The boys’s Tour de France is over, the Olympic Video games are wrapping up however that is no time to show off the highlight, because the stage is ready for one more enthralling battle on the Tour de France Femmes.
The third version of the race begins within the Netherlands on Monday, August 8, earlier than working its method again towards the Alps and a vital remaining two days within the mountain, with Alpe d’Huez the crowning glory. Defending champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) often is the outright favorite, however there are many others which might be set to play a major position – together with a contingent of 13 riders from Australia and New Zealand.
A few of these will likely be chasing their possibilities for stage victories, and maybe giving one of many nations its first Tour de France Femmes stage victor, whereas others will likely be devoted to serving to their teammates. Both method – whether or not they’re lining up for his or her first or final Tour de France Femmes – the sturdy group of riders from Australia and New Zealand won’t go unnoticed because the peloton weaves its method throughout the 946km course from Rotterdam to the highest of Alpe d’Huez.
Cyclingnews takes a more in-depth take a look at the 9 riders from Australia and 4 from New Zealand anticipated to – based mostly on the preliminary begin checklist – line up on the race that attracts the eyes of the biking world from August 12-18.
Australia
Grace Brown eventually 12 months’s Tour de France Femmes (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Just a few months in the past the Australian introduced her plans to retire on the finish of this season with the closing comment of ‘let’s see if I can log out in type’. It doesn’t matter what comes subsequent as Grace Brown strains up for her third Tour de France Femmes, the gold medal hanging round her neck after the time trial on the Olympic Video games means she has delivered in spades.
Nonetheless, although the ultimate months of her profession are shortly counting down and the top she has already reached is lofty, there’s nonetheless a lot using on this remaining Grand Tour with there being no query about simply how essential the race is to her French-based squad. The stage 3 time trial in all probability gives her the very best alternative to provide her FDJ–SUEZ crew the stage victory it’s pursuing on the Tour de France Femmes, although stage 4 is also a chance because the highway to Liège has been variety to Brown this 12 months, with the 32-year-old profitable Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Might. Her position, past that, is more likely to be in assist as FDJ-SUEZ has two sturdy choices for the mountains and general, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig – who has had just a few hurdles with harm this season – and Évita Muzic. Serving to a French crew to success on the Tour de France, no matter whether or not that’s by incomes high stage outcomes herself or serving to out within the GC cost, will win her loads of wholehearted cheers from the native followers on the roadside as she waves goodbye.
Neve Bradbury profitable on Blockhaus on the Giro d’Italia Ladies (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
It might be the primary time Neve Bradbury has lined up on the Tour de France Femmes, however she is doing so with some critical outcomes behind her. Blockhaus was a stage of the Giro d’Italia Ladies that stood out as quickly because the route was introduced as delivering one of the crucial difficult climbing levels the Ladies’s WorldTour had seen – and Bradbury gained it. When Cyclingnews spoke to her earlier than that spectacular Giro stage win Bradbury stated “when it is fairly laborious, fairly late, everybody’s drained – that is often what would go well with me fairly effectively.”
The identical state of affairs she described as suiting her on the Giro – of laborious levels late – applies simply as a lot with the twin mountain stage finale of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, which concludes on the high of Alpe d’Huez. Nonetheless, her position on the race is totally different from that on the Giro, the place she was a pacesetter and completed third general. Teammate Kasia Niewiadoma has clearly earned the whole-hearted assist of her squad by ending third on the French Grand Tour within the final two editions, so Bradbury’s focus will seemingly be to bury herself for her crew chief when the terrain hits the mountains and maybe, on the similar time, collect the expertise which will sooner or later assist her be that chief on the largest race on the calendar. Though if issues do not go to plan for Niewiadoma, she is also a helpful plan B this time round.
