At 35 years old, Emilia Fahlin was not the oldest rider at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – that title goes to Liv AlUla Jayco’s Mavi García – but the Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider is the race’s oldest debutante.
Seventeen years older than the youngest rider in the bunch, 18-year-old Elyne Roussel of St Michel-Mavic-Auber93, Fahlin has seen more than most of the riders here, starting her pro career back in 2007 when she joined T-Mobile fresh out of the junior ranks.
She’s been on a wide range of teams since then, including some of the biggest in the world, but this year moved to Arkéa from FDJ-Suez, a decision somewhat motivated by the desire to race the Tour.
“When it started and I was on another very big French team, I knew it was going to be hard to get a spot there,” Fahlin told Escape Collective before stage 6. “That’s also a reason for me this year to look around, look for other opportunities, and to see that I can get to experience what I want to experience before I’m done with the sport.”
When she might be done, Fahlin isn’t sure – “I haven’t made a decision yet, keeping it a little bit open” – but with only a one-year contract at Arkéa, and never any guarantees in cycling, the Tour was a priority in what could be one of her final pro seasons.
“I obviously wanted to experience the Tour, it was one thing on my bucket list,” she said. “I’ve ticked most other things off so I really wanted to be here this year. It’s something to remember.”
One of the things that will make this race so memorable for Fahlin is how different it is from much of what she’s experienced during her 18-year career.
“It’s nice with the extra hype, you can feel it, especially for us women we’re not spoiled to have this [all the time].”
Compare this to how things were in 2007 for women’s cycling, and it’s almost unrecognisable.
“When I think about it, it feels like a lifetime ago, when you see all these different years,” Fahlin reflected. “You remember it, but it’s like in a different life somehow.
“I was quite lucky when I turned pro, because I got into one of the bigger teams. I think I was quite lucky having a good support the first years. But obviously when you start to think [to] back then, you thought it was a massive setup, but when you look to what it is now, it’s grown so much. I remember when we travelled we had one soigneur doing six massages, we travelled in one little van, and that was a good setup back then.”
These days, Fahlin’s Arkéa team have a full-sized bus, as most teams here do, as well as multiple mechanics, soigneurs, a dedicated press officer, two sports directors, and more. The goal is the same, but the support is much different.
“The professionalism has always been there, and the aim to be good within the team, but when you see the level now and where you need to be, also with the equipment and the support around, to make it through these races, it’s grown so much.
“Also the wages you see, in the top of the sport for the women it’s paying really well right now and it’s good. You do see some of the smaller teams still struggling, and that’s where I hope that we can still secure the main structure for the teams. But it’s been a huge development since I first started.”
Even though Arkéa would still be considered a relatively small outfit, not on the level that perhaps T-Mobile, Specialized-Lululemon or Wiggle-Honda – all Fahlin’s former teams – were, the base level of the sport has elevated dramatically in the past decade.
“The small teams now are bigger than the big teams were back then,” she said. “I still see a lot of the positive things, even when I started back then. We would have big races, big races for just the women, we still had races like being down in Drenthe in the Netherlands, and they were still big events and big organisations, and I experienced Worlds and stuff like this, so you had big moments. But now you have it more throughout the year, that’s one big difference.”
Despite only being in its third edition, the Tour de France Femmes has been a huge part of the sport’s development. It’s not necessarily as hard or long as some of the stage races Fahlin has experienced, but it brings some key differences in terms of attention and hype.
“I’ve done a lot of other tours and we had stage races in France, but to have something equal, like the same brand name, that’s big. I think for the general public that hits above the rest. I hope this keeps on expanding a little bit, I’m not sure we need a three-week Tour, but maybe some days longer would be ideal.”
As well as being there to experience what is undeniably the biggest women’s race in the world, Fahlin did have a role other than just participating. She supported some of Arkéa’s promising climbers, and also picked up a top-10 of her own on stage 1.
“I did end up enjoying the first days in Holland,” she said. “It was chaotic but somehow I got into a good mindset and I sort of enjoyed the chaos. The last couple of years I’ve been going more well on the flat, I’ve been working a lot with the flat squad and with the sprinters, so the first days were a really good experience and then now it’s just been about helping the team, helping the climbers, and making the race for time cut.”
Whether this was Fahlin’s last Tour, we’re yet to find out, but to make it there for her first was a special moment for the Swede, and perhaps the final puzzle piece in the career of one of the peloton’s most experienced riders.
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