Sounds from my understanding like she's being brought out of it, so they're reducing the drug dosage to gradually awaken her, rather than it being a completed process. Signs are positive though, it seems.
Tomorrow sees the next round of the Women's World Tour, the controversial revised edition of La Course which has me, as with many fans, highly ambivalent. It's still not a "proper" race, it's been shoe-horned in with little respect for the rest of the calendar, the women are still a mere warm-up act before the main show arrives as far as ASO are concerned and its length is paltry; on the flip side, it offers some much needed balance in the WWT by explicitly favouring the grimpeuses, the pursuit is an interesting if gimmicky experiment, and it will be in front of many fans as well as being well televised and thereby makes a difference from the status quo, enabling us to watch an all-out climb rather than, as we've had in recent years, extensive coverage of pan-flat circuit races like RideLondon, the Champs Elysées La Course and Doha while making do with heavily reduced highlights when exciting racing such as the Madonna della Guardia stage of the 2016 Giro is going on.
Coming so soon after the Giro which was of course won by the Dutchwoman, perennial women's cycling source Sarah Connolly jokingly described the format of La Course as "the Anna van der Breggen Invitational", however it is worth noting that on the present startlist which, with the race beginning early tomorrow morning, you'd hope is pretty up to date, the all-conquering Boels lineup does not include the WWT leader, which is somewhat surprising; neither Anna nor the team have posted anything to explain this, therefore I suspect there's an error as unless the Giro winner is sick there would be very little reason not to include her, given her skillset and the style of race. The other thing is if they've essentially submitted the same team as the Giro, with 7 riders, Anna is last alphabetically; I would expect one of the doms - most likely Brammeier - to make way given the short length of time before the base of the climb and that they'll want to keep their climbing arm intact - Megan Guarnier was the fourth strongest climber on the final stage of the Giro while Karol-Ann Canuel ran top 10 throughout.
The most obvious challengers, especially given the format, will be the two riders who proved themselves the strongest at the Giro alongside van der Breggen - Annemiek van Vleuten, who showed her best ever Giro form this season, for Orica, and Elisa Longo Borghini for Wiggle-High5. During the Giro, on each major climb the group thinned down to these three, and so it would not be surprising to see the same trio at the head of the field tomorrow. The former does not have Katrin Garfoot to call on, but at the Giro Amanda Spratt was her strongest colleague and the former national champion has finished top 5 of both Bira and the Giro this year so, though I don't think she'll have the firepower to win this, she will certainly place strongly or serve Annemiek well to set up a podium threat. Elisa has one of the péloton's purer climbers in Claudia Lichtenberg to call upon; the 2009 Giro winner isn't the explosive rider she was in her youth and is racing in her final season, but has picked up her umpteenth Giro top 10 this season despite an unfavourable parcours and with little terrain for her to be disadvantaged by being isolated or pushed back in the péloton, the Bavarian should prove a useful ally for the Italian champion.
Beyond those favourites, however, there are a couple who will be out to make amends for slightly disappointing Giro campaigns. WM3 are inevitably led by Kasia Niewiadoma, the Polish escaladora who lost the WWT leader's jersey after being slightly below her best in Italy, perhaps having gone a bit deeper than we thought to defend her lead in the Women's Tour coming off a minor knee injury; she was the best other than the dominant 3 on the early climbs but by the end of the race had seemingly been superseded by Guarnier and was unable to push higher than 7th on the GC. She's spent her time since the Giro training in the mountains of Catalonia and we know that if she feels remotely able she will attack, the question is whether she will have the legs to make such an attack stick. On the plus side, she does have the support of the most luxurious of domestiques, Marianne Vos. A collarbone injury abandoned Kasia to fighting for the jersey while isolated at the end of stages in Britain, and her first race back from injury was the flat and cobbled BeNe Tour, which means little as a form guide for La Course, but ultimately you can - and indeed should - never write off Eddy Merckx. Also trying to lay to rest the ghosts of a bad Giro is Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, another gifted climber who of course won Bira by demolishing a much stronger Orica team over the Jaizkibel; sickness ended her Giro prematurely but that does mean she has amends to make. As ever her best helper is likely to be Cille who is also liable to even further extend her WWT U23 jersey lead, although she wasn't quite as at home on the long climbs as the short to mid sized ones during the Giro.
Other teams' contenders are mostly outsiders. With Amialiusik out long-term, Canyon don't really have any major climbers on their roster save for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but the former World Champion in three disciplines hasn't raced on the road in three months, preferring to test herself in MTB. Her form is therefore a matter of guesswork. Shara Gillow is probably the most likely to upset the applecart from outside the major teams, having had a very strong Giro and being known as a strong rider for the medium mountain terrain - this may be a bit beyond her remit but she's certainly got the capability. For Alé-Cipollini, Janneke Ensing has been having a good season in the climbs, while Carlee Taylor is also capable. Sunweb have rested Rivera and, with many of their other threats being more classics-oriented, don't seem to be as likely to threaten the podium as in many WWT races, however Sabrina Stultiens is a capable climber who should place fairly well, while if she can bottle her 2016 Giro form Leah Kirchmann won't be too far back either. Astana likewise rest Arlenis Sierra; they will be relying on the likes of Olena Pavlukhina. Lotto will be somewhat disappointed as the flyer they took on last year's conqueror of Mont Ventoux, Anna Kiesenhofer, will likely have been in part with this race in mind, however Anna's withdrawal from the team and sport for personal reasons have obviously prevented that from coming to pass. For Lensworld, Tatiana Guderzo's form has been far from where she'd want it to be, but Tetyana Riabchenko nearly won the queen stage of the Giro, albeit a somewhat tame etapa reina. Cylance have the ever-aggresive Jasinska who will no doubt show herself at least on the early slopes, while perhaps the wildest wildcard will be BePink-Cogeas with the feted Nikola Nosková.
Proper full-size mountaintop finishes in women's cycling are relatively hard to come by, so for a bit of an idea what to expect I've dug out a few stages that can be at least partially comparable over the last few years.
Jaizkibel, Bira 2017: Moolman-Pasio strongest, van Vleuten & Merino, Garfoot, Duyck, Ludwig, Spratt, Nosková
San Miguel de Áralar, Bira 2017: van Vleuten outsprinting Nosková and Moolman-Pasio
Rio Olympic RR, 2016: van Vleuten & Abbott at the summit, van der Breggen, Longo Borghini and Johansson chasing
Mortirolo, Giro 2016: Abbott (now retired) strongest, chasing quartet of Longo Borghini, Guderzo, Lichtenberg and Guarnier, van der Breggen behind
Signora della Guardia, Giro 2016: Stevens (now retired) ahead of Guarnier, van der Breggen, Lichtenberg, Abbott, Guderzo, Niewiadoma
Planche des Belles Filles, Route de France 2015: Longo Borghini ahead of Neben, Lichtenberg, Riabchenko, Taylor
San Domenico di Varzo, Giro 2015: Abbott, van der Breggen, Oliveira, Guarnier, Moolman-Pasio, Cauz, Niewiadoma, Ferrand-Prévot
Given that there's no Pitel, Oliveira, Kiesenhofer, Tuhai or Merino, I didn't mention Mont Lozère or Mont Ventoux in the Tour de l'Ardêche last year.
***: van der Breggen, van Vleuten, Longo Borghini
**: Niewiadoma, Guarnier, Moolman-Pasio
*: Spratt, Lichtenberg, Canuel, Gillow
Wildcards: Ferrand-Prévot, Nosková
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