Demi Vollering claimed Tour de France victory in Pau to end Annemiek van Vleuten’s period of dominance in the grand tours. A stunning performance on the Col du Tourmalet annihilated all her rivals, including AVV, who had to settle for 4th place overall. Is pro women’s cycling now Vollering’s world and we’re all just living in it? Dan rounds up all the week’s action.
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00:00 Intro
00:52 This Week in Racing
01:44 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
08:29 Coming up on GCN+
11:01 Clásica San Sebastián
12:36 Circuit de Getxo
13:03 Tour of Poland
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Who do you think will be able to challenge Vollering in the coming years? 🤔 Let us know in the comments below! 💬
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35 Comments
Who do you think will be able to challenge Vollering in the coming years? 🤔
First
Bravo tour de france femmes !! So amazing to watch
Congratulation!!!
I know I'll get heat for this but that SD Works unit looks so suspicious to me, especially Vollering. Decent but not great rider last year to winning everything (along with Kopecky). What other female riders have improved that much in that time?
Great last two stages by Vollering, Kopecki was strong. I'm curious to know how Vollering lost last year's TDF to 39-year-old Van Vleuton. Should not have happened, but nice to break through this season.
He femmes tour is so great and fabulously.. But the remco show is over hyped for nothing…
pro commentary. I am I the only one who thinks the female tour is more interesting than the men's?
In cycling racing is just simply racing. Racing is always exciting. So in this sport it's just equal. I hope all get paid the same!
The most refreshing thing about the Tourmalet stage was actually having TV coverage of the entire race.
with all due respect to Demi Vollering because she deserves to win, but it pains me to see all the strange energy between them from the same team. There is a dominant ego that is probably what makes them win or be more competitive.
Good report. However, sometimes not sure who is more important? The presenter or the the cyclists?
You seemed to have missed the point with the Demi Vollering drafting infringement @gcnracing – My understanding is that key problem was the SD Worx DS, Danny Stam, moving past the other team cars on the left with the rider behind. When moving up the convoy in those circumstances, the rider's team car should stay behind the rider. A dangerous situation, and Vollering came close to going through the rear window of the car. (Ask Adam for clarification) 😉
👍👍👍👍👍👍❤❤❤❤👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
GCN+ Subscription, is it worth it for us overseas, no TDF, no TDF femme and now no world champs.
Demi is a very strong and talented cyclist no one can challenge that.
I think there should be a bright light shined on Lotte. She carried SDWs and the yellow for the entire race.
Lotte needs to find a team where she would leader Were Lotte a team leader last week, I believe the results may have been different.
Overall the TDFF was edge of my seat exciting. I was fortunate to watch every minute of the entire tour.
I give all of these gals a million KUDOS, From the youngest to the veterans, all shined magnificently!!♥️🥰
THAT WAS AMAZING FINISH BUT l thinK it should be at least 14 stages and few laps of Champs Elyeess to finish would make it a PROPER ENDING !!
I Love all these ladies , but I have to say ANNEMIEK HAS BEEN AN IDOL IN MY OWN JOURNEY!!!
The torch has been passed. All hail queen Demi. The undisputed champion. What a season she has had. Dominant is an understatement. Destroying. This season has put her on GOAT mountain. Can she add world champion to her palmares ?
Kasia is a legend who's consistency over the years has been remarkable. Always in the leading group. One of the big dogs. She races with a pure heart. And she is progressing.
Lotte Kopecky is a straight machine. To unexpectedly finish 2nd at the Tour de France after leading it for the majority is almost as impressive as what Demi did.
I first saw Lotte Kopecky as an unknown teenage sprinter at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She did a 2 hour solo breakaway along the beautiful Rio de Janeiro coastline. It was clearly evident that she was much more than just a sprinter. She finished down the order after that mammoth effort , but the hilly terrain showed she would be a good clsssics rider. And her climbing performance up the mighty Tourmalet, and subsequent beastly time trial, signals to me that she will be shifting teams in the very near future. Where should she go ?
Lotte Kopecky came 2nd at the World championships and 4th at the Olympics. She will prove a very formidable challenge to Demi's throne. Especially if she continues to build on her already impressive climbing. The big one day races are definitely up for grabs. Demi Vollering vs Lotte Kopecky could be the new Annemiek Van Vleuten vs Anna Van der breggen who also rode together in an all powerful team, in Rabobank. Competing queen bee energy inevitably led to Annemiek seeking her own team. It's the "this team ain't big enough for the both of us" mentality. Subsequently, their ensuing battles over the years were legendary. I forsee a similar scenario.
