No underestimating defence challenge for overall leader Kasia Niewiadoma given duo of HC climbs ahead
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) in yellow on the wheel of Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) on stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Tour de France Femmes reaches its hotly anticipated finale on Sunday, with the fabled Alpe d’Huez climb bringing seven days and eight stages of great racing to its climax. It’s a climb that has long been synonymous with men’s cycling, used in the Tour de France 31 times and often known as one of the hardest and most iconic venues for the sport’s best battles.
Men’s racing saw it introduced in 1952, with the women’s Tour de France not getting their chance up the 21 famous bends until some 40 years had passed, at which point the Tour de France name had been scrapped and they were racing at the Tour cycliste féminin.
It was used twice in the race imagined by Pierre Boué - 1992 and 1993 - and won on both occasions not by the local French star Jeannie Longo but by the Dutch great Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel. It’s return is a huge milestone for women’s cycling and the whole women’s peloton.
2024 finally brings back the stunning Alpine ascent to women’s racing and as things currently stand, SD Worx-Protime will need more Dutch success from their superstar and defending Tour de France champion Demi Vollering, if she is to reclaim the yellow jersey from Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) after losing the maillot jaune due to a crash on stage 5.
Nicknamed the ‘Dutch Mountain’ and famously having a ‘Dutch corner’, expect the switchbacks to both honour the riders' names and turn orange for the likes of Vollering to be spurred on to victory.
It’s currently poised perfectly heading into the final queen stage, with Vollering sitting 1:15 down on Niewiadoma, a deficit that her teammate Mischa Bredewold was ‘confident’ she could make up on the 13.8km climb.
But it’s not just Alpe d’Huez that is set to ignite the racing, with a duo of hors categorie brutes lining the 149.9km route which kicks off from the finish location of stage 7 - Le Grand-Bornand.
Stage 8 brings the peloton to the toughest mountain stage that starts at Le Grand-Bornand and finishes atop the fabled Alpe d'Huez. The finale will include three major ascents starting with the Col de Tamié (9.5km at 4%), and then the Col du Glandon (19.7km at 7.2%) before reaching Alpe d'Huez (13.8km at 8.1%) where the overall champion will be crowned.
Glandon in the middle is a real killer of a climb, similarly seen often in the men’s Tour, and with the best of women’s racing entering its slopes with around 50km to go on stage 8, Vollering’s teammate Niamh Fisher-Black thinks the fireworks may start as early as there.
The valley in between is no joke, with the wind and weather en route from the crest of Glandon and Bourg d’Oisans, where the ascent of Alpe d’Huez will begin likely to play a role and put off any rider from taking it on solo.
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Tour de France Femmes 2024 stage 8 route profile(Image credit: ASO)
Tour de France Femmes stage 8 - Col du Glandon profile(Image credit: ASO)
Tour de France Femmes stage 8 - Alpe d'Huez profile(Image credit: ASO)
But Vollering and those around her do need to make up serious time having only one day to outdo Niewiadoma, who is no slouch in the climbs and is not to be underestimated. She’s been confident that yellow is her goal right from the start and worked well with Canyon to maximise her lead into Amnéville.
Niewiadoma was fantastic up the Col du Tourmalet in attacking fashion at last year’s Tour, only losing out to Vollering, however, the gap was significant at 1:58 and the Col d’Aspin, while hard in it’s own right, isn’t quite the beast that Glandon is as the penultimate climb.
Unlike those in the 90s, Alpe d’Huez is new territory for this peloton, with it being a dream for many like Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) and in some cases such as for newly-crowned Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly Cannondale), a source of inspiration.
“It’s really special because I remember being a junior cyclist and hearing about Alpe d’Huez so it’s really kind of one of those things you dream about for a long time,” Gigante told Cylingnews after stage 7. “But I never knew about any women racing up Alpe d’Huez when I was a junior so it’s really cool that I’ll be able to race up it tomorrow.”
“When I was deciding whether to leave my job to become a professional cyclist full-time, I took a cycling trip to Europe," Faulkner shared with Cyclingnews. "That was 2019. I biked from Nice to Milan with a group on that trip, it was about 10 days. We went up [Alpe d’Huez] all together. And it was on that trip where I decided I wanted to do this for a living, really.”
Alpe d’Huez has long been out of women’s racing but the Tour de France has brought it back. Hopefully, it becomes a mainstay as it has at the men’s Tour and builds a 72-year history of its own. But that all starts with tomorrow, and the battle between Vollering, Niewiadoma and the remaining 120 riders in the race, is set to be one for the ages - the day women’s cycling got back to Alpe d’Huez.
Climbs
Col du Tamié (9.5km at 4%) - category 2
Col du Glandon (19.7km at 7.2%) - hors categorie
Alpe d'Huez (13.8km at 8.1%) - hors categorie
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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
