Frenchwoman Juliette Labous, during the Tokyo Olympics, July 25, 2021. MICHAEL STEELE / AFP
While the Men’s Tour de France ends on Sunday July 23, with the probable victory of Jonas Vingegaard on the Champs-Elysées, the Women’s Tour de France starts from Clermont-Ferrand. One hundred and fifty-four runners divided into 22 teams will compete over eight days of racing over more than 950 km across the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. The finish is scheduled for Pau, Sunday July 30, and will end with a 22 kilometer time trial.
Main favorite to succeed her, the Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten, already victorious in the Vuelta and the Giro this year, will aim for the treble at the Tour de France as in 2022. A final prestigious victory for the 40-year-old Dutchwoman, who has announced her retirement at the end of the season. Only Demi Vollering seems to be able to compete with her compatriot. The 26-year-old runner has shown, with her gargantuan spring (Strade Bianche, the three Ardennes classics, Tour de Suisse), that she can look the world champion straight in the eye.
La double ascension Aspin-Tourmalet
If their duel is announced, a French woman could nevertheless come and disrupt the debates. Juliette Labous, second in the last Giro d’Italia Donne, at the beginning of July, intends to play her card: “A bit like in men with the Vingegaard-Pogacar duo, these two seem above the lot. But, for third place, there are possibilities. It would be great even if, for me, the main thing is to give my all to finish without having any regrets, podium or not.assured the young Franc-Comtoise to Agence France-Presse.
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With Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), the rider of the DSM team – fourth in 2022 – is the best French chance in the general classification. It will be particularly awaited during the double ascent of the Pyrenean passes of Aspin and Tourmalet: “I like long efforts uphill. So the route should suit me.”predicts the one who shares the status of leader within the DSM formation with the Dutch sprinter Charlotte Kool.
But before attacking the queen stage of the Tour, other highlights will have drawn a first classification. After crossing the Massif Central and passing near the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne, the fourth – and longest – stage of the Tour, between Cahors and Rodez (177 kilometres), will look like a real “classic”. In all, four flat stages, two hilly stages, a high mountain stage and an individual time trial are on the programme.
“We don’t really know what to expect”
In 2022, the Tour de France Women had won the bet of hooking the general public in its wheel, by recording nearly 20 million cumulative viewers on France Télévisions with its two and a half hours of daily broadcasting. “Warning fragile object! »however, warned the director of the event, Marion Rousse, interviewed by AFP during the presentation of the course in October 2022.
It is now necessary to perpetuate the event and to register it durably in the tricolor sporting landscape. “The goal is to have a solid Tour de France and not to go faster than the development of women’s cyclingexplains the former champion of France. We don’t want to embark on a ten-day Tour de France right away, even if we want to grow in the long term. The Tour brings sponsors, light, money. But there is still a lot more to do. »
Juliette Labous was delighted, for her part, to find the atmosphere of the Grande Boucle: “We don’t really know what to expect. Last year, we left Paris in the wake of the men. This will not be the case this year. So we’ll see. It will be a good test for the popularity of women’s cycling. »
The 960.4 kilometer route in eight stages
Sunday July 23 – 1st stage: Clermont-Ferrand – Clermont-Ferrand (124 km)
Monday July 24 – 2nd stage: Clermont-Ferrand – Mauriac (148 km)
Tuesday 25 July – 3rd stage: Collonges-la-Rouge – Montignac-Lascaux (147 km)
Wednesday 26 July – 4th stage: Cahors – Rodez (177 km)
Thursday July 27 – 5th stage: Onet-le-Château – Albi (126 km)
Friday 28 – 6th stage: Albi – Blagnac (122 km)
Saturday July 29 – 7th stage: Lannemezan – Tourmalet (90 km)
Sunday July 31 – 8th stage: Pau – Pau (individual time trial, 22 km)