Britain’s Lizzie Deignan was critical of the format of La Course after finishing a distant second, 1 min 52sec behind the Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten in the 22.5km finale in Marseille.
Having taken stage one at the summit finish on the Col d’Izoard with a lead of 43 seconds, Van Vleuten was favourite to win in Marseille as she started the pursuit race in with that same time advantage.
But the manner in which the Orica-Scott rider extended her lead over Deignan by 1min10sec was astounding and showed her time-trialling pedigree. It also meant the only sight she got of any other rider on the course was when she turned back on herself midway round the circuit to head towards the Stade-Vélodrome finish.
“The format needs some work – it was good but there is definitely work to be done,” Deignan said. “I’m open minded to the concept but it needs tidying up. I wish I had done a recon today - I was not expecting that climb. I thought of Thursday as a race but today was a bit of fun.”
In this revamped event, the riders started in intervals according their times gaps on the opening stage and Deignan chose to wait for Boels-Dolmans team-mate Megan Guarnier and the Italian champion, Wiggle-High’s Elisa Longo Borghini, in order to work together to close the gap but this tactic proved fruitless.
“Half the fun was thinking about what the others will do,” Van Vleuten said. “There were a lot of tactical scenarios. I talked too with my DS. For me it was logical that if they want to win they will have to come together and chase.
The previous three editions of La Course took place on the final Sunday of the Tour de France, with a sprint on the Champs-Élysées. Although the new format shows a desire to innovate, Deignan said it still fell short of requirements.
“There needs to be changes in modern cycling - you’ve got to give the consumer something new,” she said. “We got exposure today but it’s not where it needs to be – behind the scenes, in terms of logistics, we were left wondering what was going to happen at times but I enjoyed the crowds, it’s not something we get that often.”
