The second version of the Tour de France Femmes avez Zwift guarantees heated battles for the 4 particular classification jerseys and eight stage wins on supply throughout the 956km of racing that begins on July 23 in Clermont-Ferrand.
Set within the Massif Central, the Grand Départ will kick off the Tour de France Femmes within the capital of the Auvergne area, welcoming 22 world-class groups – 15 WorldTeams and seven Continental Groups – to compete for a complete of €250,000 the place the general champion will earn €50,000.
The stakes are excessive and there’s something on supply for everybody because the peloton race for the yellow chief’s jersey sponsored by LCL, inexperienced factors jersey sponsored by Škoda, polka-dot mountains jersey sponsored by E.Leclerc, white finest younger rider jersey sponsored by Liv, group classification sponsored by Krys, most aggressive rider sponsored by La Région Occitanie, plus after all the stage victories sponsored by Zwift.
Cyclingnews highlights the largest speaking as we stay up for the eight days of racing, ending with a Pau finale on July 30, that can crown the winner of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Cyclingnews may have dwell protection of all eight levels of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, together with race reviews, galleries, outcomes, and unique options and information.
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The brand new benchmark
Expectations are excessive coming into the second version of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after a momentous rebirth of the ladies’s levels race, with the occasion organised underneath ASO’s flagship Tour de France model offering top-notch routes, organisation, fanfare and widespread viewership. In some ways, the eight days of intense racing has modified girls’s biking perpetually.
The truth is, lately launched viewership knowledge of the race final 12 months revealed that it achieved a cumulative dwell viewers of 23.2 million individuals. The Nielson Sports activities’ report, compiled in partnership with title sponsor Zwift, aimed to grasp the affect the inaugural race had on girls’s biking worldwide. It aimed to make use of the info to analyse the optimistic progress and mentioned the way it may also help develop girls’s biking participation
The numbers revealed robust will increase in broadcast viewership, written protection, viewers profiles and social media throughout stakeholders in girls’s biking.
The primary version of the trendy Tour de France Femmes has certainly set a outstanding new benchmark in girls’s biking, and so the query is whether or not the second version will hit and surpass these targets in 2023.
Crowds and fanfare will undoubtedly pack the beginning and end host cities, and as soon as once more line the roads on the 956km path to see the race motion unfold proper earlier than them.
They may also be capable to watch the race dwell broadcast globally, and Cyclingnews has put collectively a Tips on how to Watch the 2023 Tour de France Femmes schedule for easy-to-find broadcasting instances and areas.
Van Vleuten vs Vollering
One of many foremost conclusions from final 12 months’s historic Tour de France Femmes was the hole between Annemiek van Vleuten and her nearest rival final 12 months Demi Vollering.
Van Vleuten took the yellow jersey after a back-to-back rampage via the Vosges mountains – Le Markstein and La Planche des Belles Filles – in northeast France. Vollering merely was not robust sufficient to problem her compatriot for the yellow jersey on the climbs.
Van Vleuten’s efficiency confirmed how a lot stronger she was on mountainous terrain than her rivals and among the world’s finest climbers Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ), and Silvia Persico (Valcar), for instance, completed between three and 7 minutes down on the primary huge mountain stage and one other 30 seconds to 2 minutes behind on the ultimate day.
Van Vleuten attributed her energy over her opponents to her age and famous that she is older, by some 15 years, and extra skilled in her coaching. She stated that she had had extra time to organize her physique to adapt to the calls for of mountainous routes.
She additionally said that, given extra time, Vollering would additionally reap the advantages of slowly adapting to extra coaching expertise and total racing expertise. “It’ll come to you,” Van Vleuten advised Vollering.
Vollering seems to have closed that hole, at the least from what we may see of her early season dominance at Strade Bianche, the three Ardennes Classics. She then got here second total at La Vuelta Female, Itzulia Girls and the Tour de Suisse, plus gained Vuelta a Burgos and the Dutch Championships.
The 2 riders had totally different approaches main into this Tour de France Femmes, with Van Vleuten driving into type and successful a fourth total title on the Giro Donne and Vollering opting to skip the Italian stage race for altitude coaching as an alternative.
Solely the roads to Pau, which is able to take the peloton south into the Pyrenees and over the enduring Col du Tourmalet, will reveal how a lot of that hole Vollering has closed to Van Vleuten, and whether or not or not it is sufficient to declare the maillot jaune.
