To summarize the eight days of racing at the 2023 Tour de France avec Zwift in one word could be attempted with ‘thrilling’. From the first decisive breakaway by Lotte Kopecky to put her in yellow to the final weekend on the winning attack on Col du Tourmalet to keep the maillot jaune with Team SD Worx by eventual champion Demi Vollering, it was a full week of action with unexpected story lines each day.
The punctuation mark of the Tour was made by the Dutch squad in the stage 8 time trial in Pau, as Vollering finished second and stood on the stage podium between her teammates Marlen Reusser and Lotte Kopecky. All eight days saw the yellow jersey on the shoulders of just two teammates, beginning with Kopecky for six days and then moving to Vollering for the final two, and Kopecky taking the green jersey and second overall. Team SD Worx won four of the eight stages with four different riders.
However, the race had a plethora of pivotal moments and an abundance of unpredictable outcomes, including Vollering overcoming a 20-second time penalty, two race directors being tossed from the race, as well as both sprinter Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich) and defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) held winless.
Positive stories included Niewiadoma’s strong performance to claim the mountains classification and a spot on the podium, finishing just 21 hundredths of a second behind Kopecky for third overall. There was a different stage winner each day, with half of them scoring a first-time win on the world’s biggest stage.
And French fans proved they love Le Tour, be it the men’s race or the women’s race. They were rewarded with performances by French riders such as Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health), who was the virtual leader on stage 4, Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich), who finished fifth overall, and Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), who won the best young riders jersey.
Cyclingnews Women’s Editor Kirsten Frattini and contributor Lukas Knöfler were on the ground at the Tour de France Femmes and captured the highlights of the race.
SD Worx race through controversy, end up on top
Team SD Worx came into the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes with one goal – to win the yellow jersey. However, their road to get there was not as smooth as many might have expected.
Off to a winning start, Lotte Kopecky, who said she…
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