Amber Pate and Ruby Roseman-Gannon on the Tour of Britain (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The Australian champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon and her teammate Amber Pate will likely be lining up for the nation’s solely Ladies’s WorldTour squad. Each will likely be taking over their second version, with Pate lining up in 2023 whereas Roseman-Gannon made her debut in 2022, her first 12 months as knowledgeable. Roseman-Gannon has amassed loads of expertise since and has actually constructed up her outcomes by this season, claiming the nationwide criterium and highway race title firstly after which additionally choosing up her first Ladies’s WorldTour stage win alongside the best way on the Tour of Britain. She’ll be chasing one other on the Tour de France Femmes
“After I did the 2022 Tour de France Femmes, it actually felt like the most important race I’ve ever achieved, simply as a result of variety of spectators and media curiosity,” stated Roseman Gannon within the crew’s pre-race media launch. “It was a very unimaginable ambiance and I’m excited to come back again this 12 months with two extra years of coaching and expertise.”
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In her pursuit of stage wins, Pate will likely be a powerful ally, simply as she was when the Australian Champion claimed the remainder of her three victories up to now this 12 months.
Amanda Spratt on the Tour de Suisse (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The expertise of Amanda Spratt is a beneficial asset in a Grand Tour with the rider who has twice completed on the general podium of the Giro d’Italia Ladies lining up as a robust assist rider on the climbs for one of many strongest groups going up in opposition to defending champions SD Worx-Protime. The 36-year-old completed within the high ten general final 12 months, when she needed to take up the mantle after GC hope Elisa Longo Borghini needed to depart the race proper earlier than the essential stage ending on the Col du Tourmalet. This time, too, the Italian has needed to change her race plans, however earlier than the beginning after a pre-race coaching crash, although there are others which might be anticipated to steer the crew cost this time.
Longo Borghini – who took the maglia rosa on the Giro d’Italia – had timed her peak to start in Italy and on condition that was at all times going to be laborious to keep up by the Olympic Video games and onto the Tour de France Femmes so different choices have been in focus. The small period of time trialling and two remaining mountain levels with summit finishes may play into the arms of succesful climber Gaia Realini and Shirin van Anrooij can also be one other GC possibility, one who would not have fairly the identical climbing report however has the traits to doubtlessly carve out a bonus by the opening levels. The climbing energy of Spratt may very well be a beneficial piece of the puzzle that helps put on down rivals and preserve the energy of her teammates for these essential moments.
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Sarah Roy at Itzulia Ladies in 2024(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Josie Talbot on the Tour de France Femmes in 2023(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Sarah Roy will likely be lining up for her second Tour de France Femmes with the French crew and so will Josie Talbot. The Australian pair’s greatest possibilities for a high consequence come on the punchy terrain of stage 4 and stage 5. Each are exhibiting strong kind to benefit from the alternatives which will crop up. Roy, the 2021 Australian highway champion, this season took her first victory since claiming the nationwide title, profitable stage 2 of the two.1 ranked Bretagne Women Tour.
Talbot has been elevating the bar in her second season with Cofidis, taking victories at La Périgord Women and on stage 3 of the Tour Féminin Worldwide des Pyrénées. The rider will likely be hoping to maintain up the sturdy run as she heads towards a brand new crew, Liv-AlUla-Jayco, subsequent 12 months.
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Sarah Gigante on Willunga Hill on the Ladies’s Tour Down Below(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Anya Louw on the Tour of Flanders(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Even earlier than the rebirth of the ladies’s Tour de France was confirmed, the thrill on the potential for it to be launched was clear when Cyclingnews spoke to Sarah Gigante in regards to the prospect. Again in 2021 when the then 20-year-old was within the extraordinarily early levels of her skilled racing profession, it appeared clear that this was an occasion the place the potential for her to make a mark on the race sooner or later was clear as this was a rider that embraced large challenges, lengthy robust climbs and will ship a strong time trial as effectively. The Melbourne-based rider, nonetheless, hasn’t but had an opportunity to line up on the occasion, however that’s set to vary.
Gigante is ready to make her debut within the third version of the race, starting to assemble expertise within the French Grand Tour with AG Insurance coverage-Soudal. It needs to be one other large step in what’s her fifth 12 months as knowledgeable however, given a horrible run with interruptions, is her first strong European season. 2024 began with the dream win on the girls’s Santos Tour Down Below, with the general and stage victory clinched with a spine-tingling run up Willunga HIll, and has continued with strong outcomes. As she returns to racing, after having not pinned a quantity on for the reason that finish of June, regardless of the outcomes lining up on the Tour de France Femmes will likely be one other dream realised. Expertise is more likely to be the massive goal on this version, however who is aware of within the years to come back.
