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I quite enjoyed doing daily threads for the TdFF last year but I don't quite have the bandwidth for it this year, so here's a general purpose thread for everyone who wants to keep on top of it.
A quick recap of what's happened:
Stage 1 - Clermont Ferrand -> Clermont Ferrand
A mostly flat stage with a single Cat 3 climb before the finish. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) cementing her transition from sprinter to all round one-day racing powerhouse by attacking on said climb then holding off the peloton to the finish to take the first Maillot Jaune. As if to make a point to the rest of the peloton her team mate Lorena Weibes (still a sprinter) took the sprint for second. SD Worx are not here to play about.
Stage 2 - Clermont Ferrand - Mauriac
One of those tough stages with about 23 categorised climbs and 230 uncategorised ones. As expected the early breaks were swallowed up by a rampaging GC group. It pissed with rain and there were loads of crashes, inlcuding the eventual winner Liane Lippert (Movistar). Pretty sure this is the first race for about a year not won by SD Worx or Annemeik van Vleuten. A really exciting sprint for the finish, worth checking out the highlights if you can.
Anybody else been watching? What are your thoughts so far?
I've had to remind myself that the results sheets for womens races this year don't quite reflect the excitement of the racing - yes, SD Worx win everything but they're interesting when they do.
Oh, and I don't know if I'll be able to manage any previews or recaps each day so if anyone wants to jump in and do them then please do!
Watched (most of) Stage 1 on the big screen on the Champs Elysees as we waited for the finish of the Tour although commentary was obviously in French. Anyway I was still in Paris most of today so all I saw of today's stage was social media. Got quite a busy week work-wise this week but I'll be watching live where I can, highlights where I can't.
Definitely one to follow though! SD Worx are the equivalent of Jumbo Visma (men's team, I know they have a strong women's team too!) - they turn up with a host of National Champions from various countries and dominate! Good route this year as well, a much needed development away from that largely tokenistic "La Course" thing that's done the rounds in previous years.
I still think AvV is the one to beat though, defending champion from last year's TdFF & World Champion - just remains to be seen how Movistar Women's Team can hold against the might of Jumbo Visma and SD Worx. Tomorrow's a sprint day although slightly lumpy for the first half.
The first two stages have been really good. Kopecky is a monster. Today Eva van Art had a horrible looking accident sliding under the Armco barrier. Taken to hospital and the latest news is "only" concussion. It looked much worse at the time.
I'm rooting for Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio who seems to be maturing like a fine wine (say that in a South African accent). I suspect it'll be between van Vleuten and Vollering though. Hopefully Vollering will attack when vV stops for a piss.
It looked much worse at the time.
It was a horrible looking crash in tricky conditions, so the update is good news. It had echoes of Annemiek van Vleuten at the 2016 Olympics, so really glad she's OK.
Hopefully Vollering will attack when vV stops for a piss
That would be some proper karmic payback!
Another lumpy one today. I'm in the "anyone but SDWorx, anyone who isn't Dutch" camp. Nothing against the Dutch, they're just so dominant and I'd like to see some variety. Still, I think there were 9 different nationalities in the top 10 yesterday which is great.
I'm supporting Ashleigh MP (mainly because of her Zwift racing), Cecille Uttrup Ludwig, anyone British - great that there are 10 of them.
Hopefully Vollering will attack when vV stops for a piss
I'm already feeling weird for asking, but now I need to know.
The men call a temporary truce, or time it when the peloton is bimbling, so the chase back isn't anything of concern, or just pop it out the bottom of the shorts while going along, but all the group rides I've led when one of the ladies has called for a comfort break it means disappearing deep into the woods with a friend posted as lookout and bibshorts aren't conducive to it being an easy or fast process.
I of course don't need the details, but in terms of racing is the ladies comfort break more of the truce type? I have exaggerated the club stop for effect but I'd have though the stop would be longer, hence more chasing back if there isn't a truce, and also smaller teams with less cars and support vehicles to draft back to the group.
Why did you have to mention that and make me start thinking about it!!
I of course don’t need the details, but in terms of racing is the ladies comfort break more of the truce type?
I worked (driving) on the Women's Tour a couple of times and what tended to happen was there'd be a quiet bit of road alongside a field or something and there'd be bikes flung aside, bib shorts whipped down (they tend to have a quick release buckle or magnetic clasp on the lower back - undo that and just pop them down a bit) and umm... crouch.
You just sort of learned to look away but equally they didn't seem to care.
Guys can often do it on the move during a lull in the action so they all know that everyone else is doing it. Women's peloton, it's fairly easy to miss that a couple of riders have dived into the bushes or are crouching in a ditch so I don't blame AvV for attacking when she did, I bet she didn't even know that Vollering had stopped.
It's not all on AvV either, riders do have to understand that there are times you simply don't go - on the run in to a signature climb for example when everyone is jostling for position, you can't just ask everyone to wait up for a minute - that applies to Men's and Women's races equally!
The previews all seem to point to today bro g for the sprinters so it’s Vos (Dutch), Kool (Dutch) or Weibes (SD Worx, Dutch) as favourites. Sorry @beej
I'm rooting for a shock win for the break then!
I'd love to watch it, and my wife who has got into three weeks of the tour really wants to see it. But it's not available on ITV4, or any other free channel. She's furious about it - obviously the big way to get people watching women's sport is to make it freely available. But it isn't, we don't have TV subscriptions other than our license fee so we don't watch it.
