Just one day after the end of the Summer Olympics in Paris, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift rolls onto the starting line for its third edition. You could get the impression that the organisers are trying to make up for everything that has happened in 110 years of men's Tour de France history. After two starts at home, the ASO is sending the Tour entourage abroad for the first time for the Grand Depart, before serving up a spectacular finale to the riders and spectators on the legendary climb to Alpe d'Huez in the French Alps after a loop through neighbouring Belgium.
Women's Tour de France visits Rotterdam
According to race director Marion Rousse, Rotterdam was not chosen by chance to host the first international start of the women's tour. After the men first set foot on foreign soil in Amsterdam in 1954, the Tour organisation made a conscious decision in favour of the Netherlands. Rousse, who herself was a professional cyclist for six years, says: "With the start in Rotterdam, we want to honour the outstanding successes of Dutch cycling in general, but in particular highlight the achievements of great Dutch riders such as Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel, Annemiek van Vleuten or currently Demi Vollering and Marianne Vos."
A stone's throw away from Europe's largest port, the starting gun will be fired on 12 August for a seven-day three-country tour that is strikingly Dutch in character. Half of all eight stages start in the home country of last year's winner Demi Vollering. One rider who knows the flat and windy roads of the opening stages like no other is Lidl Trek pro Lucinda Brand. The 35-year-old 2021 cyclo-cross world champion was born in Dordrecht, where the second stage starts. As a child of the region, she outlines possible race scenarios for the first few days.
"The Westland region, where the first three stages take place, is quite densely populated, but also contains many open areas with water and fields. There is always a lot of wind, which feels like it's coming from all sides. However, in my opinion, these sections are not long enough to establish a decisive breakaway group that will make it to the finish. It will come down to a final sprint of the peloton on the first two stages," says Brand.
Open race expected at the 2024 Women's Tour de France
After road world champion Lotte Kopecky declared her withdrawal from the Tour with her focus on the Olympic competitions, the dominance of the Dutch team SD Worx - Protime could crumble. The first signs of this appeared to be the results of the spring classics, in which Demi Vollering did not finish at the top of the podium once. The 27-year-old didn't seem to have the spring form she had in 2023, when she achieved the Ardennes triple. Her impending change of team at the end of the season and the announcement of a lucrative sponsorship deal made more headlines than her performances on the bike. However, with her all the more impressive victories in the Tour of Spain and the Tour of the Basque Country, she has shown that she is a force to be reckoned with.
Nevertheless, Lidl-Trek and Canyon//SRAM are two teams waiting in the wings that are not willing to accept the dominance of SD Worx - Protime or their front woman without a fight. Lidl-Trek has a co-favourite for overall victory in the Tour of Flanders and Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini; her team has dominated the majority of the races so far this season with great team unity.
"We don't have any power struggles, because all the riders know that we need a strong team to win a big race like the Tour," says Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, former world-class sprinter and sports director of the US team. She explains: "We have a broad base and several options to make the race a success. Elisa Longo Borghini has been in top form so far and our younger squad has made another huge leap in recent months. Alongside Elisa, Shirin van Anrooij and Gaia Realini will be at the start as young, ambitious riders. However, I don't see us in the role of SD Worx's main rival, other teams can also make the race very even."
Canyon//SRAM Racing can also travel to Rotterdam with a lot of self-confidence. even if last year's Tour stage winner Ricarda Bauernfeind, a top rider, is out of the race. Nevertheless, Ronny Lauke's German racing team has one of the top favourites for the overall standings at the start with reigning gravel world champion Kasia Niewiadoma, which could be decided on the final day in Alpe d'Huez.
After Joop Zoetemelk became the first Dutchman to win in Alpe d'Huez in 1976, seven of his compatriots have followed suit over the years. With frikandel and beer, thousands of cycling-mad "Oranjes" will give their all to roar one of their compatriots to victory on the "Mountain of the Dutch". Liane Lippert, who has returned to the peloton after her fatigue fracture at La Vuelta Femenina, could play the role of spoiler. "Now that Annemiek van Vleuten has ended her career, we're not focussing on the overall standings in this year's Tour," said the German champion, giving an insight into the strategy of her Spanish team led by manager Unzue. "Stage wins for the team are the top priority and Emma Norsgaard and I will try to build on our successes from last year. I'll also be taking over Annemiek's leadership role in the team at the Tour, a task I'm very much looking forward to and am ready to take on," says Lippert confidently.
Continue to grow slowly
Despite the rapid development of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift over the past three years, Marion Rousse is cautious when it comes to predicting future changes to the tour. "The ultimately futile attempts over the past decades to establish a women's Tour de France in the long term have shown that it is wiser to take small steps. Otherwise the door will quickly close again. We don't want the Tour to grow faster than international women's cycling in general. Then we can think about expanding the number of stages in the future," said Rousse. However, the tributes to the Netherlands as a cycling country will certainly not be the last of their kind. Other countries such as Belgium or Italy - and Germany in women's cycling - also have a long, deep-rooted cycling tradition and would certainly like to host the women's Tour.