Sprinters’ delight
There may be loads of anticipation forward of the race for the yellow jersey, however the opening levels of the eight-day race are going to lend properly to a full-on battle for stage wins and green-jersey factors among the many sprinters.
Marianne Vos returns with Jumbo-Visma to defend her inexperienced jersey and she or he will likely be going up in opposition to the quickest lady within the peloton Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx), presumably additionally teammate Lotte Kopecky, together with Charlotte Kool (Crew dsm-firmenich), and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) if she has the inexperienced gentle to start racing once more after recovering from a crash earlier this 12 months.
There are many different sprinters to observe, too, akin to Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM Racing), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Crew Jayco AlUla), and Chiara Consonni (UAE Crew ADQ).
ASO describes the route profiles as flat for stage 1 into Clermont-Ferrand, stage 3 into Montignac-Lascaux, stage 5 into Albi and stage 6 into Blagnac, with hilly levels in between. These supply alternatives to the sprinters earlier than the race finishes with the Tourmalet on stage 7 and a time trial in Pau on stage 8.
The battle for the inexperienced jersey may develop into probably the most riveting classifications to comply with on the Tour de France Femmes.
Col du Tourmalet showstopper
Followers have been handled to back-to-back mountain levels via the Voges final 12 months, however this 12 months brings the peloton over the enduring Col du Tourmalet which is able to undoubtedly develop into the crowning second of this 12 months’s Tour de France Femmes.
Race director Marion Rousse has said that although the primary 12 months of the Tour de France Femmes was a hit, ASO, couldn’t relaxation on its laurels when it got here to designing a route, and she or he believes that the back-to-back Col du Aspin and Col du Tourmalet on stage 7 will add to the historical past of the ladies’s stage race.
“It will not have escaped you that we go to the excessive mountains, the Pyrénées, with the climb of Col d’Aspin after which the Col du Tourmalet. Actually, with the concept of inscribing the Tour de France Femmes in historical past,” Rousse stated.
Certainly, the Col du Aspin and Col du Tourmalet are prone to be the locations the place the general classification contenders will make their marks on the battle for the yellow jersey.
If final 12 months tells us something about how this race may play out within the mountains, we are able to count on to see Annemiek van Vleuten taking advantage of this stage, as she did atop Le Markstein and La Planche des Belles Filles. Her rivals will know what to anticipate and so gaining time in different areas of the race will likely be key to staying in competition.
The 90km route will start in Lannemezan and sort out the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%) first earlier than the ultimate ascent to the Col du Tourmalet (17km at 7.3%), marking probably the most decisive stage of the occasion.
A race in opposition to the clock
Ask and also you shall obtain. Final 12 months’s Tour de France Femmes route included virtually each kind of terrain for nearly each rider, but when there’s one factor the riders and groups felt was lacking on the race, it was a time trial.
Specialists Ellen van Dijk, Joss Lowden and Marlen Reusser all stated that the course wanted a time trial to make for a extra full stage race. ASO listened to the route suggestions, and this 12 months, included a time trial, which is able to shut out the eight days of racing in Pau.
The peloton will race a 22km time trial that incorporates a mid-route ascent and a slight rise to the end line.
Annemiek van Vleuten is a former two-time time trial world champion and the Olympic champion within the self-discipline, and there will likely be different robust time trialists desperate to safe the stage glory and transfer up within the total classification.
If the gaps within the normal classification are nonetheless shut sufficient after the day before today’s race up the Tourmalet, this time trial would be the closing check that would determine the general champion of the Tour de France Femmes.
Summer time heatwave
Temperatures have approached 40 levels Celsius out on the roads on the males’s Tour de France, the place riders have been battling via a summer season heatwave and ensuring to tackle ample water and put on ice vests to remain cool in the course of the gruelling levels via the mountains.
The temperatures will not be anticipated to ease for the Tour de France Femmes held the week instantly following the lads’s race, as temperatures in Clermont-Ferrand will likely be reaching 35 levels Celcius for the Grand Depart and solely get hotter because the peloton heads south into the Pyrenees.
Whereas some riders do high quality within the hotter temperatures, the summer season heatwave may affect others within the race.
These riders who arrive in Clermont-Ferrand after racing on the Giro d’Italia Donne may have develop into accustomed to the warmth, as temperatures soared in the course of the 9 days of racing throughout Italy.
