Claire Steels never really planned to ride in the Tour de France. The Lincolnshire-born rider didn’t even become a professional cyclist until 2020, yet now she is the leader of the Israel-Premier Tech Roland team, racing in this year’s Tour de France Femmes.
Steels is one of the peloton’s late bloomers. Her Spanish-based fitness company was doing well enough, but when she branched into duathlon, she fell for cycling. “I bought a bike to compete in duathlons in Mallorca,” she says. “But then I started training more on the bike and I realised how much I loved it. So I fell into cycling, really. Then last year I was at a point where I needed to make a decision on whether I was going to join a World Tour team, so I could afford to live off a cycling salary and stop work.”
This is her first year on the World Tour. Already she has won the mountainous Spanish one-day race reVolta with a solo break over a first-category climb, finished sixth in the Tour of Switzerland, and taken second place in the British National road race championships.
Her fitness business in Mallorca is still running. “I think it’s so important to have something to come back to after I finish racing,” she says.
Currently a little under two minutes in arrears to the pre-race favourites Demi Vollering, of Team SD Worx, and the defending Tour de France champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, Steels seems undaunted by making her debut appearance in the race.
“I think it helps that I wasn’t a particularly big cycling fan growing up, and also when you come into the sport late I think you have a different perspective,” she says. “I’m really happy to be here. I’m feeling more comfortable with each day that goes on.”
Steels points out that 30 years ago, there wasn’t much of a women’s racing scene to aspire to. “I didn’t really grow up with big ambitions of being here, particularly as a female. It wasn’t really an option when I was a little girl. But things have moved on and it really is an option now.”
Like many, Steels is encouraged by the momentum now building behind the women’s World Tour, fuelled by the reinvention of the Tour de France Femmes. “Over the next few years, as minimum wage goes up, going into professional cycling from a young age will be a realistic next step for people, coming from school or university,” she said. “I think we will see younger, stronger riders coming through.”
A strong climber but also an accomplished time triallist, she is looking forward to the climbs of the Pyrenees and, in particular, the summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet on Saturday.
“My plan was to recon it after the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées, but I had quite a bad crash and went home to recover,” she said. “But the Tourmalet stage is a big goal for me, and for the team as well.”
