The biggest talking points ahead of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes - Preview

The second edition of the Tour de France Femmes avez Zwift promises heated battles for the four special classification jerseys and eight stage wins on offer across the 956km of racing that begins on July 23 in Clermont-Ferrand.

Set in the Massif Central, the Grand Départ will kick off the Tour de France Femmes in the capital of the Auvergne region, welcoming 22 world-class teams – 15 WorldTeams and 7 Continental Teams – to compete for a total of €250,000 where the overall champion will earn €50,000.

The stakes are high and there is something on offer for everyone as the peloton race for the yellow leader's jersey sponsored by LCL, green points jersey sponsored by Škoda, polka-dot mountains jersey sponsored by E.Leclerc, white best young rider jersey sponsored by Liv, team classification sponsored by Krys, most aggressive rider sponsored by La Région Occitanie, plus of course the stage victories sponsored by Zwift.

Cyclingnews highlights the biggest talking as we look ahead to the eight days of racing, finishing with a Pau finale on July 30, that will crown the winner of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Cyclingnews will have live coverage of all eight stages of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, along with race reports, galleries, results, and exclusive features and news.

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of women's cycling.

The new benchmark

Expectations are high coming into the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after a momentous rebirth of the women's stages race, with the event organised under ASO's flagship Tour de France brand providing top-notch routes, organisation, fanfare and widespread viewership. In many ways, the eight days of intense racing has changed women's cycling forever.

In fact, recently released viewership data of the race last year revealed that it achieved a cumulative live audience of 23.2 million people. The Nielson Sports' report, compiled in partnership with title sponsor Zwift, aimed to understand the impact the inaugural race had on women's cycling worldwide. It aimed to use the data to analyse the positive growth and discussed how it can help grow women’s cycling participation

The numbers revealed strong increases in broadcast viewership, written coverage, audience profiles and social media across stakeholders in women's cycling.

The first edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes has indeed set a remarkable new benchmark in women's cycling, and so the question is whether the second edition will hit and surpass those targets in 2023.

Crowds and fanfare will undoubtedly pack the start and finish host cities, and once again line the roads on the 956km route to see the race action unfold right before them. 

They will also be able to watch the race live broadcast globally, and Cyclingnews has put together a How to Watch the 2023 Tour de France Femmes schedule for easy-to-find broadcasting times and locations.

Van Vleuten vs Vollering

One of the main conclusions from last year's historic Tour de France Femmes was the gap between Annemiek van Vleuten and her nearest rival last year Demi Vollering. 

Van Vleuten took the yellow jersey after a back-to-back rampage through the Vosges mountains – Le Markstein and La Planche des Belles Filles – in northeast France.  Vollering simply was not strong enough to challenge her compatriot for the yellow jersey on the climbs.

Van Vleuten's performance showed how much stronger she was on mountainous terrain than her rivals and some of the world's best climbers Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ), and Silvia Persico (Valcar), for example, finished between three and seven minutes down on the first big mountain stage and another 30 seconds to two minutes behind on the final day.

Van Vleuten attributed her strength over her opponents to her age and noted that she is older, by some 15 years, and more experienced in her training. She said that she had had more time to prepare her body to adapt to the demands of mountainous routes.

She also stated that, given more time, Vollering would also reap the benefits of slowly adapting to more training experience and overall racing experience. "It will come to you," Van Vleuten told Vollering.

Vollering appears to have closed that gap, at least from what we could see of her early season dominance at Strade Bianche, the three Ardennes Classics. She then came second overall at La Vuelta Feminine, Itzulia Women and the Tour de Suisse, plus won Vuelta a Burgos and the Dutch Championships.

The two riders had different approaches leading into this Tour de France Femmes, with Van Vleuten riding into form and winning a fourth overall title at the Giro Donne and Vollering opting to skip the Italian stage race for altitude training instead.

Only the roads to Pau, which will take the peloton south into the Pyrenees and over the iconic Col du Tourmalet, will reveal how much of that gap Vollering has closed to Van Vleuten, and whether or not it is enough to claim the maillot jaune.

