TDF Femmes, Amandine Fouquenet: "all the girls are already thinking about it"
The route of the Women’s Tour de France is a mixture of sprints, finishes for women punters, high mountain stages, and a new feature: the race will end with an individual time trial.
“The 2023 road season has not yet started and all the girls are already thinking about the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift! My wish is of course to race it for the second time with Arkéa Pro Cycling Team. This year there are also some mythical stages scheduled, such as the finish at the top of the Tourmalet. There is also a final time trial to try and change the general classification and, I think, add a little more suspense. One thing is certain, we will have to train even harder in the perspective of this Tour de France Women with Zwift 2023.”
“The Tour de France Women with Zwift 2022 was a great experience for me. There was a lot of public at the side of the road, a lot of media present, and we were not used to such a strong support among the girls until now. My wish is to do better in 2023, if we are selected for this new edition. L’Aspin and the Tourmalet are great places for cycling and for the Tour de France for men. It’s nice to see that we girls will be able to express ourselves on such a stage. It will be very hard, and we will train even harder in this perspective.”
“The Tour de France Women with Zwift is a competition that has brought a lot to women’s cycling in just one edition. All the female riders now only dream of taking part in this race which has become one of the most important of the season. It is the leading event for men, and I hope that the mirror effect will work in the same way for us, with all that this competition can bring to cycling. Starting the Tour de France is special because it starts in our country, and then this event appears on the competition calendar under the name “Grand Tour”. The name Tour de France has become a label over the years, and associating women with it is a proof of modernity. Everyone knows the Tour, including non-specialists. I dream of racing in a Grand Tour, especially the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift. I hope that our team will be selected and that I will have the chance to compete in the second edition of this magnificent event.”
“The route of the Tour de France Women with Zwift is like last year balanced with stages for sprinters, medium mountains, summit finishes and others with a profile similar to the classics. The novelty this year is the individual time trial that will conclude the race. The organisation will be orchestrated like last year with great professionalism on the part of ASO, and it is obvious that for us it would be a great pride to be able to compete in the 2nd edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift. We have several girls with these qualities in our squad for the sprint stages, and we will also have a rider capable of doing great things in the mountain stages, who also has the ability to compete in the intermediate stages.”
“The Tour de France Women with Zwift 2022 has opened a new era for all female riders, including those of the Arkéa Pro Cycling Team. Discovering the very high level during an intense week of racing and highlighting their performances were the benefits of this involvement of both ASO and the name Tour de France towards women’s cycling. The public’s support was total, too. This extension of the Tour’s great celebration by a week will take on a new impetus this summer, with a route reminiscent of the great hours of the men’s Tour, even if the two events will eventually become, in my opinion, inseparable. The Massif Central, a finish at the top of the Tourmalet, then a final individual time trial, embellish the route of this 2nd Tour de France for women. Places and a discipline that have made it possible to write the legend of the Tour de France, and that will allow the “coureures” to write their own. My dearest wish is of course that the Arkéa Pro Cycling Team will once again take part in this cycling festival, which contributes to the evolution of our sport in its women’s section.”