{"id":569212,"date":"2026-07-31T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569212\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:08:10","slug":"tour-de-france-femmes-under-pressure-to-reroute-ventoux-stage-amid-wildfire-risk-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569212\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Femmes under pressure to reroute Ventoux stage amid wildfire risk | Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tour de France Femmes<\/a> is facing pressure to reroute part of its key stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux next Friday because of the wildfires threat in Provence.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s Tour, which begins in Lausanne on Saturday, is expected to keep the famous climb to the top of the \u201cGiant of Provence\u201d, but the current routing of the stage through the Ventoux\u2019s foothills could be affected.<\/p>\n

In a statement on its website, the Vaucluse prefecture said: \u201cAt a time when forest areas are at a peak risk of fire, the prefecture has asked the organisers of the Tour to consider an alternative route. Following a fire risk assessment on Tuesday 4 August, an alternative route will be implemented should the wildfire risk be considered extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three stages of the men\u2019s Tour de France, which finished in Paris last Sunday<\/a>, were disrupted by wildfires, extreme heat and the deployment of French emergency services to assist with the wildfire crisis in the country\u2019s south-west.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in constant touch with the prefecture and we will adapt, just as the men\u2019s Tour de France did,\u201d said Marion Rousse, the Tour de France Femmes race director.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to deal with the real world \u2013 this is a bike race and the real world always takes priority. There will still be a climb of the Ventoux, but we have several options. We are ready to work with the emergency services and the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few things demonstrate the fast\u2011track growth of women\u2019s racing more than the inclusion of Mont Ventoux on the route for this year\u2019s race. \u201cThere is no mountain that is too difficult for women,\u201d Rousse said. \u201cThe level is now more and more consistent and they ride faster each time. Each year the progress is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defending champion, Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, did not attend the top riders\u2019 media conference on Friday. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Bott\/Keystone\/AP<\/p>\n

The legendary climb is the standout stage in a race route that is bolder and bigger than it has been since the race was reintroduced in 2022 as a tentative bolt-on to the end of the men\u2019s Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Over nine stages, including an individual time trial and stages through the Jura, Massif Central and Provence Alps, 147 riders will wend their way to the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur for a testing finale in the hills inland from Nice.<\/p>\n

Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, the defending champion, was a no-show at the top riders press conference on Friday afternoon, with her highly rated French teammate Marion Bunel, third overall in this year\u2019s Vuelta Femenina, surprisingly taking her place.<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot was said to have already fulfilled plenty of media obligations, but her absence from a top table that included past winners and her main rivals, Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, did not go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s success last July<\/a> was hailed in France, but she faces more rivals this year than she did 12 months ago, with the 23-year-old Spanish rider Paula Blasi, who sealed victory in the Vuelta on the brutal climb of the Angliru, a leading contender.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere there are signs that others too, as Rousse suggested, have upped their game. The Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, who said she has had a \u201clove-hate\u201d relationship with the Tour Femmes in the past, is expected to shine in the individual time trial on stage four, while the long climb to the Ventoux is likely to feature the 2023 winner, Vollering, and the defending champion, Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, going head to head.<\/p>\n

Marlen Reusser is expected to excel in the stage four time trial. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Bott\/EPA<\/p>\n

Reusser, the world time trial champion, has had a series of false starts in the French race. \u201cThis is the first year that I\u2019m here and feel healthy and good,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s special to finally be here in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s victory in last year\u2019s race made her a household name in France and, after a long wait to see a home rider win the yellow jersey, drew crowds to the roadside in their thousands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow women\u2019s cycling in France is doing well and men\u2019s cycling in France is also doing very well,\u201d Rousse, said by way of tribute to Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt a real sense of patriotism with Pauline\u2019s victory. Whether it was in the men\u2019s or the women\u2019s race, it\u2019s been some time that we\u2019ve been waiting for a French winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cPauline gives a lot. To the public, her charisma has done cycling a lot of good. All those little girls who dream one day of becoming like Pauline. People are interested in her because she is so likable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousse is confident that Ferrand\u2011Pr\u00e9vot, despite a muted spring, will put up a staunch defence of her title. \u201cThere will be a great rivalry between her and Vollering,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that Pauline has increased her level in comparison to last year \u2013 she\u2019s really gone up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the upward trajectory of the race continues. The number of women riding the amateur \u00c9tape du Tour Femmes is higher than those who rode the \u00c9tape du Tour, on Alpe d\u2019Huez, with 27% of all participants in the \u00c9tape Femmes being female.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that women put a lot less obstacles in their way than before, especially since the creation of the Tour de France Femmes,\u201d Rousse said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s opening 138km stage in Switzerland features a hilly loop based on Lausanne, through the Cantons of Vaud and Fribourg, leading to a steep uphill finish on the C\u00f4te Saint-Fran\u00e7ois, while on Sunday the peloton follows the northern shore of Lake Geneva before a lakeside finish, and a possible sprint, in Geneva.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tour de France Femmes is facing pressure to reroute part of its key stage to the summit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-569212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}