Annemiek van Vleuten: Giro Donne win 'takes away the pressure' ahead of Tour de France Femmes

Annemiek van Vleuten is seen as the favourite for the Tour de France Femme but she described much of the pressure as ‘hype’ and insisted she was not worried.

It is easy to see why the Dutchwoman is the favourite going into the relaunched tournament, which was previously run in different formats.

Van Vleuten has won two of the shorter formats - La Course - in 2017 and then 2018, and is the Olympic time trial champion.

This season, she was second at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, and has won both Liege-Bastogne-Liege and another Grand tour, the 2022 Giro Donne in Italy.

Speaking to Eurosport’s Orla Chennouai, the Movistar rider welcomed the return of a major women’s event in France.

“Excited for the first time Tour de France, or the renewal, but it’s a milestone I think for woe’s cycling that we have it back on the calendar,” she began.

“I really hope that some spectators who are following the Tour de France for the guys will be disappointed and then attract new people to follow our races and then new people who will see that women’s cycling is also interesting. I really like the concept they made for this Tour de France.”

However, while keen to get started, she admitted the pacing of the course may not be in her favour.

“I think I love the build-up of the course,” she stated. “Maybe not for me, personally, but for the spectators. I would like to have the hilly stages a bit earlier. For me now it’s a bit of a waiting game. To have the real hard stages at seven and eight.

“I think the jersey will change a couple of times. It’s building up the parcours. We have sprint stages but afterwards we have some intermediate with hills. I expect the jersey will change and stay exciting until the final.

“For sure other teams will attempt to put me under pressure for the first six day.s There will also be a lot of pressure for teams who want to just go for a stage win. A lot of goals are there together for the first six days. For me, I need to stay focused. It will also not be easy, a gravel stage on stage four with a little bit of an interesting stage on stage three. I cannot relax on those days.”

Van Vleuten pointed to her recent success as to why she is not overawed going into the race.

She claimed: “I don’t feel the pressure, maybe winning the Giro d’Italia lifted some pressure off my shoulders because I know I am in good shape. I don’t need to question that if I need to be back at my highest level again.

“That takes away the pressure a little bit. People hype a little bit - ‘It’s the only goal of my year’ - first you need to get started. It’s beautiful that we have this race but it’s made so big already before we’ve started. I like to downplay it a little bit. It’s great to have this Tour de France. It’s a milestone. This is for sure a new challenge and I’m extra motivated for new challenges.”

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Stream the Tour de France Femmes live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.