Marta Cavalli back at the Tour de France Femmes with nothing to lose

Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) started the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as one of the favourites after a stellar season but her ambitions were brutally cut short when she crashed out of the race on stage and it seriously disrupted her season. Now, Cavalli returns to the Tour de France Femmes as one of seven riders in a strong FDJ-SUEZ line-up. 

In an exclusive interview with Cyclingnews, she opened up about the crash that took her out of last year’s Tour and troubled her for months afterwards, stopping her from getting the same results as in her break-out 2022 season when she won the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge and finished runner-up in the Giro d’Italia Donne.

“It was a hard crash. I was lucky because the injury wasn’t so bad in the end, but it took a couple of weeks to understand and see how I feel. The recovery was really slow after the concussion, and I had to build a lot of confidence again,” Cavalli explained. 

“From that moment we were working really hard to come back to the highest level. Now I can say that I’m really close, and I’m really happy to be back, but at the same time, there are many small things that we must improve because the level is really high now.” 

In the crash, the now-25-year-old Italian sustained head and lower body trauma including a concussion. She returned to racing in October 2022, just before the end of the season, and Cavalli’s early 2023 season was stop-and-go, taking a break after the UAE Tour and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before racing the Trofeo Binda, then returning for the hilly classics in mid-April where she had been so successful the year before.

“Now we are waiting for the results to be able to say, here I am, back at my best level, at the highest level of women’s cycling,” she said. 

“In the beginning, it was up and down, during the winter we worked really hard and thought everything looked okay. My shape was growing step by step in two training camps with the team, and everything looked good. But then when I went back to racing I kind of hit a wall. All these months without big races or big efforts, I think I paid for that a little bit. My level was very low.”

In the UAE Tour, Cavalli lost 31 seconds in the echelons on stage 2, and it began even worse on stage 3 where she started the Jebel Hafeet finishing climb more than two minutes down. 

The team confirmed at the time that Cavalli was still suffering from the aftereffects of the crash, mentally more than physically.

“I was really good on the climb, but I was struggling in the bunch and also mentally. I had to build confidence again, and with high speeds and echelons, it wasn’t easy for me. But after that, we literally saw that everything came back race by race, step by step. I just needed time to feel the high level again, the excitement in the bunch. 

“I had a good preparation for the summer, in the Tour Féminin Pyrénées I was able to do a good climb and win on Hautacam, that was a good boost of confidence for the Giro.”

In the Italian Grand Tour, Cavalli was consistent, but not quite at the same level as the top GC contenders and finished 14th overall, supporting her teammate Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig who placed sixth in the general classification.

“After the Giro last year where I finished second, there were a lot of expectations, not only from fans, not only from the team but also from myself. Sometimes during the last months, it was hard to accept because I can feel that my level was lower during the spring this year.”

Less pressure than in 2022

There is an upside to not having as phenomenal results as in 2022, though: This year, there is less pressure on Cavalli, and she feels that this freedom will be an advantage for her.

“I have nothing to lose in the Tour this year. I can only win because, with the exception of the Tour Féminin Pyrénées, the good days on the bike in the races were fewer than last year,” she said. 

“I am really motivated to do something interesting to pay off the work we did. I felt during the last days of training after the Giro that everything is going up, and my mind is free because I can ride without pressure. I already won a race this year. 

“The process to get back to where I was in 2022 could take one year, two years, we don’t know, but we keep working, we keep pushing, and especially we try to keep the motivation really high. I will be really happy if my Tour can be a success, not only for me, but also for the team, if I can be helpful for my teammates. I can set a lot of goals that will make me satisfied in the end.”

FDJ-SUEZ are bringing a strong squad for the Tour de France Femmes as Cavalli is joined by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Évita Muzic, Grace Brown, Vittoria Guazzini, Loes Adegeest, and Jade Wiel.

“The main idea is to play for the GC. We have three possible leaders, Cecilie, our first priority, Évita, and me,” Cavalli explained. 

“We will see how it goes during the first three to four stages. We will try to take opportunities because we don’t want to limit ourselves. If the legs are good, we will try to go for the stage, and if we will be in a good place in the GC, we will try to fight for that. 

“For the moment, the strategy isn’t clear-cut, and in my opinion, it’s not good to pick just one goal and go for that because we saw last year that we had the one plan, and in two days it all fell apart,” she expressed her preference for a more open-ended strategy.”

Unlike the 2022 edition, the 2023 Tour de France includes an individual time trial in and around Pau to finish the race. In Cavalli’s opinion, this is a good addition to the race.

“It makes everything more unpredictable after seven days of racing. And it will be our first experience because usually we have a TT during the first two or three days, it happens sometimes in the Giro, but now it’s really far into a Grand Tour.

“It comes after the Tourmalet which will already be a tough day for everybody. But we have two good TT riders, Vittoria and Grace. For Vittoria, it is her first race after the injury in April. But I think she’s in a good shape and she will be really useful for the team. It’s always a good card to have a rider like her because she can really make the difference in the team. She’s really strong, and she is also Italian, so I’m really happy that the team selected Vittoria.”