In three editions to date of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, no rider has gained the race twice. First, there was Annemiek van Vleuten, then Demi Vollering, and this yr, Kasia Niewiadoma, who clung to the yellow jersey by a thread on Alpe d’Huez.
Ought to Niewiadoma defend her title subsequent summer time, she’ll make historical past as the primary lady to take action for the reason that race’s reboot. It’s her “huge objective”, she stated, and after Tuesday’s route announcement, one for which she is now significantly excited.
Subsequent yr’s fourth version of the race will probably be its hardest and longest but. Now happening over 9 phases, up from eight, the course stretches throughout 1,165km, rising to a crescendo within the Alps, with the climbs of the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Joux Airplane.
“It’s a objective to deliver the yellow jersey residence once more,” stated Niewiadoma. “My huge objective is to change into a girl who wins the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift twice in a row, and I’m in the perfect place proper now to make that occur in 2025. The ultimate common classification can unfold at any level however the remaining three phases will probably be decisive for the general.”
For the 30-year-old’s Canyon-SRAM workforce, the will to win once more is similar.
“It’s one thing very particular, one thing very distinctive,” workforce supervisor Ronny Lauke instructed Biking Weekly. “To be sincere, when you might have skilled what this yellow jersey does to a workforce, and the eye it raises, the feelings all workers members undergo, you need to have it once more.
“It’s the most important race, the most important international model in our sport. While you go away as a winner, you might have probably the most prestigious color in your shoulders. The yellow does one thing to the individuals concerned in a workforce. Everyone want to have it once more. We’re not shy of claiming we purpose for the very best and the perfect, so we’re going for this. I feel we have now group of expertise that we will confidently say we need to win it once more.”
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Lauke’s first impressions of subsequent yr’s route are that it’s “effectively balanced” and can “supply a really fascinating bike race”.
“Kasia may be very optimistic. She likes the route. So due to this fact I’ve confidence,” he stated. “Now it’s as much as us to do the required homework and establish the correct group for this occasion, so we’re aggressive and an uncomfortable opponent, probably the most uncomfortable opponent that anybody can ask for.”
Niewiadoma’s profitable margin this August was the narrowest within the race’s three-year historical past, simply 4 seconds separating her and Vollering. The victory topped the Polish rider’s largest thus far, coming after a protracted dry spell between 2019 and 2023.
“With the Gravel World Championships in 2023, she ultimately gained her rainbow jersey, which, in my view, she deserved rather a lot. That was a turning level for her that additionally helped her to strategy the 2024 season another way,” Lauke stated.
“Many doubts have been erased that she carried inside her, and she or he was extra assured about herself, about what she will be able to obtain. I bought to know her when she was 24 years of age. Now, just a few years later, I can say that she has undoubtedly matured as a really mature lady, with a really mature strategy to her targets.”
Between now and the tip of winter, Niewiadoma and her Canyon-SRAM team-mates will relaxation, practice on Zwift, and journey to workforce camps in December and January. Then the season will begin, with the most important mark on the calendar towards the Tour de France Femmes, scheduled to start on 26 July in Brittany.
“I feel, general, there’s plenty of curiosity round what an extended race will deliver,” Lauke stated. “I feel it seems like it’s going to supply some drama, some smiles, some tears, every thing {that a} stage race can supply. We are going to attempt to be as ready as greatest as doable, and the riders will get pleasure from it.”
