The Tour de France ends this Sunday, July 24 and as tradition dictates, the finish will be on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. On the other hand, it is a first this year: another race will start immediately. It’s the women’s Tour de France. First stage between the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysées, before a second day of racing on Monday between Meaux and Provins.
Eight steps in one week
There will be seven others across the Grand Est and until the scheduled arrival on July 31 at the Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges. For this first edition, 24 teams and 144 riders will take the start, including six members of the “Saint-Michel Auber 93” team. The cycling club founded in Aubervilliers in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1948.
Sandrine Bideau, who grew up in Blanc-Mesnil before settling in Essonne, is eager to take the start. “Already the first stage on the Champs, there will be a lot of people, my family and my friends will be on the side of the road and that motivates me even more. I hope that the public will be there as much as they is for men and that they [les spectateurs] will take a fourth week to come and cheer us on too!” And she is sure: “I think it will surprise a lot of people to see that the girls are able, in one week, to do eight stages, all the same difficult”.
“For me, cycling is the Tour de France”
His teammate, Barbara Fonseca, not at all from a family of cyclists, hopes to inspire vocations among little girls who will follow this tour at home on their television screen or by the side of the road. “When I was little, my idols were male cyclists, apart from Jeannie Longo I didn’t know any women who rode bicycles”remembers the runner who is also a PE teacher.
The Tour de France women, it will be to follow every day on France Bleu. Find the route and the details of the 8 stages, here.