Wiebes. Wiebes. Wiebes. It’s all anyone was talking about in the lead into the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France Femmes. It’s no wonder, really. The Team DSM rider has had a staggering 53 wins so far in her career – and she’s only 23-years-old. In the last race she competed in before la grande boucle, the Baloise Ladies Tour, Wiebes won every single road stage. A few weeks before that, she won three stages at the Women’s Tour, and a few weeks before that, she won every stage of the three-day Women’s WorldTour race, RideLondon Classique. A sprinter couldn’t wish for a better record.
The thing is, Wiebes is unstoppable when she gets a sniff at the line. She sprints like she was born to do it. Her body is rock solid as her legs do the talking, producing powerful, fluid pedal strokes that just make it impossible to stay on her wheel. She’s fearless as she weaves through the bunch and nails the apex of every single corner. On the bike, Wiebes exhibits the ruthless determination that’s necessary to become as prolific a winner as she is. “I have pure focus on the finish line” she said after today’s race.
Off it, Wiebes is a bit of an enigma. She is smiley, friendly and modest, and you can barely match her up to the rider who raced so furiously a few minutes before, masked by her helmet and glasses. After securing the first yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes, she walked into the press room wide-eyed, almost surprised that this wealth of journalists were there for her, to ask her questions. She spoke candidly about how she’d wanted each of her nails painted in the pattern of a different jersey colour in honour of racing the Tour for the first time, but her “nail artist didn’t have enough time so we decided to do just the two colours that were important to my Tour, yellow and green.”
Image: James Startt
In fact, Wiebes answers in interviews give little away in helping us understand how this 23-year-old has taken the cycling world by storm in recent years. While her rivals have been left scratching their heads trying to work out how they could possibly beat the Wiebes, she’s been getting a manicure, and, as she admitted, has not been getting caught up in the attention that comes with being the favourite to win the first stage of the women’s Tour de France. “I was fine with pressure. I was relaxed at the start, we did everything as normal,” she explained after the race.
There is something…