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.
The 2023 edition is bigger, more adventurous and, with the inclusion of the Pyrenees and a time trial, a far sterner test. After an opening stage that loops out and back from Clermont-Ferrand, the peloton heads south into the hills of Cantal, Correze, Dordogne and Tarn with finishes in Mauriac, Montignac-Lascaux, Rodez and Albi.
After a flatter stage to Blagnac, in the suburbs of Toulouse, next Saturday’s Pyrenean stage takes in the climb of the Col d’Aspin before the 17km haul to the 2,110 metre summit of the Tourmalet.
The Tour de France Femmes race director, Marion Rousse, said the decision to move the start to Clermont-Ferrand was because, by starting in Paris, in 2022 “the baton has already been passed between the men and the women”. “By starting in Clermont-Ferrand, we can go straight into the Massif Central and we can have more dynamic and interesting stages right from the beginning. It also means we can easily head south and include the Pyrenees.”
The 2022 Tour did not include a time trial, something most in the peloton felt was a missing ingredient, and this year’s final stage, from Pau’s Place Verdun, south to the Pyrenean foothills and back is very similar to the 2019 men’s Tour time trial, won by Julian Alaphilippe.
“Yes, it’s true that we have added the high mountains, but we wanted to make it a little bit more historical,” said Rousse.
“The Tourmalet is a mythical climb and all the champions want to write their names into the record books by winning there. We didn’t have a time trial last year, but we know that to be the leader and the winner of a Grand Tour, you have to be the best in every terrain, including the time trial.”
The 2022 winner, Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar, will defend her title against stiff opposition with last year’s runner-up, Demi Vollering, again expected to be her main rival. But Van Vleuten, and also Vollering’s SD Worx team, may face stiffer opposition than a year ago, as the strength in depth of the women’s peloton continues to grow.
Among those likely to be in contention is the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini, of Lidl-Trek, third overall in June’s women’s Tour of Switzerland. Among her teammates is Lizzie Deignan, riding in her first Tour de France Femmes.
“I want to be a valuable key player in the team,” Deignan, the former world champion, said. “We really want Elisa to get on to the podium so I want to be able to contribute to that in a significant way.”
Deignan, a past winner of La Course, the Tour Femmes’ predecessor, said she had reconnoitred only the first of the eight stages. “Time has run out for me in terms of having the opportunity for me to recon stuff,” she said, “but the team has done much more.
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“I’ve ridden the Tourmalet in training so I know what to expect from that point of view. I’m pretty used to turning up at races and not knowing what’s coming. We have so much technology now that it’s not daunting to me.”
Deignan said she was enjoying finally racing in a women’s Tour de France. “There’s a different atmosphere to this race,” she said. “I thrive on pressure and a big occasion and hopefully that brings out my best.”
