If and when opportunity knocks, Grace Brown will be there to open the door on an early stint in the coveted yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The Australian’s priority is to support FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope’s leader Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig in the race for the overall title. Still, she sees plenty of chances to make her mark on the race in the early stages and potentially become the next Australian to wear the leader’s jersey at the Tour since Rohan Dennis.
“I think we would be happy with it if we got the yellow jersey in one of those earlier stages. Any day in the yellow jersey is something special, so we won’t shy away from taking it earlier in the race, just because there is the rest of the race to go,” Brown told Cyclingnews in an interview just days out from the Grand Départ in Paris on Sunday.
“Particularly, if it were me who got the yellow jersey, then there wouldn’t be too much stress about defending that position because I’m not the GC rider on our team. It would be a thing to soak up and enjoy, though, without the pressure for the rest of the Tour de France.”
Brown is in her first season racing with FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope, and she was brought in for the Spring Classics and her strengths in the stage races. For example, she was recently second overall in the Women’s Tour. She told Cyclingnews that she would look for opportunities on stage 3’s climbs into Épernay and on stage 4 across the gravel roads into Bar-Sur-Aube.
“Our priority is the general classification, Cecilie is our lead rider, and we have Marta, who we expect to be very strong in the mountains. However, there are some stages earlier in the race where I might be given more free opportunities to try and get a stage result, obviously, with no risk to our GC position. If we can do both, that’s awesome, but if we have to choose one, it’s the GC,” Brown said.
“The last two stages will be where the GC is really decided, but I think there will be some splits in the GC on stages 3 and 4. Stage 3 is super hard with steep climbs, and I expect splits in the peloton to see how things will order out. Also, stage 4 with the gravel will be a difficult day. They won’t be the deciding stages because the long mountain climbs will do that later in the race, but you can lose GC on those two hard stages mid-Tour.”
The French team has steadily grown in recent years with specific goals for success at Tour de France Femmes, signing Danish Champion Uttrup Ludwig in 2020 and Marta Cavalli in 2021….
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