Three days of racing on just over 370 km, with an upper point an arrival at the top of the Soulor, whose big departure and the final arrival will take place in Béarn. With, in the middle, stops in the Hautes-Pyrénées.
The whole thing was put up, among others, by Stéphane Augé, member of the organization patronized by Elisabeth Chevanne, sponsored by Matthieu Ladagnous and who will rely on the Departmental Committee 64 as a support club. Beyond that, a real armada made up of 300 volunteers and twenty bikers, without forgetting the 7 bikers of the gendarmerie which will be assigned to the safety of the race.
Ambitions et retransmission
The peloton will be made up of 126 runners distributed in 21 teams: 4 from world Teams (Editor’s note: the 1st world division of female cycling), 6 pro teams and 11 continental. Among them, the Basque title holder Ustoa Ostolaza, from the Labor Kutxa team. The rivals will be up to the task, we can notably cite the FDJ Suez the climber Lina Buijsman and the great tricolor hope Célia Géry, or the Dutch Liena de Jong at Uno X.
The spirit of this international female tour of the Pyrenees, it remains as ambitious, like its director: to settle, as the Dauphiné can be in boys, like a major stages race at the beginning of summer, a stone’s throw from the Tour de France.
To meet this expectation, the effort will once again be placed on the visibility of the test: it will be retransmitted daily (1:45 pm/15:15) on France 3 Noa with, at the commentary, the multi-champion of France (road and time trial) now retired, Audrey Cordon-Ragot.
The steps presented by Stéphane Augé
Friday June 13: Arzacq – Barbazan -Debat (112.6 km/693m D +): “A first day which is not too hard, on beautiful roads all along, with a probable arrival in the sprint. The idea was to put the girls in the best way. »»
Saturday, June 14: Trie-sur-Baïse-Col du Soulor (134.5 km/2296m D +): “It is clearly the queen stage. There are two or three entry ribs that will allow attacks, therefore a probable escape with a peloton in control until the Soulor explanation. It will already be decisive for the general classification, if we may not know the winner, the losers, they will be. »»
Sunday, June 15: Abidos – Pau (124 km/1835m D +): “It will be very trashy, very breakage! There should be surprises, especially if the heat is there. We chose this atypical course for a last fireworks before Pau. By being opportunistic, there is a way to change things in the top 10. ”
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