The 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will reportedly begin with a Grande Départ in Clermont-Ferrand, the capital of Auvergne region, located in the Massif Central on July 23.
The eight-day Women’s WorldTour race, set to take place from July 23-30 next summer, may include multiple stages in the Auvergne region with speculation that a mountain stage could include Puy de Dôme.
According to a report in La Montagne (opens in new tab) on Wednesday, Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse recently visited the Auvergne region to consider its potential to host multiple stages of next year’s event.
The Tour de France Femmes is set begin in Clermont-Ferrand on the same day as the concluding stage 21 of the men’s race annually held in Paris.
However, the Auvergne region and Clermont-Ferrand will reportedly also host the men’s Tour de France with a mountain stage 9 finish to Puy de Dôme on July 9, a rest day on July 10, a stage 10 from Vulcania to Issoire on July 11 and stage 11 is likely to run from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins on July 12.
Clermont-Ferrand Mayor Olivier Bianchi said that gender equality was an important factor in its bid to host the opening stage of the women’s race.
“We have made gender equality an important point in our sports policy,” Bianchi said. “So, we said we were happy that the Tour de France for women was starting up again and that Clermont could potentially be on the program for this event.”
Rousse, who was named the director of the Tour de France Femmes last year, has reportedly visited Clermont-Ferrand to validate the city as host organisers.
Her visit was reportedly not only concerned with Clermont-Ferrand as a host of the Grande Départ, but also to discuss stage 2 and the potential for it to be held between Saint-Genès-Champanelle (Puy-de-Dôme) and Mauriac (Cantal).
Moving away from Paris circuit-race opens new race opportunities
The Grand Départ of the rebirth of the Tour de France Femmes last year was held in conjunction with the men’s event as a circuit race in on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The women’s race then travelled north east to the Vosges mountains and finished atop La Super Planche des Belles Filles.
While many had hoped for the event to visit the iconic Tour de France mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees, there were obvious challenges and limitations to how much of countryside the Tour de France Femmes could traverse in…
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