwift agreed to be the title sponsor for four years.
The Route
This year the race is set in the south of the country, traversing the three regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie. The eight-stage race is slightly shorter this year at 956km as opposed to 1,029km last year. The stages offer a mixture of distances and terrain with one mountain, two hilly and four flat stages and new to this year’s race an individual time trial. Surprisingly the UCI (cycling’s governing body) limits women’s stage racing to six days but some, including the Giro Rosa – the women’s version of the Giro d’Italia apply for dispensation to host longer races. So, eight days is an improvement on most current women’s stage races.
The racing will begin on the same day as the final stage of the men’s Tour de France but instead of Paris, this year will start in the city of Clermont-Ferrand, which is the capital of the Auvergne region. The shortest stage is on the final day as the individual time trial is only 22km but this 22km could in fact decide the overall race winner. The longest stage is on day four where the riders will have to tackle 177km, which is 15km further than the maximum distance that women are allowed to ride at the World Tour level, without special dispensation. The highest point of the Tour is the iconic Pyrenean Col du Tourmalet, 2110 meters high, which the riders will traverse on the penultimate stage from Lannemezan to Bagnères-de-Bigorre.
Stages
Stage 1: Clermont-Ferrand – Clermont-Ferrand 124km, Flat
Stage 2: Clermont-Ferrand – Mauriac 148km, Hills
Stage 3: Collonges-la-Rouge – Montignac-Lascaux 147km, Flat
Stage 4: Cahors – Rodez 177km, Hills
Stage 5: Onet-le-Château – Albi 126km, Flat
Stage 6: Albi – Blagnac 122km, Flat
Stage 7: Lannemezan – Tourmalet 90km, Mountains
Stage 8: Pau – Pau 22km, Individual Time Trial
Who to look out for
There are 22 teams made up of seven riders. Not all of the team rider lists have been announced yet so we don’t know exactly who will be on the start line, but all the big names will want to be part of the highlight of the season’s race calendar.
Last year’s winner, Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten, riding for the Movistar team, has got to be the favourite for the overall General Classification (GC) win. She excels in mountain stages, so watch out for her in the Pyrenees. As a two-time time-trial world champion, the inclusion of the indivdual time trial on the final stage will also play to her strengths. In May she won the Vuelta Femenina, a seven-stage race in Spain, which shows that she is currently on good form in multi-stage races.
Demi Vollering, last year’s runner up and also second in this year’s Vuelta Femenina, racing for SD Worx is also a contender for the title, especially as she is in good form, having won the Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen earlier this year.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma, racing for Canyon–SRAM took the final spot on the podium last year but has had a slower start to 2023. However, she will be looking to be on form in time for the Tour.
Other riders to look out for, especially for stage wins, are Lorena Wiebes, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Elisa Longo Borghini and Gaia Realini. Of course, there is also the legend Marianne Vos, racing for Jumbo Visma, who wore the yellow jersey for part of last year’s race and eventually won the green (points) jersey. You can expect her to challenge for some stage wins, especially after winning two stages in last year’s race and taking the points jersey and two stages at this year’s Vuelta Femenina.
Where to watch
If you want to see the racing in person, the closest major airport to the start in Clermont-Ferrand is Lyon. Going to Clermont-Ferrand is a good way to see quite a bit of the action as the first stage starts and finishes in the city and the second stage also starts there. Not only will you get to see a stage start and finish, but you can also watch the riders ‘sign in’ on the mornings, so you will definitely catch a glimpse of your favourite rider or team. If you want to see the decider stages, then Toulouse airport is close to the Pyrenees and lots of the budget airlines have regular flights there from all over the UK. Often when watching bike races, you will spend hours waiting and then the riders pass in seconds. However, one way to see the riders for hours on end is to watch the time trial stage starting and finishing in Pau. On this stage the riders race against the clock and set off in one- or two-minute intervals, which means you are guaranteed to see a rider at regular intervals. The time trial will be particularly exciting as it’s the final day of the race, so it will be the stage that decides the overall winner. Of course, wherever you travel to watch make sure you have appropriate travel insurance from SportsCover Direct.
About the author
Helen is the current European Middle Distance and British Quadrathlon Champion. She is also the current GBSUP (Stand Up Paddleboarding) Series winner in the NISCO class. In 2019 she was the Middle Distance World Quadrathlon Champion in her age group and in 2018 the age group World Cup Series winner and Sprint Distance World Champion. Before turning to quadrathlon, Helen was age group World and European Duathlon Champion and European Triathlon Champion. She is a British Canoeing ‘She Paddles’ Ambassador and named as one of this year’s Cycling UK’s ‘100 Women in Cycling’. You can follow her exploits on Twitter via @helengoth