The Tour de Feminin 2024, a women’s cycling stage race in the vicinity of the North Bohemian town of Krásná Lípa, will write its 35th chapter this May. The event, first held in 1988, has been a fixture on the international calendar for years. This year’s edition starts on Thursday 23 May in Krásná Lípa with a time trial, and on Sunday afternoon at the same place the race will culminate after 4 stages.
This year’s edition will be held for the second time in a row in May, previously it was always held during the summer holidays.
“May is definitely better from the point of view of accommodation, because the original July date often clashed with tourists who go to the foothills on holiday,” says race director Simona Davídková.
“Our date coincides with the London ProTour women’s race, which meant the cancellation of registration for some teams who preferred to race in a higher category.”
Forty days before this year’s start, organisers are already registering 28 teams, bringing them to the notional capacity ceiling, the maximum organisers have set at 29 teams.
In addition, each team can enter up to 6 female competitors, so the maximum capacity is 174 competitors. By comparison, last year 139 female competitors from 26 countries started the race and 93 reached the finish line.The record was set in 2016 and 2017, when 182 female competitors started the race, with a record number of women from 28 countries in 2016. Last year, a record number of 24 Czech women competitors also entered the race.
As last year, strong teams with UCI CT licences will participate, with a total of 8 registered so far, including the Czech team Dukla Praha. Six teams will be national teams and 14 teams are club teams.
Among the Czech teams, Dukla Praha will be joined by the Czech national team and the Brilon Racing Team.
This year’s race will again take place in the Šluknov foothills and parts of the Lusatian Mountains. The first 12.6 km long stage will again be a time trial with start and finish in Krásná Lípa and a climb to the top of Vápenka. On the second day, the racers will run over 100 kilometres through the landscape of Bohemian Switzerland, starting and finishing again in Krásná Lípa and leading through Český Kamenice or Vlčí Hora. On Saturday, the start and finish will be in Rumburk and the racers will run through the towns of the Šluknov foothills. The route of the stage will practically follow the route of the popular September race Tour de Zeleňák, which is attended by over 800 competitors every year.
The final leg of just under 115 kilometres will start in Varnsdorf on Sunday and will take place through the landscape of the Lusatian Mountains. The finish will again be in Krásná Lípa.
“We are keeping the proven lines from 2021 and 2023. We are only slightly modifying the second stage, which we would like to return to the Hřensko area in the future.” adds the plant director.
Last year’s edition was won by Ukrainian Olga Kulynychova with a historically smallest lead of 11 seconds over the runner-up Dominika Wlodarczyk from Poland. The Ukrainian was the third champion in the history of the race not to win a stage (2004 German Trixi Worrack, 2018 American Leah Thomas).
Wlodarczyk of Poland won the opening time trial, after which she donned the yellow jersey for one stage (she was then replaced by Kulynych), and then won stage 3, but it was not enough for the overall triumph.
The Czech fans were very happy to see 19-year-old junior Eliška Kvasničková take bronze, becoming the first Czech medallist in the overall standings since Martina Sáblíková’s silver in 2014. Just behind her, another junior, Julia Kopecká, who lives in Belgium and rides for the local AG Insurance – NXTG U23 Team, finished fourth.
“Julia has made no secret of her ambition to win this year. Of course, as the organisers, we would like a Czech racer to win.” Simona Davídková mentions.
Last year the Czechs also did exceptionally well in the individual stages. Kvasničková finished in silver position in the opening time trial, followed by Kopecká. She then went on to take silver in two more stages.
The Czech flag was also visible on the stage podium for the first time since 2014, when Sáblíková won the time trial. It was the first time two Czech women stood on the podium in one stage in 30 years.
Tour de Feminin: 35th edition, Memorial of Šarka Pešková-Víchová and Jiří Vích
Date: 23-26 May 2024
Race stages: 4
Number of kilometres: 346.9
- Stage: 23 May, 16:00, Time trial 12,6 km (Krásná Lípa – Doubice – Krásná Lípa)
- Stage: 24 May 15:00, Národním parkem České Švýcarsko, 109 km (Krásná Lípa – Krásná Lípa)
- Stage: 25 May 15:00, Šluknovskou pahorkatinou, 110,7 km (Rumburk – Rumburk)
- Stage: 26 May 10:00, Lužickými horami, 114,6 km (Varnsdorf – Krásná Lípa)
