Women's cycling: Experience the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift up close in the support van
Sandra Schuberth
· 31.07.2023
The Tour de France Femmes has been an annual cycling race since 2022. It quickly became one of the best-known stage races in women's cycling. There are eight stages to complete.
As title sponsor of the women's Tour de France, Zwift invited TOUR to experience two stages on site - one of them in the support car - in the in-race car. After some back and forth, it was clear that we would accept the invitation and I, Sandra Schuberth, would be travelling to France because, to quote Kate Veronneau, Director of Women's Strategy at Zwift:
People love women's cycling. And it's here to stay.
The most important information about the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
Women's Tour de France: The fifth stage in the in-race car
Together with Alejandro Rodriguez, a journalist from Madrid, I would experience the fifth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in the in-race car of Chantal Beltman, former professional cyclist. Before we set off, I had a look round the team buses. However, there wasn't much going on there at 12 noon, two hours before the race started: smart trainers were being set up for the riders to warm up on, bikes were being unpacked and all kinds of organisational work was being done.
At 12.30 pm we had an appointment in the VIP area to meet our driver Chantal Beltman. Dressed elegantly and carrying lunch, she approached us happily. A quick round of introductions, lunch, another visit to the toilet and then we were off. But who is actually ...
... Chantal Beltman?
Chantal Beltman, our current rider, is a former Dutch cyclist born in Slagharen in 1976. She was active from 1998 to 2009 and finally decided to end her professional career. She said in an interview:
I had the privilege of choosing the end of my professional career myself. It wasn't an injury that forced me to do so. So I was able to enjoy my last year to the full.
She felt she had reached a good point to stop and was also thinking about starting a family at 32. Although she was lucky enough to be earning money as a professional back then, it was unimaginable at the time to get pregnant as a team rider and continue to be paid - that has since changed, she says.
Incidentally, she is now a store manager in a bike shop.
Here we go ...
The start is in the near future (14:20); we start around 13:45 with a convoy of vehicles. We ride the first few kilometres of the route, then we stop, get out and wait. A few minutes later, the peloton flies past - almost faster than we can see. Luckily I have a video as evidence.
And then it has to be quick: We dash back to the car - uncomfortable in the prevailing temperatures - and take a shortcut to get back to the track before the race.
We made it. We are back on the course, ahead of the riders. Fresh bottles of drinks are already waiting to be handed out at the side of the track.
Breakaway group in the rear-view mirror
And then it happens. An announcement comes over the roaring Tour radio and Chantal says something like: "Look behind, there's the leading group. We hope that the group will be able to extend their gap, because from a gap of 2 minutes and 30 seconds we are allowed between the front and the peloton. But first we have to move on quickly. Chantal Beltman presses the accelerator, we hold on tight, the ride is fast and full of bends.
Fans at the track
Fans stand almost everywhere along the route. Many of them wave happily to the cars on the track - including us. They are happy when you wave back. I feel, how can I put it, that I am perceived as more important than I am, as I am still new to the sport. In the coming days, I will realise how important my role as a journalist is.
Coverage of women's cycling
Women's cycling has grown in recent years and the women's Tour de France 2022 was the latest example of this. In order to continue to support women's cycling, to support the riders, attention to it must continue to grow. And how can we do that? Through reporting, by providing information about the background, through stories.
You can tell stories. - Kate Veronneau
That was also the answer from Kate Veronneau (Director of Women's Strategy at Zwift) to my question about how I - and we - as journalists can promote growth. Her vision is, for example, equal prize money for women and men - but women's cycling doesn't have to copy men's cycling. Because it is something of its own.
Why do we need women's cycling?
Demi Vollering, winner of this year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, puts it in a nutshell:
I hope we inspire many girls and women to get on their bikes and enjoy cycling as much as we do. - Demi Vollering
Thanks to women's cycling, girls have role models when it comes to cycling and cycling.
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Back in the car - back to stage 5 of the women's Tour de France
We stop one last time before the finish. I feel sick. The last shortcut took us through countless bends at breakneck speed again. I had my smartphone in my hand to fill the liveblog. Not a good combination.
We wait a few minutes, then the helicopter circles in the immediate vicinity - the riders can't be far away. And then the current leaders arrive, followed a little later by the peloton (video).
Another 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 kilometre
We cut short again and take the direct route to the finish. There are kilometre markers from five kilometres before the finish. I wonder what the riders are thinking here? For me, it would be something like: "almost there" or "5 kilometres can sometimes be very long".
Finish
I'm glad when I get out of the car. All the bends and the driving style that an escort car has to adopt made it difficult for me. And yet we were a little too slow to reach the finish in time to be allowed into the mixed zone as journalists. So we watched Ricarda Bauerfeind's last metres on the big screen. What a finish! Congratulations, Ricarda!
Portrait of Ricarda Bauerfeind
TOUR visited Ricarda Bauerfeind, an extract from the portrait:
Bauernfeind doesn't want to be better than others, she just always wants to be better than herself.
What was it like in the in-race car?
In the support vehicle, you are very close to the racing action and yet infinitely far away. The Tour radio is constantly broadcasting updates. "The breakaway group is 30 seconds ahead of the peloton", "35 seconds", "40 seconds". There are also instructions for our rider Chantal Beltman to "move, move, move" if we suddenly need to move on quickly. We see the drivers a total of three times for a few seconds. After that, we always take a shortcut at full speed to get back to the front of the race. I mainly know what's happening in the race via the Tour radio, which is sometimes difficult for me to understand - it's noisy - and via our live blog, where my colleague Thomas Goldmann is posting updates from the race today. Alejandro Rodriguez is watching the live stream on the back seat, and I can already see us stopping so that I can vomit at the thought of looking at a tablet as well as my mobile phone. So I don't - and make it to the finish with a queasy stomach.
This is how the 2024 Tour de France Femmes continues
The next date has already been set: the women's Tour de France will take place next year from 12 to 18 August. A first, because in 2022 and 2023 the women started on the same day as the men finished - Tour de France 2024: 29 June to 21 July. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics lie between the men's and women's Tour de France, so it will be interesting to see how attention will be focussed on the women's Tour de France if it does not start on the last day of the men's race.
Another first: the Tour de France Femmes is starting abroad for the first time. Rotterdam has been chosen as the starting point for the Grand Départ. There will also be eight stages in 2024, with the Netherlands organising the first three. Further details on the route of the Tour de France Femmes 2024 will be announced in October.
The women's cycling calendar
That's not all for women's cycling. From 3 to 13 August, the Glasgow the World Championships where world championship titles are awarded in 13 cycling disciplines. >> More about the World Cycling Championships in Glasgow.
The calendar of the Women's World Tour still has a few races to offer:
- 22 to 27 August: Tour of Scandinavia
- 2 September GP de Plouay
- 5 to 10 September: Simac Ladies Tour
- 15 to 17 September: Tour de Romandie
- 12 to 14 October: Tour of Chongming Island
- 17 October: Tour of Guangxi
Sandra Schuberth
Editor