Anya Louw can also be anticipated to affix Gigante on the beginning line in 2024, having already taken on the occasion in 2022. The 23-year-old who got here by the ranks with Gigante in Australia has proved an ever dependable teammate and is sure to fill that position once more.
New Zealand
Niamh Fisher-Black on the Giro d’Italia Ladies (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
The mountains of the Tour de France Femmes are lastly calling for Niamh Fisher Black. The rider from New Zealand has lengthy proven huge climbing energy – ending within the high ten general on the final 4 editions of the Giro d’Italia Ladies –the likes of which in most groups would have seen her lining up on the French race way back. Fisher Black, nonetheless, is racing for the world’s high crew, SD Worx-Protime, which at all times appears to have an countless array of choices for almost any state of affairs. This time, nonetheless, the 23-year-old rider from New Zealand will get her likelihood to journey the Tour de France Femmes.
Fisher-Black might have had the choice of chasing her personal alternatives on the Giro in July, however there isn’t a doubt in regards to the focus of the crew in August on condition that Demi Vollering heads the road up not simply as defending champion but additionally the clear-cut favorite. Vollering has already sailed away to victory at La Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Ladies, Vuelta a Burgos and on the Tour de Suisse this 12 months and within the mountains will probably be Fisher-Black she will likely be relying on to be a key ally.
Kim Cadzow and Kristen Faulkner at La Vuelta Femenina (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Kim Cadzow is lining up for her first Tour de France Femmes with an EF Oatly-Cannondale squad that’s sure to be aggressive in pursuit of stage wins. “My objective is to get caught into the racing,” stated Cadzow in a crew announcement. “I need to benefit from the expertise and assist the crew as greatest as attainable.”
Cadzow will likely be lining up alongside a number of potential stage winners, together with the two-time Paris Olympic gold medallist Kristen Faulkner, however with the 12 months the rider from New Zealand has had, it will be no shock if she was additionally given assist to chase her personal alternatives. This season up to now an general and stage win on the Trofeo Ponente in Rosa in March led right into a sixth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a high ten general at La Vuelta Femenina as ample proof of simply what potential the 22-year-old must be a robust pressure. She can also be clearly coming into the race with some sturdy kind, having taken seventh on the Olympic Video games time trial.
Mikayla Harvey on the Tour de Suisse 2024 (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
It’s a debut Tour de France Femmes for Mikayla Harvey, who ought to show a helpful all-rounder for UAE Workforce ADQ. The 25-year-old, who got here fifth general on the Giro d’Italia Ladies in 2020 and sixth general on the UAE Tour Ladies in 2023, is predicted to line up alongside Erica Magnaldi and Silvia Persico.
Magnaldi was final 12 months thirteenth general on the French Grand Tour and likewise got here fifth general on the Giro d’Italia Ladies whereas Persico has taken to the stage podium thrice on levels of the Tour de France Femmes and completed fifth general in 2022, with the race an actual breakthrough for the rider who was then at Valcar-Journey & Service. As such, Harvey is more likely to discover herself in a assist position a lot of the time significantly given it hasn’t been a season the place she has repeatedly been pushing to close the highest of the outcomes sheet.
Michaela Drummond at Gent-Wevelgem 2024 (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Michaela Drummond will likely be making her debut on the race with a French crew, with the load of the dash expectations for the squad on her shoulders for the primary two sprinter-friendly levels. It has been a powerful season for the 26-year-old, with a win within the nationwide championships criterium, at Région Pays de la Loire Tour Féminin and two stage victories on the Volta a Portugal Feminina in July.
Sill the rider from the Continental Workforce will likely be entering into an entire new tier on the Tour de France Femmes, with Arkea B&B Lodges one of many wildcard entrants. The benefit of that, nonetheless, is that she will likely be free to fly underneath the radar as she chases no matter alternatives might come her method.
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