Tour de France Femmes: Mountain guide
Demi Vollering (right) led the group of the overall best on the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes through the French Alps. Hanging in her slipstream was an illustrious group of contemporary women's racing specialists (from right to left): the Last year's winner Kasia Niewiadoma from Polandthe lightweight New Zealander Niamh Fisher-Black, the later overall winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in the yellow jersey and the Australian Sarah Gigante, who was one of the best climbing specialists this year. The latter dropped back significantly over the course of this stage - and had to leave second and third place in the overall classification to Vollering and Niewiadoma. At the end of the stage, Ferrand-Prévot took the lead and celebrated stage and overall victory in Châtel. Dutchwoman Vollering, who went into the race as the top favourite, was rewarded for her efforts throughout the year and consistently good performances with a top position in the world rankings at the end of the year.
Giro d'Italia Women: Home victory
The majority may be of the opinion that the Tour de France is the most important race in women's cycling. However, the opinionated Elisa Longo Borghini emphasises that the Giro d'Italia makes her heart beat faster. The 33-year-old Italian's big goal for the season was to win the nine-day stage race through her home country. Once again. Last year, she was only able to decisively distance herself from Belgian Lotte Kopecky in the final stage. This year was also exciting because the Swiss rider Marlen Reusser turned out to be an extremely stubborn opponent. The time trial specialist climbed more strongly than ever before in the past season. First Longo Borghini managed to leave Reusser far behind at the Monte Nerone summit finish. The team colleagues from UAE-ADQ celebrated the overall winner at the finish line in Imola.
Liane Lippert from Friedrichshafen was in strong form. On the low mountain stage to Orciano di Pesaro, she overtook her only companion Pauliena Rooijackers in the finale. The German also won the final stage in a duel with Anna van der Breggen.
Vuelta a España Feminina: Finger pointing
It is debatable whether the women's Tour of Spain fulfils the requirements of a so-called Grand Tour. The term originates from men's cycling, which recognises three three-week national tours with this designation. Now the organisers of the races also have the heart and the necessary money for one stage race each for the women. Despite the tailwind for women's cycling, the organiser Unipublic, a subsidiary of Tour organiser ASO, cut the race in Spain from eight stages last year to seven. The Nevertheless, the overall winner was the same - with their second stage win on the foggy Alto de Cotobello Demi Vollering extended her lead and underpinned her claim to be the strongest tour specialist in the jersey of her new employer FDJ-Suez with her tour victory at the beginning of May. At the time, nobody could have guessed that she would not be able to follow Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot up the mountain at the Tour de France in August.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
