[WWT] Tour de France Femmes 2022

[Thierry Henry]

Percurso:

1ª etapa - 24 de julho: Paris Tour Eiffel - Paris Champs-Élysées

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2ª etapa - 25 de julho: Meaux - Provins

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3ª etapa - 26 de julho: Remis - Épernay

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4ª etapa - 27 de julho: Troyes - Bar-sur-Aube

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5ª etapa - 28 de julho: Bar-le-Duc - Saint-Dié-des-Voges

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6ª etapa - 29 de julho: Saint-Dié-des-Voges - Rosheim

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7ª etapa - 30 de julho: Sélestat - Le Markstein Fellering

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8ª etapa - 31 de julho: Lure - La Super Planche des Belles Filles

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Startilist:

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Antevisão:

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Ciclismo feminino para totós (crédito para /u/TheRollingJones no r/peloton):

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Have you been enjoying the Tour de France? Want more cycling? Men’s races the rest of the year are basically covered in this excellent post about 2021, though obviously there are differences for 2022, like no Olympics and a different Worlds location.

What if you don’t just want more cycling but you specifically want more of the Tour de France?

Good news! There’s another (kinda new, kinda revamped, but wholly exciting) Tour de France: the Inaugural Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. For non-Francophone degenerates like myself, that means the “French bike race for women, with [sponsored by] Zwift.” And it starts in the exact same city on the exact same day that the men’s race ends: Paris on July 24. It happens earlier in the day that Sunday.

But Women’s Sports are Boring

I was told as a child that if you can’t say anything nice, then you should make fun of women’s sports. 

I won’t deny that some women’s sports are less exciting than the men’s equivalent. I won’t watch women’s basketball for instance. In certain sports, the size, speed, and power differentials are too obvious to ignore and lead to a worse viewing experience for a lot of people. That’s ok. 

But it doesn’t apply to women’s cycling. Do the men go faster? Yes. Do the men put out higher watts? Yes. Per kilo? Yes. 

But you can’t tell. You can’t see the difference between 5 w/kg and 7 w/kg. You can’t see the difference between 38kmh and 40kmh. But you do care about differences between competing riders. And that’s true of both men’s and women’s cycling. Some of the best cycling viewing is of riders going walking pace up steep gradients. Don’t fucking tell me you need the fastest possible speeds to enjoy cycling. I don’t buy it. 

Cycling is a beautiful sport for the tactics, the strategy, the sacrifice, the teamwork, the narrative. All of those things are equally present in the women’s races as they are the men’s. The spectator experience isn’t adversely affected by the riders going a few kmh slower.

Why Women’s Cycling?

There can never be enough cycling. The biggest cost is time. And if you’re reading an unhinged rant by /u/TheRollingJones , I suspect you have time to spare. Women’s cycling means more races to watch and a wider variety of strategies and tactics to obsess about with a different cast of characters. Plus, Tadej Pogacar will not, and I repeat will not, win this Yellow Jersey.

You know how it feels falling in love? Not being able to think about anything else and just wanting to soak up every last drop of something new and amazing? Joyful learning. How jealous you might be of someone who’s reading your favorite book or watching your favorite movie for the first time? That feeling is elusive and if you could bottle it, you could buy Twitter.

You can get that feeling with women’s cycling. 

I’m a women’s cycling noob. I don’t know much about the history. My biggest regret is that I have but one life and too little of it so far has been spent watching women’s cycling. I’m working on myself and trying to rectify this shortcoming. GCN+ is helping. I’m assuming people who actually know things are gonna put together previews and cheat notes with legitimate information. My writing here is more like pump-up music for another awesome women’s stage race.

So this is a beginner’s view of the other side of the peloton, from a big fan of the men’s peloton. It’s like a Peloton^TM cycle bro talking about how he just started riding outside and wants to tell others how awesome it is. Maybe you’ve been riding outside all along like /u/epi_counts  - then you already know that women’s cycling not only rocks but also rolls.

Women’s cycling is exciting. It’s unpredictable. It has a lot of the same races and a lot of the same teams. It’s easy to pick up and get the gist. The women have the Giro, they have Worlds, Strade, Liège, as of 2021, they have Roubaix, and this year, they have a real TdF stage race again. Rumors abound for an MSR and a Lombardia.

