Cycling UK Forum

http://www.letour.com/la-course-by-le-t ... adies.html

This has been mentioned on the Tour coverage, Thursday, they ride a 67.5km ascent of the Col d'Izoard, then on Saturday, the fastest riders then compete a 23km route in Marseille, setting off with the time gaps achieved in Thursday's stage.

How this plays out probably depends on how Thursday's stage goes, if you get a big time gap, how hard do you go on Saturday, do you go out hard, whilst those behind you probably form a group to catch you, or go out gently, wait for a few riders to catch you to form a group before your main rivals catch you. Maybe on Thursdays stage, teams will try to stay together for longer, so they can regroup on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see how they manage the start with the time gaps, especially as some will be in groups already. Will it be like on Gladiators? Lizzie, you will go on my first whistle, Sophie, you will go on my second whistle...

Unless I have completely misunderstood, they are timing this like a two-stage stage race, but with only the better-placed riders going through to stage two, which is a time trial.

I think the second stage is a pursuit rather than time trial, which should make it more fun to watch than the men's event that day.

It's a bit of a disgrace that we're on the fourth women's La Course and still no sign of restarting Le Tour Feminin. The men's Course only happened once IIRC.