TALES FROM LA COURSE

The coronavirus pandemic caused all kinds of havoc in the racing calendar in 2020, especially on the women’s side of the sport and not least to La Course by Le Tour de France. Just seven weeks out from the day of the race the event was amended from a circuit on the Champs-Élysées - where the race has thrice been held before - to a lumpy loop around Nice, on the morning of and on the same roads as stage 1 of the men’s Tour. On a sporting level, the change probably helped the event, though from a publicity viewpoint, an afternoon race in Paris beats a morning race around Nice.

It was the latest iteration of an event that in seven years has chopped and changed its identity. It has been a circuit race in central Paris with a sprint finish, an Alpine mountainous one-day race to Le Grand Bornand; a two-day race with one mountaintop finish on the Col d’Izoard, followed by a one-day ‘chase’, and a rolling course with hilltop sprint. With so little time this year to pack in as much racing as possible, La Course 2020 also came off the back of an intense period for the riders, some of whom had contested the Dutch Nationals, Grand Prix Plouay and European Championships (also held in Plouay) all in the week before heading to the south of France.

It was perhaps no surprise that the riders who enjoyed the most success at La Course were those who had been particularly strong in the races building up to it. Annemiek van Vleuten - who won five races since the restart in July including the European title two days before La Course - was the instigator of the race-winning breakaway on the second ascent of the Côte de Rimiez. But