The way is open for a new winner in Sunday’s La Course, with the undisputed No1 in women’s cycling, Marianne Vos, taking the rest of the season off to recover from a hamstring injury and a broken rib. Vos won the inaugural event last year and her absence should lead to a more open race.
The tête d’affiche will be France’s world road-race and cyclo-cross champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, a charismatic 23-year-old from Alsace, who is set to be one of the stars of Rio 2016, where she will contest the road and mountain bike races. Ferrand-Prévot has an image-rights contract with ASO, the Tour de France organisers, and has said they are working jointly on relaunching the women’s Tour.
“Women’s cycling is shorter [than men’s]. It’s different every day,” she said this week.” There isn’t the same talent pool as among the men but there are at least 20 who can win. It’s less organised, less stereotyped, more unexpected. There isn’t a Froome blowing everyone away.”
In Vos’s absence the way is open for an attacking race on the Champs Élysées-Arc de Triomphe circuit, covered 12 times for a distance of 89km, which is distinctly on the short side for an international women’s event.
While Ferrand-Prévot lacks Vos’s sprint speed there are other fast riders in the field, led by Yorkshire’s Lizzie Armitstead, the leader of the women’s World Cup, and Wiggle-Honda’s Giorgia Bronzini. Britain is well represented, with the Matrix Fitness squad fielding Laura Trott, while a good outside bet is Hannah Barnes, of United Health Care, winner of a stage in the Aviva Women’s Tour last month.
Last year Armitstead was barged into the barriers and crashed out of contention. The Boels-Dolmans rider said: “I’m trying not to focus on those memories. too much. It’s a race where everyone’s up for it, everyone’s going for the sprint. It’s so fast. The team is really focused on delivering me for the sprint. Hopefully I’ll be kept out of trouble.”
She added: “I’m the fastest of the team at the moment and La Course is going to be a sprint finish. It doesn’t make for the kind of racing I like doing – I’ll have to play the lazy sprinter role – but sometimes you have to do what the course dictates.”
