Tour de France Femmes - Twilight of the goddesses
The Tour de France Femmes is only two years old and it is already creating epic moments. The 7th stage to the Tourmalet is worthy of commemorative publications. The mountain alone played a parade role. Thick clouds of fog enveloped it, the sun only barely breaking through. Just like in the days of black and white television, the silhouettes of the racers only stood out in dark shades of grey against the lighter grey of the fog.
The first to cross the finish line individually, Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma and Annemiek van Vleuten in particular, still enjoyed the privilege of being illuminated by support vehicles. Many others climbed the 2110 metre high finish line in the semi-darkness. They made the subsequent descent into the valley whistling frantically to ask the fans staggering down from the summit to stand aside. It was the perfect atmosphere for the twilight of the goddesses. And indeed, on this Saturday evening in July, an era came to an end and a new ruler seized power in the peloton with impressive cold-bloodedness and precision.
The first act still belonged entirely to the old ruler. At the Col d'Aspin, Annemiek van Vleuten ordered her Movistar helpers to the front. Pedal stroke by pedal stroke, the peloton was thinned out. Halfway up the climb, however, all the energy was gone, including that of Liane Lippert, who had been injured in a crash at the start of the stage. So van Vleuten had no choice but to attack early on.
Her attack was so hard that the new German climbing star Ricarda Bauernfeind also fell back. The 23-year-old at least managed to get into the group around the winner of the white jersey for the best young rider, Cédrine Kerbaol from the German racing team Ceratizit-WNT, and defended her top 10 position on the Tourmalet. However, Van Vleuten was still too strong for her on this day.
Tour de France Femmes - aggressive old champion
Only Vollering and Niewiadoma were able to follow the combative world and former champion. The 40-year-old (!) van Vleuten did most of the leading work, but was unable to shake off her rivals. Twelve months ago, at the first edition of the Tour de France Femmes, she had taken almost three and a half minutes off Vollering and more than five minutes off Niewiadoma at Le Markstein. Vollering had moaned in disbelief at the time: "That's not normal, what you did today." However, her rival predicted a year ago: "You too will get there one day."
Van Vleuten certainly didn't expect this day to be just one season away. Perhaps she had feared it. While she rode at the front and occasionally received help from Niewiadoma, Vollering kept a low profile, the cool calculator. Van Vleuten, on the other hand, let her racing heart get the better of her. "I just wanted to make the race hard, put in a few pinpricks. Maybe I had a little too much enthusiasm at that moment and dug my own grave there," she said later.
Kasia Niewiadoma broke away from her rivals on the descent. For about half an hour, the frontwoman of the German racing team Canyon-SRAM seemed to be well on her way to being crowned the new queen of road cycling. Because behind her, her opponents were watching. "Demi told me she didn't want to do any leading work. And then I told her that I wouldn't either," said van Vleuten, describing the seemingly absurd dithering between Col d'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet.
But she showed understanding for her rival: "Demi had a good argument in her favour: she still had two team-mates behind her," said van Vleuten. In the end, the helpers did indeed roll up. And above all the Swiss Marlen Reusser drastically reduced the gap to Niewiadoma for team captain Vollering.
Attacks in the fog
When the Tourmalet was at its steepest and the fog was getting thicker, the Dutchwoman made her final move. No one was able to follow her attack. "The fog was so thick there that I knew that if I was fast, the others wouldn't be able to see me," said Vollering, describing the scene. Only Niewiadoma, who was still in the lead, had brief eye contact when Vollering emerged from the fog from behind, lingered briefly next to her and was then swallowed up again by the grey curtain further ahead.
Illuminated by the headlights of the support vehicles, she finished her triumphant ride up the Tourmalet as a soloist. "I worked for a year for this. Now I've achieved my big goal," she proudly summarised. In the final time trial in Pau the next day, she completed her work, finishing second on the day - behind winner and team-mate Marlen Reusser - and taking a further minute and a half off van Vleuten.
With the 26-year-old Demi Vollering, a new style has arrived in women's cycling. Instead of the hurrah attacks of van Vleuten, strict team plans now apply, which are implemented by physically and mentally strong female cycling soldiers. "I want our women to reach the final as fresh as possible," said Anna van der Breggen, Sports Director of SD Worx, explaining her approach.
This can sometimes go wrong. That's when the women of the currently overpowering racing team enter the chase too late and breakaway riders like Yara Kastelijn (stage 4), Ricarda Bauernfeind (stage 5) and Emma Norsgaard Bjerg (stage 6) get away. On these days, SD Worx had miscalculated with their energy-saving riding style, even though the team around Demi Vollering always stayed on course for the big goal of overall victory - dominant thanks to restraint, that could be the motto of SD Worx.
Four weeks Tour de France
For the show and the sporting value of the Tour, the finale with the Tourmalet and the final individual time trial was of course worth its weight in gold. Despite all the differences in detail, the women's Tour and men's Tour moved closer together - which is exactly what the ASO as organiser intended. "We have experienced a Tour de France that now covers the whole month of July and lasts four weeks," said Christian Prudhomme, head of the men's race and constant companion of the Tour de France Femmes this year. French television broadcast continuously on the second channel - another sign of coming together. The Tourmalet stage was even scheduled so that it flickered across the linear end devices at prime time in the evening. A test balloon, perhaps, for the men's edition as well.
Numerous fans also added a fourth week to their "Tour holiday". The residents of the legendary cycling village of Noorderwijk set up camp on the Tourmalet with their vintage caravans and historic Molteni bikes. "Wout van Aert comes from Noorderwijk, we've already done 15 Tour stages for the men. But we also want to support women's cycling and are here now," explained Jo Helsen, trained restaurateur and operator of the mobile bar.
Do the female riders also want to up the ante and ride more than just eight stages? "I've already considered with my room-mate Elena Cecchini how it could go over two weeks," confirmed the new regent of women's cycling, Demi Vollering, such thoughts. "But three weeks would be difficult, because then we would be in a complete cycle - and we don't know how that would affect us," said the Dutchwoman.
For Ricarda Bauernfeind, stage winner and ninth overall on her Tour debut, the eight days were enough for now. In any case, the task for the next Tour is to force the competitors from Team SD Worx to work earlier so that the already best in the field don't constantly arrive at the finale still the freshest.