Sprinters' delight

There is plenty of anticipation ahead of the race for the yellow jersey, but the opening stages of the eight-day race are going to lend well to a full-on battle for stage wins and green-jersey points among the sprinters.

Marianne Vos returns with Jumbo-Visma to defend her green jersey and she will be going up against the fastest woman in the peloton Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx), possibly also teammate Lotte Kopecky, along with Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich), and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) if she has the green light to begin racing again after recovering from a crash earlier this year.

There are plenty of other sprinters to watch, too, such as Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM Racing), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Team Jayco AlUla), and Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ).

ASO describes the route profiles as flat for stage 1 into Clermont-Ferrand, stage 3 into Montignac-Lascaux, stage 5 into Albi and stage 6 into Blagnac, with hilly stages in between. These offer opportunities to the sprinters before the race finishes with the Tourmalet on stage 7 and a time trial in Pau on stage 8.

The battle for the green jersey could become one of the most riveting classifications to follow at the Tour de France Femmes.

Col du Tourmalet showstopper

Fans were treated to back-to-back mountain stages through the Voges last year, but this year brings the peloton over the iconic Col du Tourmalet which will undoubtedly become the crowning moment of this year's Tour de France Femmes.

Race director Marion Rousse has stated that even though the first year of the Tour de France Femmes was a success, ASO, could not rest on its laurels when it came to designing a route, and she believes that the back-to-back Col du Aspin and Col du Tourmalet on stage 7 will add to the history of the women's stage race.

"It won't have escaped you that we go to the high mountains, the Pyrénées, with the climb of Col d'Aspin and then the Col du Tourmalet. Really, with the idea of inscribing the Tour de France Femmes in history," Rousse said.

Indeed, the Col du Aspin and Col du Tourmalet are likely to be the places where the overall classification contenders will make their marks on the battle for the yellow jersey.

If last year tells us anything about how this race could play out in the mountains, we can expect to see Annemiek van Vleuten making the most of this stage, as she did atop Le Markstein and La Planche des Belles Filles. Her rivals will know what to expect and so gaining time in other areas of the race will be key to staying in contention.

The 90km route will begin in Lannemezan and tackle the Col d'Aspin (12km at 6.5%) first before the final ascent to the Col du Tourmalet (17km at 7.3%), marking the most decisive stage of the event.

A race against the clock

Ask and you shall receive. Last year's Tour de France Femmes route included almost every type of terrain for almost every rider, but if there’s one thing the riders and teams felt was missing at the race, it was a time trial. 

Specialists Ellen van Dijk, Joss Lowden and Marlen Reusser all said that the course needed a time trial to make for a more complete stage race. ASO listened to the route feedback, and this year, included a time trial, which will close out the eight days of racing in Pau.

The peloton will race a 22km time trial that features a mid-route ascent and a slight rise to the finish line. 

Annemiek van Vleuten is a former two-time time trial world champion and the Olympic champion in the discipline, and there will be other strong time trialists eager to secure the stage glory and move up in the overall classification.

If the gaps in the general classification are still close enough after the previous day's race up the Tourmalet, this time trial will be the final test that could decide the overall champion of the Tour de France Femmes.

Summer heatwave

Temperatures have approached 40 degrees Celsius out on the roads at the men's Tour de France, where riders have been battling through a summer heatwave and making sure to take on ample water and wear ice vests to stay cool during the gruelling stages through the mountains.

The temperatures are not expected to ease for the Tour de France Femmes held the week directly following the men's race, as temperatures in Clermont-Ferrand will be reaching 35 degrees Celcius for the Grand Depart and only get warmer as the peloton heads south into the Pyrenees.

While some riders do fine in the warmer temperatures, the summer heatwave could have an effect on others in the race. 

Those riders who arrive in Clermont-Ferrand after racing at the Giro d'Italia Donne will have become accustomed to the heat, as temperatures soared during the nine days of racing across Italy.

