A quick preview look at La Périgord Ladies 2024

Mathew Mitchell

Published on July 18, 2024
in Women's Cycling

La Périgord Ladies has been a solid part of the French Cup calendar now for a good few years. The 2024 edition is the 6th held with the first coming in 2019 and won by Coralie Demay. It’s positioned as a nice one-day race heading into the next block of racing and has usually been populated with Women’s WorldTour teams and riders looking to just get their form where it needs to be. The likes of Sheyla Gutierrez of Movistar, Marta Bastianelli of UAE Team ADQ, Grace Brown of FDJ-Suez and Amber Kraak of Jumbo-Visma have won with no Continental team taking the top step of the podium. That has the possibility to change this year with a new rule stipulating that WWT teams can only take part in 3 1.2 level events in a season. With fewer WWT entries in these lower-level races, the hope is that riders from the Continental ranks will be able to shine and develop.

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So there are fewer stars in La Périgord Ladies this season, but there are plenty of the strongest Continental teams, including some who are very likely to reach ProTeam status when it is first introduced next season. The parcours favours a strong one-day racer with plenty of late elevation to split up the peloton. Almost throughout its history, the finish has been contested by small groups or solo riders, with tactics playing a key role in deciding the race winner. Last year for instance we saw Amber Kraak attack her break companions Clara Emond and Jade Wiel and get a gap late on so that she didn’t have to rely on her sprint. This was one of the results which helped bring Emond to the attention of EF-Oatly-Cannondale for this season where she took a memorable Giro d’Italia Women stage victory.