Annemiek is an example of someone that reinvented themselves into a pure climber. At the Rio Olympics, the commentators didn't even mention her as a possible favourite. Why ? Because she had never shown this ability before. She smoked everyone but american superclimber Mara Abott up the final brutal jungle mountain climb, including her teammate Anna Van der breggen, who was supposed to be the one. Her along with fellow legends Elisa Longo Borghini and Emma Johansson of Sweden, we're a minute back, with Lizzy Armistead (Deignan), Kasia Newiadoma, and Olympic Mountain Bike champion Jolanda Neff. 10 seconds behind. Legends chasing legends. What an amazing race that was. Legendary.
I saw two things happen on Tourmalet. Yes, Vollering won and did so with a darn good gap over everyone else. Van Vleuten finished 3rd, and then 14th the next day. So, yes, Vollering stepped up and reached a new level this season. But, Van Vleuten was also not what she has been in the past, not sure why. And, the time penalty did not matter. Vollering won by 3 minutes with the penalty.
Van Vleuten has had a womderful career. Sad to see her perform as she did near the end of it, but she has won so many times.
Can the UCI do something constructive and please ban those ugly AF specialized TT helmets.
Is seeing the champions consigned to sitting in the gutter after winning a good look for the sport?
Weird vibes from Vollering and SD works.
Don’t like having such a dominant team.
Hopefully others can step up to the plate!
Vollering's age defeated Annemiek's age. The Vollering of 2023 could not defeat the Annemiek of 2022. Finally… Annemiek's age caught up with her in 2023 that was apparent during the Classics.
"Changing Of The Guard At The Tour De France Femmes Avec Zwift!" That title is not a word to world match, period. The "climbers" proved in women's cycling there is not a guard. Blatantly, brazenly obvious in that Theatre of the Absurd misnamed as a grand tour.
I found this on a website, Tour de France: Let's Rank the Climbs
1. Col du Tourmalet – West Side (HC)
No surprise that Tourmalet is the hardest climb…it's the second biggest climb of the Tour…On paper, this is the best stage and best climb of the Tour.
Someone with the characteristics of Lotte Kopecky placed fifth, on the Col du Tourmalet, in a bloody grand tour–think about that! Someone with the characteristics of Lotte Kopecky placed second in a bloody grand tour–wrap your heads around that!
Boring.
Chris Froome won the points jersey and the 2017 Vuelta, did I just out remember Cillian?
The mistake Bilbao (and companions) made was ever pulling with Evenepoel in the first place.
I watched in US
I was extremely disappointed when i tuned in to stage 8 and found that Hannah Walker was gone, and she had been replaced by commentators who did not even know the names of the riders. Such disrespect.
Also, it seems like it's finally time for Phil to retire…
Amazing win 🥇
RIP Magnus White 🇺🇸
About the SD Works drafting, there was no mention of the dangerous driving (driving through the convoy passing quite closely other dropped riders, breaking risking sending Vollering through the rear window, etc.) or the fact that the out-and-out strongest team somehow couldn't drop back any riders to pace their team leader back into the bunch. Vollering definitely deserves the overall win, but this incident was definitely problematic.
I really like Lotte Kopecky as a rider and I loved following her progress over the years from decent sprinter, but 'second wheel' behind Jolien D’Hoore to the most complete female Belgian rider ever. However, it says a lot about the course of this TdF Femmes that she was able to finish second in front of the true climbers in the peloton. This 'grand tour' desperately needs more mountain stages.
Not a fan of this year's tdf femme. The tourmalet stage was the only one relevant for the cg battle and that is, at least to me, the most exciting part of the tour.
I think it's a shame the women didn't get nearly as exciting a course as the men.
Thanks
Don't you think Manon – GCN's only female presenter – could've done this one? I am growing pained with the lack of diversity on GCN. To have a male do the wrap up on the Tour de France Femme is the last straw. Sorry boys, here we come…
Guys you why do you come so late with full out recap and analysis after big races. And when you do, you forget to mention important events and names. Come on we've moved on already.