Canyon-SRAM's GC leader Kasia Niewiadoma for one said she is prepared for the heat, and whatever else the Tour de France Femmes throws her way next week. "I want to arrive in France and soak up whatever energy the race, the team and the fans will give me. I know it will be a hard race, busy days and hot weather!"

Labous leads French charge

The Tour de France Femmes will have plenty of French riders who could shine on the roads between Clermont-Ferrand and Pau. 

Juliette Labous has developed into one of the top stage racers in the world, particularly throughout the last couple of seasons, as she has stepped up to more of a leadership role at Team dsm-firmenich.

Adding power and resistance as the primary targets in a new training regimen means that Labous is hoping to improve on all her performances this year, and her main target will be at the Tour de France Femmes after finishing fourth overall last year.

She has taken another step with a second overall at the Giro Donne earlier this month and will take that top form up a notch at her home race.

Other French riders to watch are Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Aude Biannic (Movistar), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health), Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), Typhaine Laurance and Margaux Vigie (Lifeplus Wahoo), Valentine Fortin (Cofidis), the St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 of Margot Pompanon, Camille Fahy, and Coralie Demay, and Team Coop-Hitec Products riders India Grangier and Lucie Jounier.

Relegation watch

The Women's WorldTour has entered the next phase of restructuring that has seen WorldTeams and Continental Teams in a battle for points that will decide the 15 WorldTour teams in 2024. 

The combined points accumulated across the 2022 and 2023 seasons will be put toward the two-year system for the UCI World Ranking, which will play a key role in determining which teams are either promoted, relegated or hold their position among the top tier of Women's WorldTeams.

At the start of this season, there were three WorldTour teams that found themselves in a relegation danger zone, with Israel Premier Tech-Roland in 18th, Uno-X Pro Cycling in 24th and Human Powered Health in 27th based on the UCI World Ranking at the end of the 2022 season.

However, following the Giro d'Italia Donne and as we approach the Tour de France Femmes, the team order has been reshuffled in the battle for points collected since the start of January 2022. Some that were in danger have moved up the rankings, others are still at risk of losing their top-tier licences.

Not surprisingly, after a dominant season so far, SD Worx still sits in the top spot of the combined 2022-2023 world rankings followed by Lidl-Trek in second, Team dsm-firmenich in third, FDJ-SUEZ in fourth, Movistar in fifth, Canyon-SRAM in sixth and UAE Team ADQ in seventh.

Jumbo-Visma has moved up two spots to eighth, while Jayco AlUla is still in ninth. UAE Development Team (formerly Valcar Travel & Service) has moved down two spots to tenth but is not eligible to apply for a top-tier licence.

EF Education-TIBCO-SVB remains in 11th, but the team has confirmed to Cyclingnews that title sponsors TIBCO and Silicon Valley Bank will end sponsorship at the end of this season, while EF Pro Cycling is set to launch a new women's team.

Further down the rankings, Fenix-Deceuninck (formerly Plantur-Pura) remains in 12th, Continental-level Ceratizit-WNT has moved up one spot to 13th, Liv Racing TeqFind moved down one spot to 14th, and Continental-level AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep moved up four spots to round out the top 15 teams.

However, teams Liv Racing-TeqFind and Jayco-AlUla announced a merger, with a development team created in 2024.

Uno-X has moved up from 24th in the rankings to 16th while Israel Premier Tech has moved up to 17th, and Continental-level team Lifeplus-Wahoo slipped from 15th to 18th. Continental-level team Parkhotel has dropped from three spots to 19th.

Human Powered Health is also in the danger zone even though it has risen seven places to 20th.

Note: UAE Development Team (formerly Valcar Travel & Service) and Canyon-SRAM Generation are competitive among the world rankings, too. However because they are officially registered as development programmes for their corresponding WorldTeams, they are not permitted to race at the same events or apply for a top-tier licence in future.

The Tour de France Femmes marks the mid-point of the season and an important opportunity for teams to gain points. The remainder of the season will include WorldTour events at Tour of Scandinavia, GP de Plouay, Simac Ladies Tour, Tour de Romandie, Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi, along with a series of .1-level and .2-level events late season.