Tour de France Tour de France Femmes 2023 (July 23rd-30th)

[Unchained]

Congrats to Demi - She's the new Queen of Road cycling
Niewiadoma is the rising star

Some very strong performances.. Great racing.. UCI needs to work on depth. @1 week looks like a good sweet spot for the current women's bunch..

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Some very strong performances.. Great racing.. UCI needs to work on depth. @1 week looks like a good sweet spot for the current women's bunch..

One week seems fine (I prefer the 10 day no rest day format of the Giro for most of the last 2- years) but if so they need more varied parcours so it's covering all the bases; there was way too much of this one that was just negotiating into position ready for the final weekend; both editions of the TdFFaZ so far have been like that, a one week race where realistically all the gaps are created on the last two days. I am happy to see a race with a proper ITT for balance, however, but would have liked another medium mountain stage rather than another interchangeable hilly-to-rolling one.

 

[Red Rick]

I hope they realise they did their "Mythical MTF in TdFF" and don't feel the need to do it every year.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I hope they realise they did their "Mythical MTF in TdFF" and don't feel the need to do it every year.

What do you mean? They already had the Super Planche last year!

 

[Izzyeviel]

hopefully they'll do Ventoux & Alpe D'Huez next year.

 

[Red Rick]

What do you mean? They already had the Super Planche last year!

That sends chills down my spine

 

[Samu Cuenca]

That sends chills down my spine

It's quite likely they'll ride it again next year, unless some Dutch people are willing to pay more for a Super Col du VAM "MTF".

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I hope they realise they did their "Mythical MTF in TdFF" and don't feel the need to do it every year.

I don't mind it as long as it isn't the only mountain stage. I quite liked when the Giro did that for a bit.

However PdBF is not a mythical MTF, it's just a mediocre cat.1 recent fad climb that is stupendously overused.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

A few days before the race started I visited a Dutch amusement park, where I spotted someone who looked like a very out of shape Annemiek van Vleuten, so I wasn't actually surprised she missed the podium to be honest.

 

[dobrien]

Enjoyed this Tour a lot, especially the multiple breakaway winners (even if they may have been due in part to poor chase tactics....).
Really liked the length and design of Stage 4; more of that please.

Props to Demi; far and away the strongest, the deserving winner.
Great riding also by Kasia to take the 'Polska' dots; really loved her aggression on Saturday.
Kopecky was the revelation; I did not see that coming from her.
Very happy to see Reusser take the TT; one of my favorite riders despite her being part of the 'evil empire'.
AVV- Was bummed to see her lose the podium but yesterday obviously was a crusher for her. , great great champion but the curtain
is coming down. What a career.

Kind of competing interests for me at the moment vis a vis course vs the depth of the field. I'd like to see 10 days with another medium
mountain stage say a few days in, the problem of course being the ridiculously unbalanced strength of SD and an imperious Demi with
no realistic rivals on the horizon. Would hate to see the race become even more of a bloodbath but I've always been a bit of a 'build it
and they will come' type of person. Create a route truly worthy of being called 'Tour de France' and hope it's not too many years before
some other young stars come through the pipeline, and hope the exposure is enough to lure some bigger $$$ teams to the sport? Don't
know the answer, but at the moment the lack of balance is not helping. Just my .02 of course.

 

[hfer07]

One week seems fine (I prefer the 10 day no rest day format of the Giro for most of the last 2- years) but if so they need more varied parcours so it's covering all the bases; there was way too much of this one that was just negotiating into position ready for the final weekend; both editions of the TdFFaZ so far have been like that, a one week race where realistically all the gaps are created on the last two days. I am happy to see a race with a proper ITT for balance, however, but would have liked another medium mountain stage rather than another interchangeable hilly-to-rolling one.

agreed.
What about 12-day race with a rest day in the middle?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

agreed.
What about 12-day race with a rest day in the middle?

Hey, that'd be great. I'd love the Volta a Portugal format (11 stages with a rest day) so we get two full weekends, and perhaps the ideal in the long term would be 14 stages (so starting on the Sunday with a prologue on the Champs Elysées to tie the men's and women's races together) and a rest day after stage 8. But we're a way away from that.

