Stage 8 – Lure to La Super Planche des Belles Filles – 123.3km – Sunday, July 31

The final stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift—a mountainous one—is tomorrow. Is there something a little bit cliche about ending such a historic women’s event in a town that has the phrase ‘beautiful girls’ (Belles Filles) in the title? Maybe a little. But since it also ends with a grueling eight kilometer climb up to the finish, we’ll let it slide.

The course hits three major climbs, including one that leads into the finish: Côte d’Esmoulieres, Ballon d’Alsace and the finish at the summit of La Super Planche des Belles Filles… An intermediate sprint before the climb starts along with some seriously long descents should make for exciting racing all day.

In many editions of the Tour de France, the final stage is a bit more of a parade than anything else, with the GC pretty solidly locked up. But with a mountain finish, anything can happen, and we’ll be at the edge of our seats.

Riders to Watch

We knew that while Movistar’s Annemiek van Vleuten had been fighting off illness in the early stages of this race, she was always a contender, hovering quietly in the top ten, but to see her absolutely smash this stage and move into the lead? Incredible. We’ll see how well she recovers from her intense solo effort off the front—will she be able to do the same tomorrow? Demi Vollering of SD Worx is also right there in the standings 3:14 back, having soloed behind Van Vleuten for much of the race. Riders including Juliette LaBous (DSM), Elisa Longo-Boghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon / SRAM) will be ones to watch as well. SD Worx’ Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio didn’t have a great day, so we’ll see if tomorrow she’s working for Vollering in the flat sections, or if she tries for a solo attack of her own to make up time.

And while you’re watching the race, the big change-up is that Vos is out of the yellow jersey—not unexpectedly, she’s not known as a climbing expert—but she’ll finally have a chance to wear the green points jersey tomorrow.

When to Watch

14h30 on Supersport and GCN. With the fireworks from early…