As the Women's Tour de France rolls out of the French city of Clermont-Ferrand on Sunday, the Netherlands' Annemiek van Vleuten, who has already won this year's Giro d’Italia and Vuelta cycling races, is back to defend her title. However, a host of contenders are hoping to unseat her before she retires at the end of this year. FRANCE 24 takes a look at van Vleuten and her main challengers.
Annemiek van Vleuten, reigning Women’s Tour de France champion
The Netherlands' van Vleuten won the first edition of the Women’s Tour de France at the age of 39 last year despite having a stomach bug during the first half of the race that nearly forced her to withdraw. She hopes to retain her title and keep the rainbow jersey worn by the reigning Tour de France champion before retiring at the end of this year. In 2022, she won the world’s three major cycling races: Spain's Vuelta, the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, and rounded off the year by winning the women’s world championship road race in Australia.
Known as "The Cannibal", van Vleuten expects tough competition: "I’m going to do everything I can to take part in the battle for the yellow jersey (awarded to the overall winner of the Tour de France) [...] All the stages are a bit tricky before this final weekend. There are six other stages where you have to be careful."
Throughout this race, she will be keeping an eye on fellow Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering, who she said has "demonstrated this year that she is the best and the big favourite for this Tour de France". Van Vleuten added: "She has beaten me before. It will be a challenge to beat her, but I’m ready."
Demi Vollering, number one challenger and a dispute to settle
This past spring, Vollering, backed by a strong team sponsored by SD Worx, celebrated a host of wins in one-day cycling races throughout Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, including the Strade Bianche cycle race in Tuscany.
Runner-up to van Vleuten last year, she is determined to beat her this year, especially following an incident at this year’s Vuelta that caused quite a stir: van Vleuten and her team deliberately sped up while Vollering was taking a bathroom break during the penultimate stage of the race. No doubt Vollering wants to make van Vleuten pay for this lack of sportsmanship.
Elisa Longo Borghini, the Italian from Trek
The Trek team, generally recognised as the best professional women’s cycling team, did not perform well at last year’s Women’s Tour de France. This year, it is pinning its hopes on its leader, Elisa Longo Borghini.
The Italian road and time trial champion is returning to the Women’s Tour de France following a terrible crash during stage five of this month’s Giro d’Italia, which forced her to pull out of the race. However, this fighter is not letting this hold her back and is hoping to do much better than her sixth place last year.
Juliette Labous, still the best Frenchwoman?
Fourth last year, Juliette Labous is probably still France's best chance at a podium finish or even overall victory on Sunday, July 30 in Pau, a city in southwestern France. The DSM-sponsored rider is in good form, as she finished second in this month’s Giro d’Italia behind van Vleuten, whose agressive tactics did not affect her performance.
On paper, the route suits her perfectly. There are a number of tricky stages where she could pick up seconds here and there: a "queen" stage with a finish at the Tourmalet mountain pass in the French Pyrenees that suits her climbing skills; a time trial as the grand finale, an added bonus for this former French champion and another area where she could potentially outdo her rivals.
Marta Cavalli, revenge on the line at the Women’s Tour de France
In the first edition of the Women’s Tour de France, Marta Cavalli was seen as the French cycling team FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope's trump card, as she had managed to briefly unseat van Vleuten during the Giro d’Italia a few weeks earlier. However, everything changed during stage two near Provins, a medieval town located southeast of Paris. Cavalli was hit hard by a rider as she was getting up after a fall and had to withdraw from the race due to a concussion.
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Mentally and physically affected, she had quite a struggle. Her team had faith in her and gave her the time she needed to get back on her feet, which ended up paying off. Her success in Hautacam during the Tour des Pyrénées race in June was a real wake-up call for Cavalli. She went on to put in a string of fine performances, coming within touching distance of the national titles in both the time trial and road race.
She returns to the Women’s Tour de France with a vengeance, as does the whole FDJ team. Once again this year, she shares the lead with Danish cyclist Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and can count on young French cyclist Évita Muzic as a wild card.
Other names to watch out for:
No list would be complete without Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), as she is the biggest winner in women’s cycling and the course is less mountainous this year. Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM-Racing), who came in third last year, will be looking to do just as well this year. She even skipped the Giro d’Italia at the beginning of this month to help her chances in the Tour de France. Finally, Veronica Ewers (EF Education), who came in fourth place in the Giro d’Italia, will be the best American cyclist competing in this race.
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This article has been adapted from the original in French.
