'Exciting!' - Trailblazer Louise Vardeman looks ahead to historic Tour de France Femmes

In 2019, