Organisers of the Tour de France have announced the 2021 route for both the Grand Tour and the women's WorldTour event, La Course by Le Tour de France, on Sunday, revealing that the women will endure their toughest challenge yet with six trips up the Mûr-de-Bretagne.
La Course by Le Tour de France will be 130km long in total, with five circuits on the same day as the Tour de France men's stage 2.
The women will finish on the Mûr de Bretagne, a 2km long climb averaging a 6.9 per cent gradient, but pitching up over 10 per cent in the first kilometre.
The eighth edition of La Course is the longest in the event's history, and arguably the hardest. In the past it has been run on the Champs-Elysées circuit for the first three years, then on the Col d'Izoard in 2017. The next year's finale on Le Grand-Bornand was the most memorable, with Annemiek van Vleuten chasing down compatriot Anna van der Breggen and denying her the win at the last.
In 2019, the race was held on a hilly circuit in Pau, won by Marianne Vos, while this year's race took place in Nice, with Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) winning from a small bunch sprint.
