Tour de France Femmes Faces the Bald Mountain

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift starts Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the route climbs Mont Ventoux for the first time in the event's short history. For the women's peloton, the Giant of Provence is not a footnote. It is the stage that will decide the general classification.

Professional cycling runs on seconds. On a climb of Ventoux's severity, time gaps measured in heartbeats can settle a stage race. Race director Marion Rousse and her team designed the 2024 route believing the women's field has the strength and tactical depth to produce a worthy contest on the mountain. That belief reflects how quickly the event has grown since Zwift backed the relaunch in 2022.

The Ventoux from Bédoin covers 21.5 kilometres at an average gradient near 7.5 percent. The averages deceive. The middle section through the forest ramps above 11 percent, forcing a rider to measure her effort from the lower slopes. Above the tree line there is no shelter, only wind that compresses against the exposed limestone.

A team hoping to deliver its leader to the base of the climb in contention must manage the approach roads and the fight for position. A bad day on a false flat or a mistimed feed zone can isolate a favourite before the road turns upward for the final time.

Lausanne gives the race a cross-border arc. The peloton leaves Switzerland and cuts through the Rhône valley, where the early stages favour sprinters and opportunists. But the Ventoux dictates the tempo from the start. A rider who chases glory in the opening days risks reaching the mountain with empty legs. The classification contenders will treat the transitional stages as exercises in preservation, avoiding crashes and splits that can bleed time before the foothills.

Whether the pre-race favourites can produce acontest that lives up to the climb's severity is the question race direction has bet on. The women's Tour has acquired its own commercial weight and competitive gravity across two editions. Ventoux tests that bet directly.