I shouldn’t need to illustrate why cycling is amazing and such a fun sport to follow. 99% of you are purposely reading a pro cycling subreddit and have made it this far in a post clearly labelled as one written by degenerate /u/TheRollingJones . The other 1% of you are ‘The 1%’ ie lost redditors looking to get advice about which Stationary Class^TM has the best indoor bike treadmill orgy this week.

The Differences to the Men’s pro peloton

Women’s cycling is significantly different from men’s cycling in a whole bunch of ways. It’s a different sport.

Women’s cycling is less professionalized than men’s. There’s less money. Some of the women literally have other jobs. Their cycling is a side gig. Women’s cycling is still specialized, but it’s less specialized than men’s. The all-rounders in women’s cycling often beat more specialized riders. The best climber in the bunch, Annemiek Van Vleuten, outsprinted punchy Demi Vollering in Omloop this year. Thrashed that wheel sucker into the ground. And I mean thrashed. Her bike and arms and elbows and head were all over the fucking place.

And even if that weren’t true, women’s cycling caters to a wider array of tactics than men’s cycling does. In men’s cycling, certain race situations just don’t happen. In women’s cycling, they have more of a chance.

Do you like chaos? Do you like groups shattered all across the road? Do you think the race dynamic between G1 and G2 gets improved by the presence of Gs 3 through 7?

In the 2021 Giro Rosa stage 10 (think of it like the Tour Champs stage), you had an outrageously strong breakaway which included the overall GC leader (Anna van der Breggen) and four others. They made it to the line. This would be like Pogacar in yellow taking another few minutes from the other GC contenders. Unfathomable ever since the retirement of Hinault.

You want a WT stage race with real climbs being decided by bonus seconds on the final sprint stage? Ask about our favorite climby cobbler Elisa Longo Borghini - last year’s Italian champ. She smashed the Women’s Tour (Britain) crowds into oblivion when she came 3rd on the final stage snagging 4 boni’s to win GC by one second. Outrageous.

How can those scenarios occur? Well, let’s talk about the big teams.

The Big Teams

SDWorx - if Quick-Step had a perennial GC contender. They’re Ineos and Quick-Step combined and are terrifyingly stacked, giving Dutch women their deservingly vaunted reputation. A Dutch core with a collection of national champions. They might not win every race, but they’re regularly looked at to control things and they often have multiple race favorites in their squad. They lost the legendary Anna van der Breggen last year to an early retirement (she’s now a team DS) and they’ve perhaps lost a step in 2022 (but are still a juggernaut). Big riders include Demi Vollering, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Lotte Kopecky, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, and five million-time Luxembourg champ Christine Majerus. Formerly known as Boels-Dolmans. 

Trek - The team that is SDWorx’s biggest challenger at the moment. Between Elisa Longo Borghini, Ellen van Dijk, Elisa Balsamo, Lucinda Brand, Lizzie Deignan, Shirin van Anrooij, and Chloe Hosking, Trek is having a fantastic 2022. They’ve won both editions of Roubaix with Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini, so another “Elisabeth” from Trek winning in 2023 is virtually guaranteed. Elisa Balsamo it is. They’ve got the current world champion (Balsamo) and EC (Van Dijk) but Trek might struggle to keep pace on the real mountainous terrain.

DSM - you heard that right. In the women’s peloton, DSM does damage, especially with their sprint leader Lorena Wiebes. Did you miss Cav on HTC Columbia? That’s Wiebes. If she’s there in a finale, there might be time gaps in the bunch sprint. They also have punchy Liane Lippert whose had a solid Ardennes campaign in 2022 and might challenge the GC at the TdFF.

Groupama FDJ - you want some French GC hope? Too bad. FDJ is looking toward Italy and Denmark for GC challengers in Marta Cavalli and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, also known as the most joyful interviewee in all of cycling. GC hopes on a French team are nonetheless still worth celebrating. It is the Tour de France, after all.

