Issue 129 - Tour de France Femmes

It’s a long way from Rotterdam to L’Alpe d’Huez, as the Women’s WorldTour peloton is going to discover for the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes. For the first time, the Tour Femmes starts outside its home country, but what better place than cycling-crazy Netherlands to make this landmark debut? It will then head for its denouement on the Dutch Mountain. Rotterdam to the Alpe may be a long way physically, but perhaps the start and finish of the 2024 Tour Femmes are not so far apart culturally.

Rouleur 130: Tour de France Femmes is devoted to the biggest race in women’s cycling. Rotterdam native and ex-pro Iris Slappendel gives us a guided Tour of the coolest spots in the city, while Illi Gardner, the Strava QOM holder on the Alpe, tells us about her unique approach to bagging fast times on the world’s hardest climbs. We have interviews with Tour protagonists Niamh Fisher-Black and Mavi García, as well as with Joane Somarriba, three-time winner of the Grande Boucle Féminine, the former equivalent of the Tour, and Fabiana Luperini, who won the Giro-Tour double three times consecutively in the mid-1990s.

The tagline of the Tour de France Femmes is ‘Watch the Femmes.’ To which we would add: ‘Read the magazine.’

WHAT’S IN THE MAG? ARTICLE SUMMARIES

The haves and have-nots, by Jeremy Whittle

Women’s cycling is bigger than it has ever been, with more and more money coming into the sport. But is the wealth that is concentrating at the top of the cycling pyramid leaving those further down the hierarchy fighting over crumbs?

Niamh Fisher-Black: home from home, by Rachel Jary

Niamh Fisher-Black is one of the most exciting talents in the Women’s WorldTour. She tells Rouleur about the challenges of moving halfway round the world to pursue a dream and why stability and performance each feed off each other.

Mavi García: just a number, by India Paine

Mavi García was a late starter in cycling, but she has emerged to become one of the greatest cyclists ever to come from her native Spain. She tells Rouleur why she is better than ever at 40, and how she is targeting all three Grand Tours in 2024.

This could be Rotterdam, by James Startt

Rotterdam will be the host city for the first ever foreign Grand Départ in the Tour de France Femmes. Who better than local ex-pro, media personality and clothing designer Iris Slappendel to take us around the most interesting sights and the coolest spots in this vibrant city?

Illi Gardner: the call of the mountains, by India Paine

The holder of the Strava Queen of the Mountains segment on L’Alpe d’Huez, which features for the first time in the modern iteration of the Tour de France Femmes in 2024, is not Demi Vollering, or Annemiek van Vleuten, or Anna van der Breggen, or any other of the greats of the Women’s WorldTour. Instead it is an amateur British rider who has turned away from the road racing scene to focus on setting records on climbs around the world. Meet Illi Gardner, owner of more QOMs – 9,000+ – than anybody else in the world.

Vittoria Bussi: the accidental cyclist, by Herbie Sykes

Vittoria Bussi achieved a historic landmark in 2023 by setting a new women’s World Hour Record and becoming the first female rider to breaking the 50-kilometre barrier. And she did so despite having an ambivalent relationship, at best, with competitive cycling and even cycling itself. Rouleur meets a fascinating, unique individual who has never been afraid to go against the grain.

London Calling, by Conor Courtney

RideLondon Classique is one of the most prestigious events on the Women’s WorldTour and a rare occasion for British cycling fans to see their heroines racing on British roads. Rouleur sent photographer Conor Courtney out onto the roads of Essex and London to capture the atmosphere, landscape and people of the race.

Fabiana Luperini: queen of the mountains, by Herbie Sykes

Tadej Pogačar has been feted for his achievement in winning the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same season, becoming the first man to do so since Marco Pantani in 1998. How, then, should we view the career of Fabiana Luperini, the climber who won three consecutive Giro-Tour doubles in the women’s races between 1995 and 1997? We meet a rider who trained with, and often dropped, her counterparts in the men’s peloton, and dominated the climbs despite almost no support from her home federation.

Joane Somarriba: “I wanted to eat up the world” by Olga Àbalos

Basque rider Joane Somarriba dominated women’s cycling at the turn of the century, winning three Tours and two Giro titles. An outspoken individual who has come back to working in the sport for the first time in 20 years as an advisor for the Laboral Kutxa team, Somarriba reflects on how hard it was for her to build a career as a champion cyclist, but at the same time, that she wouldn’t change a thing.

Art Cycle: I’d rather get off and ride, by James Startt

In our regular Art Cycle feature, Rouleur looks at the life and career of Faith Ringgold, an African American artist whose illustrations for a beloved children’s book in 2017 showed the bicycle as a means of escape, freedom and expression, just as it is for millions of people worldwide.