I follow it on the Escape Collective, who are really great at women's racing, but it's not the same as watching it unfold in front of you.
<p>Absolutely agree. I feel like ASO could use their considerable clout to get TdFF free to air in more countries. Keeping it on GCN keeps it niche</p>
I’m hoping for a Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig win, if only to get one of her bonkers interviews !!
There were 10000 free GCN+ (UK) passes available to cover the duration of the Tour:
https://cyclingindustry.news/lifeplus-wahoo-offer-10000-free-gcn-tour-de-france-femmes-passes/
So there may well still be some available - not sure what it involved as I've got GCN+ already, but it seems like a nice offer to get more coverage of the Women's tour...
Bah.
Well I won't post the result but WHAT a thrilling finish!
Indeed!
The previews all seem to point to today bro g for the sprinters so it’s Vos (Dutch), Kool (Dutch) or Weibes (SD Worx, Dutch) as favourites.
Hope you had a bet on.
Well I won’t post the result but WHAT a thrilling finish!
Well it does say "spoilers" in the title so...
It was a good finish but I was rooting for Vos.
Whatch tommorow last 40 k's it has all to be an interesting finish. I would put Wout van Reusser in The front at the start of the Colombies climb the next one is a rolling one as well with a fast but smooth descent into lavernhe which is quite a notch harder. Last 500 m flattens out time to go big ring and then tailwind into rodez a nasty hidden hill to make or break and then the last little punchy climb of 500 m at 10 % into the finish you have to get the run in right. Strava gives away that many of the ladies recced these ones beforehand.
My money is on Demi Vollering(she should start getting some Boni seconds herself) second lippert third Ludwig. Would normally be a Vos stage but think she is only at 90% this year. Finish a bit to steep for Kopecky normally. Lets hope AVV makes her team ride if Marlen Van Aert is not allowed to make the racing hard as I would set it up.
Am afraid my plan is a bit optimistic as SD worx will want to save Reusser as a GC standby.
Edit I oversaw my former team mate so Moolman Pasio in third and bubly Danish dynamite Cecile U L in fourth for the Rodez finale
What a great finish today. Julie van de Velde definitely won, even if she didn't cross the line first.
Yet another example of SD worx winning but it not being boring. Really hope some more folk can land some punches on them before the Tour is over though. Not because I dislike them, but because dismantling strong teams always makes for fun racing.
Punchy ol' day on the cards for tomorrow's stage!
Flat (well it's listed as flat, it's actually got a few lumps in it) ride to Albi today, 126km. It's been used several times as a start or finish town in the Tour.
[img] https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-trf-jpg/tdff23-profils-web-fr-e-tape-5/29935/0:0,1500:899-960-0-90/49195 [/img]
Yesterday's breakaway win was good - they had a gap of over 10' at one point until the bunch woke up but it took a long chase to bring most of it back leaving Yara Kastelijn out front alone. She's a former European CX champion as well.
The unpredictable nature of the racing is making it really interesting.
terrific twitter footage of seeing her mum and dad just after the line. Great place for a first senior win!
It seems that the following group were unaware she was in front. Vollering celebrated thinking she had won the stage.
Exactly the same happened at the Olympic women's road race. Do women just have to accept second best comms, road closures, motos pushing them aside, and, and, and...?
I don’t think it was the same story as the Olympic road race - nobody has radios there.
I think it was just quite a chaotic finish with all the attacks and whatnot, and having two fairly unknown* riders on the same team up front probably made it harder.
it happens in big men’s races fairly often too - remember Philipsen celebrating into calias after Wout had been up the road last year?
*not any more. Fenix deceunink are having a brilliant tour. Seems as an organisation they’ve nailed the ‘turn CX riders into road beasts’ game
Is there anywhere to see a decent highlights package - we have GCN but it's either 4 minutes or 3 hours?
There's usually a highlights prog about 30 mins long on gcn?
Yes there are highlights on GCN of 30-40mins.
Great finish today.
Great finish today
Yep, another good stage.
Demi Vollering got a 20" time penalty for excessive drafting behind the team car though...
Loved the moto Commissaire wagging their finger and pretending to write the fine at the team car. Très bien!
Really great to see canyon sram getting back in the swing of things. Their kit makes me want to eat a fruit salad too.
Lizzie Banks on the cycling podcast reckons the fine for vollering was because she was drafting IN the convoy. Drafting up to the convoy is tolerated but once you reach the cars you have to stay in front of the team car for safety reasons.
Anyway, Vollering seems to race like a monster when she’s on the back foot so I expect this to fuel some fireworks in the coming days
UCI have now throw Stam off the race and fined him 500 Swiss Francs.... good decision.
Yep. They could've also take a stronger position with some of the motos yesterday though.
Another great stage today. This race has more good breaks than a buddy rich concert.
...and another DS off the race.
Phew, breathless after that one.
…and another DS off the race
The two Elisa's are out as well - Elisa Lingo Borghini and Elisa Bolsamo due to injury.
Just caught up with yesterday’s stage. After all the off-bike dramas with SD Worx it seems it all just came down to Demi Vollerings legs, which have pretty much vaporised everybody else.
Kasia Nieuwadoma was ride of the day for me. She knew she couldn’t match the big two faves so she just put herself in the best position possible. Really smart, brave riding and even though she didn’t get a stage win I imagine she’s pretty chuffed with herself.
There's a good summary of what was an excellent 8 days of racing here:
And Cyclist have got a "pick of the best" photos too:
https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/tour-de-france-femmes-2023