Stage 8: Le Grand Bornand- Alpe d’Huez 149.9 km
The women’s Tour de France has come to Alpe d’Huez for a final showdown.
Estimated finish time: 18:35-19:25 CEST
21 hairpins of the Day: Demi Vollering
There’s no other choice. After Glandon and the Alpe quality should shine through. Question is will she take enough time to win the whole thing?
Stage 7: Champagnole - Le Grand Bornand 167 km
Two mountain days to decide the Tour. A softer warmup today for Alpe d’Huez tomorrow.
Estimated finish time: 15:25-16:00 CEST
Le Grand of the Day: Demi Vollering
Not the toughest climb but hard enough that I guess Vollering will want to press her advantage and take back a bit of what she lost in the crash. If she’s not still suffering from it.
Stage 6: Remiremont - Morteau 160 km
Well this is an entirely different race now after the yellow jersey crash yesterday. Vollering now has to try and recover physically and then make up the lost time. That just increases the feel that this should become a transition stage for a breakaway before the two big deciding stages coming up on the weekend.
Estimated finish time: 15:45-16:15 CEST
Not mere morteaul of the Day: Ruth Edwards
My first pick would be Persico but her flaunted KOM ambitions may draw to much attention from Fenix so let’s go with Edwards.
Stage 5: Bastogne - Amnéville 150 km
Fairly flat lookingon paper but said to be anything but in reality. Not climbs but just challenging rolling terrain all along. Might be a decent chance for a breakaway.
Estimated finish time: 15:45-16:15 CEST
First winner in France: Marianne Vos
I kinda wonder if anyone gets to ride off with this so I’m going with a safe bet on a finale with a bit of a kicker. But there are riders like Georgi, Norsgaard, Persico and Edwards who are far enough back now that they could take a stage like this from a break. Not to mention engines like Brown and Dygert.
Stage 4: Valkenburg - Liège 122 km
This is where things start to get spicy in this year’s Tour. We start with a little Amstel and finish like a proper Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Estimated finish time: 15:50-16:10 CEST
Liège waffle of the Day: Kasia Niewiadoma
Any sane bet is on Vollering with her monster form today but in the event she gets a case of the lorenas and misses her obvious stage win Niewiadoma is right there.
Stage 3: Rotterdam 6.3 km Timetrial
A sprint time trial to end the double feature day.
Estimated finish time: 17:50 CEST (last rider)
Clog dancer of the Day: Lorena Wiebes
Now I think she has anger in her stomach. She won’t care that this is a “TT” on paper, she will just crush it. (No, I’m not just kidding, she does really well in short TTs)
Official Site , Startlist , Start times TT
Stage 2: Dordrecht - Rotterdam 67 km
Weird double stage day . TdFF goes Driedaagse DePanne.
Estimated finish time: 11:35-11:45 CEST
Clog dancer of the Day: Lorena Wiebes
Not being stupid two days in a row.
Rotterdam - La Haye 123 km
After a brief olympic break the Tour de France is back with Act II for the women. Just as for the men the course is adjusted to fit Paris2024 with a Grand Depart and finish in the Netherlands (Rotterdam to Alpe d’Huez, the Dutch mountain).
Estimated finish time: 15:30-15:50 CEST
Clog dancer of the Day: Lorena Wiebes
The Tour starts with a sprintstage in her home country and the KOM point is literally in a tunnel below sea level, there is no way Wiebes lets this one slip out of her fingers. Unless she celebrates prematurely of course but that would never happen. Not in a big race in the Netherlands anyway.