Movistar - they signed Annemiek van Vleuten because they’ve had such success with the elderly in pro bike racing. But Abuela is putting up bigger results than Abuelo. She just won the Giro last week. She’s going for the Giro-Tour double, which hasn’t been witnessed since a certain pirate pulled on a bandana with panache in 1998. Separately, Emma Norsgaard and Arlenis Sierra have both had solid performances in 2022 and mean that Movistar is far from a one-woman team.

Jumbo-Visma - this team is pretty much all about Marianne Vos. For good reason (see below).

The Biggest Riders

Annemiek van Vleuten

One of the most dominant climbers of the past twenty years and the odds-on favorite to win the GC. She’s nearing retirement age but is still going strong and winning constantly. Always at the head of affairs. If you’ve heard stories of a woman dropping pros on climbs or crazy training plans from female cyclists, they’re probably about AvV. She just won the Giro for the third time. She won Liège in 2022, and you might know how I feel about 2022 Liège winners. She announced her retirement at the end of 2023, but we know how it goes with Movistar grandparents and planned retirements.

Marianne Vos

Do you wish Bruce Springsteen was a pro cyclist? Do you wish you were around to witness the GOAT Eddy Merckx? Well, the good news is you can still watch women’s cycling’s GOAT, Marianne “the Boss” Vos. One of her nicknames is literally The Cannibal. Take Merckx and add cyclocross, the result is Vos. At her peak in the Giro a decade ago, she did the equivalent of Sagan winning yellow by putting minutes into the GC group on the Tour’s Queen stage. Basically, she was so good that she made dumb questions by newbies seem possible. Now, she’s older and there are better climbers around, so she’s been demoted to “just” having WvA’s current set of expectations: taking green with wins on multiple stages.

It’s a bit shameful she doesn’t have Paris-Roubaix on her palmarès, but to be fair, she does have a second place in the Velodrome and instead of 118 editions for the men, she has only had one attempt at the Hell of the North (Covid kept her out of round 2). Vos won’t be challenging for yellow (reverse jinx in action) as she doesn’t have the climbing pedigree of Annemiek van Vleuten nor the team support of Demi Vollering, but she’s gunning for Marianne Moss and should be lighting up the race in other ways. Guaranteed stage win.

Lorena Wiebes

Prohibitive favorite to win the Champs sprint and take the first yellow jersey. Head and shoulders the most dominant sprinter around. Others have called her the most dominant cyclist on the planet. I disagreed, but I was wrong.

Le Tour de France Femmes

This isn’t sponsored and I’m no Lanterne, so I’ll be leaving Zwift out of this. 

The race director is Marion Rousse, a former French National Champion and TV commentator whose partner is also a cyclist with a special jersey.

There have been several incarnations of a women’s race attached to Le Tour, but this year is different. It’s not La Course (a one day race since 2014 associated with Le Tour) and it’s not La Grande Boucle Féminine or any of the other attempts at a women’s equivalent.

There are 8 stages, and it begins, rather than ends, with a Champs sprint. This will not be a procession because the female peloton is serious about racing, unlike the men who just want to show off their fancy jerseys, sip champagne, and mug for the cameras. 

The rider to watch on Stage 1? Lorena Wiebes. She’s been on fire this year and has almost no challengers if it’s a clear run-in to the finish. The only rider whose name will be uttered in the same breath is current World Champion and 2022 phenom, Elisa Balsamo.

There are 8 stages in total. A mix of parcours, including a stage with gravelly vineyard roads (à la Strade Bianche). The jerseys are the same as the men’s (yellow, green, polka, and white). And it’s got the biggest prize purse in all of women’s cycling at €250,000.

The Queen stage is the final one, which finishes up La Super Planche de Belles Filles (like the men’s race stage 7). Go check out a real preview if you want details of every stage.

Now you can be Women’s Cycling too.

The season neither starts nor ends with Le Tour, but it might just be your gateway into the other side of the peloton. Welcome.

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

 

Editado 22 Julho 2022 por Thierry Henry

[Puto Perdiz]

vai dar em algum canal?

[Thierry Henry]

Citação de Puto Perdiz, há 10 minutos:

vai dar em algum canal?

Eurosport.

Também podem aproveitar esta parceria entre a Le Col - Wahoo e a GCN, que oferece o serviço durante o período da corrida.

