When the Amaury Sports Organisation unveiled the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route last October, it felt like a watershed moment for the race. Not only would the Tour culminate on the famed Alpe d’Huez, but it would start with its first-ever foreign Grand Départ, a feature that has become common in the men’s race and a sign of the event’s stature and international appeal.
It was a big moment, but immediately attracted some questions. Why a split-stage day? How would that work? Would the racing on Dutch roads be too hectic? Why so little time in actual France? As the race approached, those questions only intensified, with some riders and teams getting increasingly excited, whilst others began to really wonder if this would work, even going as far as criticising the whole thing.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, ASO’s ambitious, untested Grand Départ experiment came to fruition, as the Tour bubble descended on Rotterdam for pre-race preparations and three stages of racing. How did it all go down?
After months of anticipation, the reaction has been mixed. For many Dutch riders, it’s been an emotional homecoming, with some saying that only the Paris start in 2022 has surpassed Rotterdam in terms of crowds and excitement at a women’s race. The special moment was enough to give Demi Vollering a few extra watts as she powered to a somewhat surprising victory in stage 3’s time trial, with the defending champion emotional at claiming such a win in front of an adoring crowd. The same is true for stage 1 and 2 winner Charlotte Kool, another home-country star.
For others around the peloton and the race, though, the words used to describe the last few days have not been so kind – the emotions ran high, but not in a positive way. From the inherently risky terrain of flat, twisty, furnitured Dutch roads, to the highly contentious split day on Tuesday, there’s been plenty to complain about for the team managers and those who have to deal with the logistics, the fallout, the hard parts of racing.
As the curtain started to close on a full-on few days in Rotterdam, we surveyed voices around the race to see how it had all been received.
The view from the inside the peloton
With the number of crashes, the tense racing, and the tiring split day, it would be easy to expect the riders to be a little down on this race start, especially those who have already seen teammates hit the deck on stage 1 or lose time across stages 2 and 3. The reality, though, is that the peloton is pretty thrilled about it.
“I was super excited and proud that we could do it here,” said Lidl-Trek’s Lucinda Brand, who had the honour of starting at home in Dordrecht on Tuesday. “It turned out to be really amazing. I think if we look to how many people have been outside cheering us, then I think we can say it was a good one.”
Brand’s compatriots Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool have also been raving about the start, and it’s not surprising that the Dutchies are so happy, but it’s a sentiment shared by the neutrals of the bunch, too.
“All the people standing along the side of the road, we are not used to this,” Norway’s Katrine Aalerud, and the Uno-X Mobility leader has seen a fair few bike races in her eight seasons as a pro. “For us it’s quite special to have so many people showing up and supporting us, it gives so much energy. The flat is not my favourite part, but just being here and seeing all the people cheering, it gives so much joy for us. I hope we can be inspiring for all the small kids here.”
“I think I would like to see it included again,” was Pfeiffer Georgi’s assessment. The DSM Firmenich-PostNL road captain added, “This has been a really great show. Each year the crowds have got better, with the excitement around women’s cycling, it’s really amazing to see.”
“I think it’s been really cool,” said Roland’s Maggie Coles-Lyster. “This is my first Tour de France, so I don’t know what the crowds have been like in previous years, but this has been the coolest fans and crowds that I’ve ever seen, and Rotterdam’s a pretty cool city.”
Amongst the positives, there was a lot of recognition for the downsides too – part of this is being in the Netherlands and the tight roads, but also just the start of such a prestigious, pressurised race.
“It almost feels like we’re back into the Classics,” said Liv AlUla Jayco’s Amber Pate, who went down heavily in stage 2’s finale. “It’s much more hectic, flat racing, so it’s about positioning through the corners and the narrow roads. I really enjoyed it though; it makes it a part of the Tour, but definitely more hectic.”
Though that’s part of racing, some people haven’t hidden their disapproval about this start, particularly the teams who have purely general classification ambitions. FDJ-Suez manager Stephen Delcourt has been vocal about his displeasure about this start – “For sure we are not happy” he said on Tuesday morning – and other team managers complained about the stress of the logistics of the race. Delcourt’s GC hope Évita Muzic was not thrilled about being in Rotterdam and was just focused on surviving.
“I just want to be safe today and get past these two days, and after it will be more comfortable for me,” she said. “Yesterday lots of people were there for all the race and it was really amazing. We can really see that it’s a country of cyclists so it was nice, but for sure I’d prefer to be in France.”
However, the Tour is not just for the GC riders, and part of winning this race overall is getting through the days that aren’t meant for you whilst other riders get a chance at victory.
“It’s even more stressful for them here, and you don’t want to lose too much time, you don’t want to crash, so it takes a lot of mental stress of course, but that’s part of being a GC rider; it’s not always so fun,” Brand summed up.
The bigger picture
Of course, how riders and teams feel about the races is important, but that’s not the thing that necessarily defines success. For the external stakeholders, things like crowds, visibility and media coverage and the metrics they’ll use to measure how well this race went, and on all fronts the answer is pretty positive.
The most obvious win so far is the crowds. Fans have turned out in their thousands, and that’s not by accident: we’re in a country that loves cycling, especially women’s cycling, but the start of the race has also been designed with fans in mind. City-centre racing, public transport-friendly routes, and a schedule that could allow you to see a ton of racing across the two days, attracting spectators from not just the local region but plenty of traveling fans too. From the fan’s perspective, the Grand Départ offers a lot of bang for your buck, and it gets people out watching.
Moving the race start to Monday instead of Sunday was to blame for the controversial split stage, but it also meant the race didn’t have to compete with the Olympics in terms of television coverage, and that is a positive. We’ll have to wait for official TV figures, but the immediate image seems positive, with fairly extensive broadcast coverage and plenty of broadcasters here on the ground.
On the media side, there are a couple of drawbacks. Mainly, there is a distinct lack of French media here. Recovering from the Olympics, and also having to travel out of France (which is an ask for a media corps not always so dedicated to women’s racing) has turned many publications off, and writers from titles like L’Équipe are missing (the Amaury-owned publication does have at least one photographer present). Major media outlets like L’Equipe are vital for getting the women’s race in front of the Tour-mad French public, and not having them here for the start is a disappointment to many.
Lastly, for the city of Rotterdam, having this event has been huge. Over the weekend, their cycling festival attracted almost 14,000 cyclists to the city, taking advantage of the car-free roads on Sunday and the chance to ride parts of the Tour de France Femmes course in various public, corporate and fan rides. Of these were 154 women who learnt to cycle in the 100 days prior to the race, thanks to ex-pro Leontien van Moorsel’s Rotterdam Peloton project. More than 6,000 bikes have been donated to give children and lower income residents access to cycling, 8,500 children have been educated about cycling safety, that list goes on. When the Tour comes to town, the whole place benefits.
Where next?
As we prepare to leave Rotterdam and start a winding journey to France – via another day in the BeNeLux – the question seems to be less “Will ASO do this again?” and more “When will they do it again?”
With learnings from the slightly ill-thought-out split stage, another TdFF Grand Départ on foreign soil is sure to fit into this race again soon, as ASO try to spread the reach of this growing race, and capitalise on the rapid rise of women’s sport.
Next year’s domestic Grand Départ in Brittany is already booked, but 2026 and beyond is a blank canvas for ASO, with plenty of good numbers and stories to sell to the next potential host city.
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