For the organisers, Tuesday’s cut up stage on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift could also be a nod to a once-popular however long-dormant custom, however it’s annoying for the riders and a ache for workers.
Nonetheless fairly frequent in lower-level races, a cut up stage is the place two separate races are held on the identical day. It’s incessantly a mixture of a time trial and a brief street race or a criterium.
The final time this format appeared within the Tour de France was in 1991, when day two of racing consisted of each a brief street race within the morning and a staff time trial within the afternoon.
Day two on the 2024 Tour de France Femmes is analogous. The primary race of the day, Stage 2, was a brief and flat 67-kilometer street race beginning in quaint Dordrecht and ending within the coronary heart of Rotterdam.
The afternoon race, Stage 3, consists of a flat however twisty 6.3-kilometer time trial by way of downtown Rotterdam.
With their brief distances and unintimidating profiles, the day’s racing doesn’t look so unhealthy on paper – straightforward, even, when in comparison with a few of the monster levels awaiting the riders later within the Tour.
Nevertheless, the riders should cope with cumulative fatigue, tactical complexity and little time for relaxation and restoration.
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The morning’s race lasted lower than two hours and ended as anticipated, with a quick sprint for the road within the Tour’s second dash end, gained by yellow jersey wearer Charlotte Kool. However it has additionally been tense. The technical nature of the slender and obstacle-filled roads and the race jitters resulted in a crash-marred race. Quite a lot of riders got here throughout the road wanting a tad battered and fewer than enthused to should race one other stage in just a few hours’ time.
“It’s the Tour. Everybody’s tremendous nervous and actually needs an excellent consequence. Everybody’s in form and needs to indicate themselves. It’s the Netherlands, so tremendous slender, twisty roads blended with nervousness,” defined Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a motorcycle), sporting a bloody elbow after Stage 2.
“These two days have been all the time going to be my most tasking days. I simply attempt to survive,”
Getting caught up in an early crash on Stage 2 was extra of an annoyance to Henderson than actually bothersome, which is fortunate because the afternoon time trial is supposed to be her second to shine. After successful the silver medal within the Olympic time trial simply a few weeks in the past, the Tour’s brief however solely time trial is a part of her goal for the week.
“The TT is half of focus,” she stated. “That, and I am right here to help our GC rider and Marianne [Vos] in going for the stage wins.” With the latter obligation accomplished for the day, Henderson’s focus now shifts to patching up her elbow and gathering herself for an excellent exhibiting within the afternoon race in opposition to the clock.
For the specialists and GC hopefuls, the bodily and psychological toll of racing within the morning after which doing one other race within the afternoon is taxing. One has to chill down, refuel and put together for a day time trial, which comes with an outfit and equipment adjustments, a recon of the course, a strong warm-up and a restoration means of its personal. The physique’s want for speedy restoration between levels provides a layer of issue not current in single-stage days. It additionally provides a tactical component of balancing efforts, making split-second choices on when to push onerous and when to preserve vitality with the day’s second race in thoughts.
In the meantime, the employees can be doing double obligation. Even when the race may very well be accomplished in as little as 10 minutes, lots of the riders will use specialist time trial bikes and gear. Bringing the added gear and hauling it throughout three international locations requires additional automobiles for transport and extra cupboard space at motels, in addition to additional mechanic time in setup and upkeep. All this provides to the operation’s value as properly.
Lots of the riders we spoke with weren’t eager on the cut up stage. Even time trial knowledgeable and Workforce Pursuit gold medalist Kristen Faulkner might do with out it, preferring a day devoted particularly to the time trial self-discipline.
GC hopeful Juliette Labous, nevertheless, stated she considers them her energy, pointing to her expertise within the Wholesome Growing old Tour, a Dutch stage race that was a part of the UCI Ladies’s WorldTour till 2021 and infrequently featured cut up days.
“It has been a very long time really that I did it, however I believe it will possibly assist me as a result of you’ll want to recuperate actually quick and that is one among my qualities. I believe you’ll want to be targeted and still have a very good plan for the day, timing-wise. For me, yeah, it is fairly high quality,” she stated.
Demi Vollering (SD Works – Protime), who’s favoured to clinch the win as soon as the Tour strikes into the mountains, stated she did not look after the concept of a cut up stage at first however post-race, bolstered by her win, stated it was okay in any case.
“This morning was a bit scary as a result of everyone crashed in direction of the end, however really, it was okay.”
