Julia Solans / Photo credit: Florian Frison / DPPI via AFP
The Tour de France ends this Sunday July 23 with the famous finish on the Champs-Élysées for the riders. In reality, it’s not really over since the women will set off in turn this Sunday for the second edition of the women’s Tour de France. Cédric Vasseur, general manager of the Cofidis team, looks back on this young competition at the microphone of Europe 1.
Women also have the right to their Tour de France. After a successful first edition in 2022, the women’s Grande Boucle is back. Invited to the microphone of Europe 1 this Sunday on the occasion of the last stage for men, the general manager of Cofidis Cédric Vasseur returned to the performance of his team but also to the runners who are preparing to set off in turn on the roads. For its second consecutive year, the event meets expectations even if the women would like to be a little more publicized.
“Under the spell” of the first edition
“The girls and the management were really charmed by this first edition which was a real success. We will see how this year goes because we are no longer leaving Paris, we are a little out of step with the men”, he says. Unlike last year, the riders will start from Clermont-Ferrand and not from the capital for this first stage before reaching Mauriac on Monday. The finish is scheduled in a week, on Sunday July 30, in Pau, after a tough penultimate stage where they will pass through the mythical Col du Tourmalet.
“They really are winners”
According to the general manager of Cofidis, the runners are particularly impatient to go through this pass known for its difficulty. “They are waiting for that because they are really winners, they like the challenge. There is a crazy energy in this team and I imagine it is the same in all the teams”. A few hours before the start of this women’s Tour de France, the athletes are “eager to put on the first bib” during the first stage which starts in Clermont.
And what the runners want above all is greater visibility. “I’m sure the show will be there. And if the show is there, it’s not impossible for the stages to become full. The girls would also like, like the men, to be entitled to a full race, which would perhaps make the race even more difficult”, explains Cédric Vasseur before adding: “I think that all these improvements will probably be for the next editions”.