The 2023 Tour de France Femmes rolls out of Clermont-Ferrand on Sunday morning for a week of racing that climaxes in the Pyrenees, with a daunting summit finish on the towering Col du Tourmalet, followed by a flat, fast time trial centred on Pau.
Both stages are innovations in a race that was rebooted in 2022 by the Tour de France promoter, ASO, after a peripatetic existence for the past 30 years or so. The 2022 Tour de France Femmes, which started in Paris, as the men’s race ended, was a runaway success with both fans and sponsors.
