In the field of favorites, Liane Lippert (M.) also shines a German cyclist.
Photo: Imagination/FrontalVision
The men’s Tour de France is coming to an end, the women’s tour of France starts on Saturday. And the differences could hardly be greater. This does not only affect the route: 3338.8 kilometers at 51 555 meters of altitude have to do the men, 1165 and 17 240 are among women. The Col de la Madeleine is one thing in common: the alpine summit was part of the royal stage of the men’s tour on Thursday and will be the goal of the most demanding stage of the cyclists.
Missed a goal
The sporting constellations are completely different. The 112nd Tour de France was dominated by a man and his team for over two and a half weeks. Tadej Pogacar won both on the small ramps and the Mur-de-Bretagne and on long climbs such as Hautacam. The fastest was the Slovenian in mountain time trial, and he finished second in the flat time trial. However, he missed a goal: at the legendary Mont Ventoux, he would have liked to enter the winner list. His team also did a lot to prevent escape attempts, especially the Cologne Nils Politt emerged as a clearer.
This procedure triggered the anger of some colleagues – and something very rare happened: When Pogacar and Politt took a pee break, the two or three dozen drivers used this for attacks. “There is probably a new rule in cycling that we still have to learn,” said Politt mockingly. Unrested law has so far been that attacks were suspended during a pee break of the yellow jerseys. But the dominance of Pogacar and his team means that other drivers have to break old rules in order to have opportunities for a stage victory. The winner of the Ventoux stage came from the escape group of the rebellious. This unrest in the peloton could be helpful for Jonas Vingegaard on the last stages: the two -time tour winner has so far been clearly inferior to the three -time triumphant Pogacar. “I had two bad days. Something like that doesn’t usually happen to me, «the Dane explained the defeats with large time arrears in the flat time trial and at the rise of Hautacam.
The brutal of the tour
A new force grew in the shade of the two favorites: Florian Lipowitz. Rolf Aldag attributes to learning on the first tour that the 24-year-old had held back a bit at the beginning. “It took him a few days to get this tour rhythm, this brutal of the tour, the narrow streets, the tightness in the field, the spectators are also much closer,” explained the Head of Performance from the Red Bull racing stable “ND”. In the mountains, where mostly only a good dozen drivers fight for the first places, Lipowitz proved to be the best of the rest. Occasionally the total third even tried to go with Pogacar and Vingegaard. But more important for the main goal was 3rd place in Paris that alternating attacks by him and his team -mate Primoz Roglic distanced other podium candidates. Roglic and Lipowitz cannot be dangerous for the two leaders, but the potential of the former ski jumper and the former biathlete has so far been sufficient for securing third place.
The number of favorites is greater for women. The former winners Demi Volling and Katarzyna Niewiadoma would like to repeat their successes. The Italian Elisa Longo Borghini starts with great ambitions as well as the Giro-Second Marlen Reusser from Switzerland. It should of course be noted the world champion and former tour second Lotte Koipecky from Belgium and the French returnee Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, who immediately won the heavy racing Paris-Roubaix.
Extra -harden races
They are all divided into different teams. The Dutch fully runs for the French team FDJ, the Polish Niewiadoma for the German racing team Canyon, Longo Borghini for the women’s department of Pogacar’s Emirates team and Reusser starts with the German hope Liane Lippert for Movistar. Ferrand-Prevot is actively active at the women’s branch of Vingegaard’s Visma team and Kopecky continues to represent the colors of the once very dominant SD-WORX team. The Dutchman Pauliena Rooijakkers is on the road as an insider tip. The driver from the Fenix team was third on the tour last year and fourth at the Giro.
“The fact that the strong drivers are now distributed over more teams makes the races more dynamic and interesting,” observed defending champion Niewiadoma. It takes the grown performance density as an incentive. But it also predicts extra -hard races. »Many teams now also align height training camps not only for the leader, but also the helpers. Many super good will be prepared for the tour, “she said” ND “. Diversity instead of dominance and superpowers also promise an extremely exciting tour de France Femmes.