[Wincing Hálldor]

Pela startlist vejo que há muitas ciclistas que estiveram no Giro e vão estar também no Tour

[Thierry Henry]

Citação de Wincing Hálldor, há 3 minutos:

Pela startlist vejo que há muitas ciclistas que estiveram no Giro e vão estar também no Tour

É verdade, e não fossem as provas tão juntas provavelmente ainda o verias mais. Sendo o Giro Donne a prova por etapas mais importante do calendário feminino e esta a primeira edição desta iteração do Tour feminino, muitas ciclistas acabam por querer correr as duas. 

[Thierry Henry]

Se quiserem ouvir uma antevisão com a participação da Beatriz Pereira (ciclista da Bizkaia-Durango) e do vosso user do CMPT preferido, aqui fica: https://open.spotify.com/episode/08Z7UfkT7XnWTtzRF8r9Aw?si=11EBFTlEQ624cj-zIEMz4g&utm_source=copy-link

Teremos episódios diários de acompanhamento da corrida também. 

[Puto Perdiz]

não há cri no tour feminino?

[Thierry Henry]

Citação de Puto Perdiz, há 17 horas:

não há cri no tour feminino?

Nop, também não percebi porquê. Houve várias ciclistas que se queixaram, tem havido poucos no WWT. 

Última volta, hora de ligarem a TV! 

[Thierry Henry]

Vitória previsível da Wiebes, mas a Vos ao lançar-se de longe ainda lhe dificultou um bocado a vida. A Balsamo é que desiludiu um bocadinho. 

[Wincing Hálldor]

Citação de Thierry Henry, há 20 horas:

Vitória previsível da Wiebes, mas a Vos ao lançar-se de longe ainda lhe dificultou um bocado a vida. A Balsamo é que desiludiu um bocadinho. 

Aquele acidente da Castrique foi um grande azar logo na primeira etapa

[Thierry Henry]

Citação de Wincing Hálldor, há 21 minutos:

Aquele acidente da Castrique foi um grande azar logo na primeira etapa

Felizmente parece que não tem fraturas, mas está com bastante dificuldade em mexer-se e foi transportada de ambulância para a Bélgica. 

[treinadordebancada]

Comecei a ver e houve logo uma sequência de quedas. Houve uma que quase voou quando estava a reentrar no pelotão e embateu na Cavalli que estava parada.

[Thierry Henry]

Parece que fora as quedas, a etapa foi fantástica, a Trek conseguiu meter tempo noutras favoritas. A Cavalli abandonou. 😞

[Wincing Hálldor]

Para quem não viu 

[Thierry Henry]

Rescaldo de hoje e antevisão de amanhã aqui. ⬇️

 

[Puto Perdiz]

Citação de Wincing Hálldor, há 18 horas:

Para quem não viu 

não consegui perceber o que tentaram fazer, sobretudo a que passou pelo meio a tentar desviar-se das que estavam paradas.

[Thierry Henry]

Based Gonçalo Moreira a fazer publicidade ao podcast em direto na transmissão da Eurosport. 😁

[Petar Musa]

As etapas são tão curtas, não são? Tanto hoje, como ontem, notava-se que aquelas miúdas ainda tinham pernas para pedalar mais 1h

[Thierry Henry]

CECILE!! ❤️

[Thierry Henry]

Ouvinde o Benji Naesen que merecem, amigos. 

[Thierry Henry]

Epá... 

[Puto Perdiz]

muito giro isto da gravilha. Parece é que se esquecem que à frente das ciclistas vão umas vinte motas e carros a levantar pó.

[JackBauerPT]

O carro da UAE arrumou com a própria líder.

[Stromp]

Citação de Thierry Henry, Em 26/07/2022 at 23:04:

Ouvinde o Benji Naesen que merecem, amigos. 

É teu o podcast?

[Thierry Henry]

Citação de Stromp, há 31 minutos:

É teu o podcast?

Não é meu, faço parte da equipa. Já tinha feito uns episódios nos inícios e na Volta do ano passado, agora que tenho mais disponibilidade estou de regresso. 🙂

Aproveito para deixar aí o episódio de rescaldo da etapa de ontem e antevisão da de hoje, a mais longa da edição e da história do WWT.