And all signs point to next year's race being an absolute travesty, even more backloaded than the last two, flat as all hell for most of its duration and with the return of PDBF because woe betide we go six months without seeing it.

 

[awavey]

the problem of course being the ridiculously unbalanced strength of SD and an imperious Demi with
no realistic rivals on the horizon. Would hate to see the race become even more of a bloodbath but I've always been a bit of a 'build it
and they will come' type of person. Create a route truly worthy of being called 'Tour de France' and hope it's not too many years before
some other young stars come through the pipeline, and hope the exposure is enough to lure some bigger $$$ teams to the sport? Don't
know the answer, but at the moment the lack of balance is not helping. Just my .02 of course.

Im not as worried that SDWorx are that strong, because we seem to have spent the past 8 days complaining about all the things they dont do right and get wrong and the intra team personality clashes that upset their harmony, no other team in the WWT gets that much grief, well apart from FDJ but you notice Cecilie still ended up with a top 10 finish in the end, which was probably their aim at the start.

Demi I think was absolutely the best rider of the Tour, but shes had the ultra focus and commitment to winning this race (and that meant winning it based on the route, not just to be pleasing the crowds) from the start of this year, maybe even longer than that, she would have been hard to beat whichever team she was riding for.

but if the other teams, and this was a criticism I had of them when AvV was winning all the time too, commited more to trying to beat SDWorx, or the rider winning the most than just accepting theyre going to win, they might actually win more stages themselves, the breakaway winning stages proved that, and then SDWorx wouldnt be that strong, and the cracks in their setup would open up wider. Doesnt mean Demi isnt still a very strong rider, but there are too many teams and riders in the WWT imo whose focus is from the outset well SD Worx cant be beat so settle for the points paying positions instead and thats why you get the odd tactics in stages that favour how SD Worx ride, even if they get their timing wrong sometimes.

I dont think we have to wait for the next generation of riders to come through, but teams need to be honest about their goals in these types of races and pick rosters of riders that will compete

 

[Kaptain Kool]

IMHO the first 6 stages were fine leading into the stage 7 queen stage. The biggest fault is inexplicably ending with the ITT. Why would you do that? The last stage, on a weekend when you can bring in visitors? I wouldn't have watched it even if the GC was in doubt. And they think casual fans will?

 

[yaco]

Enjoyed this Tour a lot, especially the multiple breakaway winners (even if they may have been due in part to poor chase tactics....).
Really liked the length and design of Stage 4; more of that please.

Props to Demi; far and away the strongest, the deserving winner.
Great riding also by Kasia to take the 'Polska' dots; really loved her aggression on Saturday.
Kopecky was the revelation; I did not see that coming from her.
Very happy to see Reusser take the TT; one of my favorite riders despite her being part of the 'evil empire'.
AVV- Was bummed to see her lose the podium but yesterday obviously was a crusher for her. , great great champion but the curtain
is coming down. What a career.

Kind of competing interests for me at the moment vis a vis course vs the depth of the field. I'd like to see 10 days with another medium
mountain stage say a few days in, the problem of course being the ridiculously unbalanced strength of SD and an imperious Demi with
no realistic rivals on the horizon. Would hate to see the race become even more of a bloodbath but I've always been a bit of a 'build it
and they will come' type of person. Create a route truly worthy of being called 'Tour de France' and hope it's not too many years before
some other young stars come through the pipeline, and hope the exposure is enough to lure some bigger $$$ teams to the sport? Don't
know the answer, but at the moment the lack of balance is not helping. Just my .02 of course.

There are enough men's WT teams with a women's team - It's a matter of reallocating some of the budget.

 

[jaylew]

Congrats to Demi - She's the new Queen of Road cycling
Niewiadoma is the rising star

Rising star seems a bit of a stretch. Kasia has been around a really long time, twice as long as Vollering. Always in the mix and not afraid to give it a go, but rarely a winner.

I'm not meaning to throw any shade here. While I'm not a Libertine-level supporter, I do always hope for her to do well

 

[Izzyeviel]

Thought some of you might find this interesting ( i did). Behind the scenes of the Tour de france femme avec zwift time trial

 

[Izzyeviel]

'If you build it, they will come'