While the men's Tour de France gets underway this weekend the world's best female road cyclists, including Australian Grace Brown, are gearing up for the women's edition.
The women's eight-day race starts in Clermont on July 23, the same day the men's Tour arrives into the Champs-Elysees in Paris on the final leg.
Brown, who won silver in the time trial at the road world championships late last year and gold in the same event at the Commonwealth Games, was the best-placed Australian rider in last year's Tour, finishing 20th.
Dutch three-time world champion Annemiek van Vleuten was victorious after 1033 kilometres.
Brown will again have a domestique role for her professional team FDJ-SUEZ, but will have her own ambitions as well.
"Part of my role will be supporting my teammates, looking to get general classification result," the 30-year-old told AAP.
"The team is also keen for me to target some stage wins, and early in the race there might be some opportunities.
"The final stage of the time trial in Pau so that's probably my biggest target of the tour, that last stage."
Winner in January's Tour Down Under, Brown has been in good shape since but said racing hadn't gone her way - although she had some success last month winning the Bretagne Ladies Tour in France.
The 2022 Tour Femmes was a rebirth of the event, which was first held in 1955 but then not held again until 1984 when it was raced for six years before disappearing again.
Changes to the name and format saw different versions contested before it solidified its place in the racing calender last year and was embraced by the top cyclists and fans.
Brown said the unprecedented level of attention was a shock to riders and felt she would be better prepared for her second assault.
"The first one was new and we almost didn't know what to expect - we knew it was going to be a really big event but to what extent was still unknown," said Brown, the top-rated Aussie rider - man or woman - in the UCI world rankings,
"It was just on another scale compared to any other women's race and a lot of us weren't prepared for the level of media and the intensity of fans.
"You can be in top shape, but you also need to be prepared for all the other things that take energy from you and particularly from a mental perspective as there's a lot of extra stimuli.
"I think this year, going back to the event I will be a bit more aware that that's another factor I have to manage and I think that will help."
