With the first foreign Tour de France Femmes Grand Depárt less than 24 hours away, Lorena Wiebes, Marianna Vos and Charlotte Kool are set to line out as the heavy home favourites for victory on stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes and secure the first yellow jersey for the Netherlands.
It’s a feat Wiebes managed in 2022 when she powered up the cobbles of the Champs Élysées to net victory in Paris ahead of Vos, however, her excitement at the prospect of another, on home soil no less, was palpable as she spoke to Cyclingnews ahead of the race.
She’s been to reconnoitre the finish on stage 2 into Rotterdam, with a Veloviewer look into stage 1 Hague finish revealing just a slight bend in the final 3000 metres before deciding the opening yellow jersey wearer. It should be no issue for Wiebes to arrive with a chance, with her delighted that “the last 120-200 metres are slightly uphill” and should allow her to drop her typically massive watts and reach breakneck speeds that no one can match.
Wiebes has long been the top dog of sprinting in the women’s peloton and two flat days from Rotterdam to The Hague and Dordrecht to Rotterdam allow her a perfect chance to don yellow again and for longer. But it isn’t just about winning for Wiebes, with a ride of inspiration also on her to-do list for the trio of Dutch courses.
“I need to say, I think the Champs Élysées was really special because of the place and everything, but I think here it will also be special and I hope there are a lot of spectators everywhere,” said Wiebes to Cyclingnews.
“I also hope a bit to inspire the younger generation of Dutch cyclists because I read in the news that it is going a bit down and fewer kids are cycling - maybe this a good reason that they start again.”
While Wiebes will hope it’s her that raises her arms in celebration at roughly 15:45 tomorrow, she may find it tough to be the key source of Dutch inspiration on the opening round of sprint fighting, with the great Marianne Vos and former lead-out rider Charlotte Kool also taking aim at the maillot jaune premier.
“The first one,” is how Kool readily responded when asked which stages she had in her crosshairs, admitting “I mean the yellow jersey is awaiting so for sure that one.” But she knows better than most the true excellence of Wiebes’ violent RPM and knack for finding the white line first.
“Of course, she has already been at this level for a really long time, she knows what to do.. but also she is just being really fast,” said Kool as she described her opponent's key traits to Cyclingnews and Velo in Rotterdam.
However, Kool claims she has a plan, which she will need given Wiebes has 18 wins to just her one in 2024 going into the Tour de France Femmes, with Wiebes netting a third of that haul ahead of Kool in second place.
“It’s easy: whoever is the fastest will win. I’ve really got something in mind and we really believe in it and I’m finally feeling way better than the last weeks,” Kool said. “I’ve finally found the legs that I wanted to, so I’m really excited.”
Kool back at peak form just in time for sprint duel
For Kool, 2024 has been a struggle without much success after she burst into life the season prior to properly challenge Wiebes in the flat sprints, beating her at the UAE Tour and Simac Ladies Tour, something that only Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Vos of the active peloton had managed in recent years.
Illness and bad luck have kept her at a level below her peak, however, she believes she’s found it just in time to ignite the modern streets of Rotterdam.
“This big goal always kept me going and kept me fighting and believing that the only race you want the best legs for is the race,” said Kool of her current form. “For me personally, last year, I won everywhere except at the Tour so maybe this year it will be the other way around.”
“Charlotte has been quite open that maybe at the beginning of the year, she got sick and didn’t have the best legs she wanted but I think now she’s in really good shape and we fully back that,” agreed penultimate lead-out rider Pfeiffer Georgi. “We’ve always focused on ourselves and kind of always had confidence in her, we trust her and we’ll have to just see.”
Unlike Wiebes and SD Worx-Protime, Georgi had been to look at the finale of stage 1, where DSM-Firmenich PostNL really believe Kool can take a historic victory for the team.
“We actually did a recon of tomorrow’s stage, the last 60-70k - it’s typical Dutch roads all day, twisty, a lot of road furniture and could be windy. For us, we’d love that, some echelons, some excitement,” Georgi told Cyclingnews.
“The sprint itself is not crazy technical, the last few kilometres are quite wide and open but I think positioning the whole day is really important and then really timing it for the finish.”
The last piece of the Dutch puzzle is Vos, the serial winner, all-time great and ever-tactical master, who believes a nervous opening duo of stages is guaranteed as is the way with Grand Tours. But Vos, a two-time Tour de France Femmes stage winner and former green jersey, knows all about beating Wiebes - a feat she achieved just this season to snatch the Amstel Gold Race with a last-second bike throw.
“It will be very nervous in the first two days. It's the bunch that's nervous, the girls who all want to be in the first 10. It's flat and so [the bunch] is not stretched out and you'll have every DS telling all their riders to get to the front,” she told Cyclingnews and CyclingWeekly.
“In the end, that all makes in nervous. We have good riders, good bike handlers and I hope we can all keep it safe together. It's also cool to have an expected bunch sprint.”
Vos isn’t easily flustered having seen it all before, however, she’ll know the threat of big favourite Wiebes and a strong lead-out spearheaded by Barabara Guarischi in the World Champion Lotte Kopecky’s absence. The Visma-Lease A Bike rider will be aided by the likes of Anna Henderson and Cyclocross World Champion Fem van Empel as she eyes the flat sprints, but the punchier day to Amnéville on stage 5 could be Vos's time to shine.
There should be Dutch delight come tomorrow evening in the Hague, albeit with the threat of Italy's Balsamo, but whether it be Kool, Vos or Wiebes, the oranje fans will be bouncing for whoever's in yellow.
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