If the 2022 edition started from the capital, this year, the runners are skipping it. A route that won over the teams, thanks to the many advantages of this eight-day race.
The triumphant arrival on the Champs-Elysées to conclude three weeks of racing is part of the tradition of the men’s Tour de France. The symbol is so strong that last year, for the first edition of the Tour de France Women, the organizers decided to make it the place of the Grand Départ, just a few hours before the arrival of the men.
“The first year, we wanted to leave Paris, because it seemed important to us to have this handover between men and women, begins Marion Rousse, director of the Tour de France Women. But on an eight-day race, when you leave Paris, if you want to go to the Alps or the Pyrenees, the transfer is longer. Sportingly speaking, we had to find another option.”
The choice of Clermont as the departure city
For this second edition, the choice of departure city fell on Clermont-Ferrand, which also hosts the kick-off of the second stage. The mountainous asset, which the city has, convinced the organizers. “Here, we can make interesting stages from the start, which can play for the general classification and, obviously, we put the difficulties each time at the end of the course to really dynamite the race”, abounds Marion Rousse.
Within the teams, if the departure from Paris seduced last year, it is not lacking for all that in the course of this year. “Last year, it was really incredible, mythical, to leave Paris. To have done it once is already not bad, but I think it’s good to look for different paths too, and precisely to avoid too big transfers. It’s moreover rather in tune with the times”, underlines Séverine Eraud of the Cofidis team. “It was really a stroke of genius to get us out of Paris, because it really put women’s cycling in the spotlight,” confirms her teammate Morgane Coston.
“As runners, we benefited from the public who came to see the men. But you also have to be able to vary and not always stay on the same stages. Clermont-Ferrand can have surprises in store.”
Morgane Coston, runner of the Cofidis teamat franceinfo: sport
Especially since, over an eight-day race, opening up to other options that Paris has a sporting interest. “This allows you to reach the Pyrenees, or the Alps, like this year with the Col du Tourmalet, develops Marion Hérault-Garnier, consultant for France Télévisions. With a transfer from Paris, it’s more complicated on such a short Tour. There are only eight days of racing, and the UCI (International Cycling Union) limits the number of kilometers per stage. There are derogations each time to have longer stages, so you don’t necessarily do what you want when you trace a race.”
Create your own identity
Doing the Parisian impasse is also a way to create your “own identity”, we emphasize within the teams. “For men, the legendary finish on the Champs-Elysées is an important day. But for women, the Tour de France is still a blank sheet to write. You can fill it in as you wish, because nothing is set in stone and it’s very positive”, slip Albert Timmer, coach within the DSM team.
However, the passage through Paris is not totally to be skipped for the runners, quite the contrary. “If in future years, the number of stages increases a little, it would be good if we could finish or start with Paris, because it’s something special all the same, mythical for men, imagine Juliette Labous, from the DSM team. And it could be for us too.”