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Tour de l’Avenir Femmes preview: Australian team announced for inaugural women’s race

Aug 24, 2023

Six Australian women are set to be part of history when they line up for the inaugural Tour de L’Avenir Femmes on Monday.

While the Tour de l’Avenir, now in its 59th year, has long been considered a mini-Tour de France for up-and-coming male U23 riders, 2023 will see the first women’s edition of the tour.

AusCycling has named the six women to the ARA Australian Cycling Team for the five-stage race across France from August 28 to September 1.

Australia will be one of 20 national teams in action.

Here’s what you need to know about the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir Femmes.

The route

map

Five stages, 381km and 6,832m of elevation. That’s what awaits the peloton for the inaugural Tour de l’Avenir Femmes.

The tour starts with an individual time trial in Saint-Vallier, before a day for the sprinters. The race heads to the mountains on Stages 4 and 5 with riders to cover 4,484m of elevation over two days.

If not already decided on Stage 4, the first winner of the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes will be crowned on Stage 5, the Queen's Stage.

Departing Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, the final stage of the tour features two Category 1 climbs and a Category 2 climb. This is also the same starting point, and takes in two of the same climbs, as Stage 17 of this year’s Tour de France.

The stages:

  • 5 stages
  • 1x Individual Time Trial
  • 1x flat
  • 1x lumpy
  • 2x mountain

Australian team for 2023 Tour de l’Avenir Femmes

The Australian team will be looking to the experienced Neve Bradbury for its general classification hopes.

The Canyon//SRAM Racing rider has plenty of experience in the UCI Women's WorldTour, and earlier in the season finishing 7th and winning the youth classification at the Lotto Ladies Tour.

Last year she won the youth classification at the Tour of Scandinavia and placed second in the youth classification in the Giro d’Italia Donne.

“I’ve had some ups and downs this year so I’m hoping to end the year on a high. I won’t have raced for seven weeks by the time l’Avenir starts so it will be a bit of shock to the system," Bradbury said.

“I think there’s a stage for everyone with quite the variety of stages. I like the looks of the last stage, it’s going to be brutal.

“It’s so cool to be a part of the first ever women’s Tour de l’Avenir. It shows how much women’s cycling is growing."

Team Jayco AlUla rider Alyssa Polites said she was relishing the opportunity to ride the first women’s edition of the race.

“It’s always an honour and a privilege I take with great delight to wear the Aussie bands! This opportunity is even more special with it being the first edition for the women to participate in. It’s very rare for the U23 women to race altogether without being diluted with the elite women, making it more exciting and refreshing to get behind the bars and give it a crack," Polites said.

Look for Polites in the first three stages, and to set up Bradbury for GC contention on the final two stages.

alyssa polites

Polites competing in Australian colours at the 2022 Santos Festival of Cycling. (Photo: Russ Ellis)

Lucinda Stewart, Alisha Wells and Sophie Marr will all be used to racing together and should work well together on the road.

The trio are teammates of their Australian continental cycling team, ARA | Skip Capital.

Stewart, one of the youngest in the team at just 18, said the tour would be a good test to see how she stacked up against some of the best U23 riders.

“I think it will be a very challenging week given the more mountainous terrain. I am keen to see what I can do on stages 2 and 3, which will hopefully come to a reduced bunch sprint. It’s always hard to know where you sit against the field so I think this tour will be good to gauge where I am amongst the best U23s," she said.

Haylee Fuller has continued to gain plenty of experience this season in Europe also with her Australian continental team, Team BridgeLane, which she will bring the to the tour.

The Australian team:

  • Neve Bradbury (Canyon//SRAM Racing and St Kilda Cycling Club)
  • Alyssa Polites (Team Jayco AlUla and Cairns Cycling Club,Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club)
  • Haylee Fuller (Team BridgeLane and Dubbo Cycle Club)
  • Sophie Marr (ARA | Skip Capital and Blackburn Cycling Club)
  • Lucinda Stewart (ARA | Skip Capital and Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club)
  • Alisha Wells (ARA | Skip Capital and Sunshine Coast Cycling Club)

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Main photo: Lucinda Stewart wore the green and gold in the junior road race at the World Championships in Wollongong 2022. Craig Render/RCPix

Written by
Kirrily Carberry
Disciplines
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