La Course by Le Tour de France

Aoibheann

Five years after the final Tour de France Feminin and a year on from this petition (and the corresponding Cycling forum thread here), La Course will be taking place tomorrow. It's a 90km race on the Champs Elysées, consisting of 13 laps of 6.85km:



One of the core campaigners of Le Tour Entier - the movement that led to this race happening - Marianne Vos is, as always, one of the big favourites for this race. She's not a pure sprinter by any means, but you can guarantee that she'll be there or thereabouts on such a major occasion. Others to look out for are Kirsten Wild (the fastest straight-line sprinter in the women's peleton), Lizzie Armistead and Giorgia Bronzini. The race will also feature two other members of the Le Tour Entier movement, Emma Pooley and Kathryn Bertine. The final member, Chrissie Wellington (four time Ironman World Champion) serves as ambassador to the race. You'll find a provisional startlist here, along with a race preview here.

The race kicks off at 12:50 local time and will be shown on ITV4 and Eurosport. It's a major start in a long, long path to reform in women's cycling, so hopefully it will draw the viewers it deserves. Anyone planning to watch?

EDIT: Nice article in the Guardian by the wonderful William Fotheringham.

bazermc

My 4 year old daughter keeps asking me daddy why are there only men in your cycling.

I am going to sit down tomorrow and watch this with her.

Well try to get her to watch something other than doc mac stuffins.

QueensGael

Looking forward to it! It starts on Eurosport at 12.30

Aoibheann

Shame that most channels only started showing the last 30-40km of the race. There's been a lot of digs so far, but it's going to be near impossible for anyone to get away on such a short race. Should be a pretty interesting bunch sprint though... Hopefully next year it'll be extended into a short stage race, would be great to have more than just a flat 90km race - it's really not much of a spectacle.

Aoibheann

Vos just pipped Kirsten Wild there, no surprises to see those two on top. The strength of Vos at the end was pretty amazing, just completely powered past Wild.

Armitstead got caught up in a crash, which was pretty unfortunate. I'd say she'd have been in with a shot otherwise - she looked to be in great form, easily closing down breaks throughout the race.

Darkglasses

Average speed 68.3kph. Astonishing

buffalo

I wonder if Vos ever has a moment like Alexander the Great: "When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."

ednwireland

Aoibheann wrote: »

Vos just pipped Kirsten Wild there, no surprises to see those two on top. The strength of Vos at the end was pretty amazing, just completely powered past Wild.

Armistead got caught up in a crash, which was pretty unfortunate. I'd say she'd have been in with a shot otherwise - she looked to be in great form, easily closing down breaks throughout the race.

ambulance heading down the course hope its not for lizzie she got the commonwealth games to sort out

edit itv just said just seen lizzie rolling in phew

QueensGael

Very exciting finish, poor Farrand-Prevot

buffalo

wtf did LeMond just say? "Lots of women are riding bikes now, lots of women are making decisions for their husbands..." And sure they'll be voting next!

dastardly00

Darkglasses wrote: »

Average speed 68.3kph. Astonishing

Holy fcuk! :eek:

Inquitus

Darkglasses wrote: »

Average speed 68.3kph. Astonishing

That was wrong, it took just over two hours, and was 89km long, average was 44.2kph

Aoibheann

Pretty sure the above was the speed at the finish. Vos certainly looked to be at that speed coming over the line!

Caroline_ie

I watched it and I was extremely frustrated by the lack of knowledge from the commentators. They had no idea who was who. I'm surprised they weren't calling the riders by the colour of their kit. "the blond girl in yellow"

At some point they called one of the best sprinter/crit riders in the world "a dark horse" while she was one of the favourite to win the race.

Glad the race happened, but disappointed by the coverage.

Would elaborate but I'm injured, can't type fast ...

Dermot Illogical

Aoibheann wrote: »

Pretty sure the above was the speed at the finish. Vos certainly looked to be at that speed coming over the line!

The average was over 44kph, but they were hitting 70 or so at the finish.
I enjoyed watching it. Thanks for posting. I'd have missed it if you hadn't.

