Tour de France Femmes 2022 – Stage 3 Route & Detail

Mathew Mitchell

Published on July 20, 2022
in Women's Cycling

Épernay is the home of champagne and the race will even take in the Avenue de Champagne, home to all the major manufacturers. Once again, the race will get a sighter of the finish line

The finish was used in the 2019 Tour de France. The last 19km match the stage win that Julian Alaphilippe took. He attacked on the Côte de Mutigny and held off the chase to win by 26 seconds. We could see riders attack there because of its steepness and then stay away again. It could even be the first real GC spark of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes.

Whilst it feels like Lorena Wiebes might struggle, her sprint for 3rd on the VAMberg at the national championship behind a break of 2 riders left even Marianne Vos in her wake. Arguably the steepness will bring other riders into play compared to a flat finish but we absolutely should not write off Lorena Wiebes here.

The riders will get a preview of the finish when they sprint for the intermediate sprint and anyone racing for the green jersey and the stage win will have to manage their effort. Going too hard for the intermediate could decide the stage victory the next time they see it 21km afterwards.

This will be the first real deciding point of the Tour de France Femmes 2022 for the polka dot jersey. Gone are the 1 point per day stages and there’s a decent haul on this stage. The break could be quite heavily fought over with a jersey on the line but the bulk of the points come late in the stage.

An added bit of spice to the finish is the bonus seconds available at the summit of Mont Bernon, which could see GC riders attack, especially with only 4km left to the finish line from there.