Canyon-SRAM’s GC chief Kasia Niewiadoma for one stated she is ready for the warmth, and no matter else the Tour de France Femmes throws her approach subsequent week. “I need to arrive in France and absorb no matter power the race, the group and the followers will give me. I do know will probably be a tough race, busy days and sizzling climate!”
Labous leads French cost
The Tour de France Femmes may have loads of French riders who may shine on the roads between Clermont-Ferrand and Pau.
Juliette Labous has developed into one of many high stage racers on the planet, notably all through the final couple of seasons, as she has stepped as much as extra of a management position at Crew dsm-firmenich.
Including energy and resistance as the first targets in a brand new coaching routine signifies that Labous is hoping to enhance on all her performances this 12 months, and her foremost goal will likely be on the Tour de France Femmes after ending fourth total final 12 months.
She has taken one other step with a second total on the Giro Donne earlier this month and can take that high type up a notch at her residence race.
Different French riders to observe are Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Aude Biannic (Movistar), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Well being), Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), Typhaine Laurance and Margaux Vigie (Lifeplus Wahoo), Valentine Fortin (Cofidis), the St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 of Margot Pompanon, Camille Fahy, and Coralie Demay, and Crew Coop-Hitec Merchandise riders India Grangier and Lucie Jounier.
Relegation watch
The Girls’s WorldTour has entered the subsequent part of restructuring that has seen WorldTeams and Continental Groups in a battle for factors that can determine the 15 WorldTour groups in 2024.
The mixed factors accrued throughout the 2022 and 2023 seasons will likely be put towards the two-year system for the UCI World Rating, which is able to play a key position in figuring out which groups are both promoted, relegated or maintain their place among the many high tier of Girls’s WorldTeams.
Firstly of this season, there have been three WorldTour groups that discovered themselves in a relegation hazard zone, with Israel Premier Tech-Roland in 18th, Uno-X Professional Biking in twenty fourth and Human Powered Well being in twenty seventh based mostly on the UCI World Rating on the finish of the 2022 season.
Nonetheless, following the Giro d’Italia Donne and as we method the Tour de France Femmes, the group order has been reshuffled within the battle for factors collected for the reason that begin of January 2022. Some that have been in peril have moved up the rankings, others are nonetheless vulnerable to shedding their top-tier licences.
Not surprisingly, after a dominant season to date, SD Worx nonetheless sits within the high spot of the mixed 2022-2023 world rankings adopted by Lidl-Trek in second, Crew dsm-firmenich in third, FDJ-SUEZ in fourth, Movistar in fifth, Canyon-SRAM in sixth and UAE Crew ADQ in seventh.
Jumbo-Visma has moved up two spots to eighth, whereas Jayco AlUla remains to be in ninth. UAE Improvement Crew (previously Valcar Journey & Service) has moved down two spots to tenth however isn’t eligible to use for a top-tier licence.
EF Schooling-TIBCO-SVB stays in eleventh, however the group has confirmed to Cyclingnews that title sponsors TIBCO and Silicon Valley Financial institution will finish sponsorship on the finish of this season, whereas EF Professional Biking is about to launch a brand new girls’s group.
Additional down the rankings, Fenix-Deceuninck (previously Plantur-Pura) stays in twelfth, Continental-level Ceratizit-WNT has moved up one spot to thirteenth, Liv Racing TeqFind moved down one spot to 14th, and Continental-level AG Insurance coverage-Soudal-QuickStep moved up 4 spots to spherical out the highest 15 groups.
Uno-X has moved up from twenty fourth within the rankings to sixteenth whereas Israel Premier Tech has moved as much as seventeenth, and Continental-level group Lifeplus-Wahoo slipped from fifteenth to 18th. Continental-level group Parkhotel has dropped from three spots to nineteenth.
Human Powered Well being can be within the hazard zone although it has risen seven locations to twentieth.
Notice: UAE Improvement Crew (previously Valcar Journey & Service) and Canyon-SRAM Technology are aggressive among the many world rankings, too. Nonetheless as a result of they’re formally registered as growth programmes for his or her corresponding WorldTeams, they aren’t permitted to race on the similar occasions or apply for a top-tier licence in future.
The Tour de France Femmes marks the mid-point of the season and an necessary alternative for groups to achieve factors. The rest of the season will embody WorldTour occasions at Tour of Scandinavia, GP de Plouay, Simac Girls Tour, Tour de Romandie, Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi, together with a collection of .1-level and .2-level occasions late season.