Aoibheann

Caroline_ie wrote: »

I watched it and I was extremely frustrated by the lack of knowledge from the commentators. They had no idea who was who. I'm surprised they weren't calling the riders by the colour of their kit. "the blond girl in yellow"

At some point they called one of the best sprinter/crit riders in the world "a dark horse" while she was one of the favourite to win the race.

Glad the race happened, but disappointed by the coverage.

Would elaborate but I'm injured, can't type fast ...

Oh god, a lot of them were absolutely clueless. Actually watched some of it on ITV4 so was lucky to hear Rochelle Gilmore (Wiggle Honda owner) commentate. Thankfully she was rather more clued in than the average commentator.

Coverage as a whole was desperate, it could easily have started 1.5 hours earlier. A bit of build-up wouldn't have gone amiss either. If the UCI are claiming this as a massive victory for women's cycling, they're sorely mistaken. Could hopefully be a stepping stone to something bigger though, I don't see Pooley, Wellington et al letting go of this!

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

The average was over 44kph, but they were hitting 70 or so at the finish.
I enjoyed watching it. Thanks for posting. I'd have missed it if you hadn't.

Yeah, that's what I suspected alright. Certainly looked to be around the 70kph mark!

And no problem, delighted that the thread succeeding in having at least one more person watching the race. The more viewers, the better the prospects for women's cycling in the future.

Inquitus

Great win by Vos, watched it on eurosport, good showpiece for womens cycling, if a rather boring parcours. I note the winner only gets €6k, the prize money is very poor. I got 40 quid for a prime and an unplaced A4 thats only 60 yoyos off what 11th got here!

Prize money[edit]
The total prize money of the race is €22,500. In total €17,500 will be awarded to the best 20 riders of the individual time classification, €3,500 to the first 3 riders in the sprint classification and €2,000 to the first three riders of the young rider classification.[4]

Position[4] 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th – 20th Total
Time classification €6,000 €4,000 €2,000 €1,000 €800 €700 €600 €400 €300 €200 €100 €17,500
Sprint classification €2,000 €1,000 €500 - - - - - - - - €3,500
Young rider classification €1,000 €600 €400 - - - - - - - - €2,000

buffalo

Inquitus wrote: »

Prize money

Better than the Giro Rosa - €525 for 1st on GC!

http://velofocus.com/2014/giro-rosa-prize-money-jerseys/

fat bloke

Do the ladies races ever hit the big climbs or col's? No reason why that wouldn't be as entertaining as the mens. To paraphrase Wayne's World - broadcast it and they will watch.

buffalo

https://twitter.com/AstanaTeam/status/493495203228291072

The world's greatest cyclist meets... @vincenzonibali #tdfselfie #astanaproteam @marianne_vos

MB Lacey

Sorry to say I found the coverage of this really, really disappointing.
The 13 laps round the Champs Elysees was boring.
In comparison to some of the other Women's races which we've managed to garner TV highlights from this year (Tour of Britain, Giro Rosa, Ras na Mban!), I found this dull.

Add to the monotony of the course the most boring commentator in the world and wow you've got some show!
Way to promote women's cycling.
Marty eeerrrr, eeerrr MacDonald was so frustrating and dull, it was like listening to a stoned Steve Davis talk cycling.
So far off the mark for the occassion that it was.
The other commentator Ottilie Quince (a female, they found one!) didn't really seem to get a word in.
I felt their knowledge was there, but who could be bothered listening to a guy who sounded like he couldn't really be bothered commentating?

Frustrating because the programmes and commentary especially during the women's Tour of Britain was really good (Hugh Porter, Jose Been and Ned Boulting).

How great it would have been for Eurosport/ ITV to have funded a programme of interviews/ history of women's cycling and shown it before the race.
Also a piece on the 40 women who cycled 600km to mark the start of the race? (boards own Nak was one of the women!) would have been a nice touch.

I was gutted to see Lizzie Armitstead go down in the last km, she just doesn't have the luck, ongoing stomach problems, punctures, crashes - it's a love/hate thing watching her in big races.
Thankfully she'll be ok for next Sunday.

Great win again for Vos, she's unbelievable.