The spotlight will soon turn to the Tour de France Femmes and just like when a women’s edition of the French Grand Tour last ran between 1984 and 1989, there is a strong Australian contingent with ambition for both stage victories and the overall.
Back then it was an Australian national team lining up, with riders including Olympic gold medallist Kathy Watts, current AusCycling Director of Pathways Donna Rae-Szalinski and Elizabeth Hepple, who finished onthe overall podium in 1988. This time, the riders from the nation will be spread across a variety of professional teams, with the biggest contingent, not surprisingly, expected to come from BikeExchange-Jayco.
That Australian-based professional team is also the home to one of the biggest overall hopes, in Amanda Spratt, who has twice stood on the podium of the Giro d’Italia Donne. She has long been considered one of the nation’s top stage racers and looks the most likely immediate potential successor to Hepple now that a women’s Tour de France has returned.
Though, it’s not just about the overall and the nation has certainly has other options for results in the tour from July 24 to 31. These include BikeExchange-Jayco’s Alexandra Manly and Ruby Roseman-Gannon in the sprints to the enormous break potential of Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) and Rachel Neylan (Cofidis).
Final confirmed start lists are yet to be released but based on team announcement and preliminary lists Cyclingnews has taken a closer look at the eight Australian riders expected to be lining up in Paris.
As a rider who has twice been third overall at the Giro d’Italia Donne Amanda Spratt is an obvious hope for a top GC result, but it hasn’t been the easiest couple of seasons or so for the rider. Spratt had to grapple with a period of unexplained underperformance before it was ultimately discovered that she had Iliac artery endofibrosis. Though, now she has had surgery to address the issue and some time to recover and rebuild the racing form.
The signs were good through the early stages of this year’s Italian Grand Tour that Spratt was once again becoming a rider that can have ambitions to compete with the world’s best on the toughest terrain, though then she had to make an early COVID-19 induced departure. It wasn’t the ideal rebuild scenario but, if the coronavirus didn’t set her back too much, the Tour de France Femmes could be the…
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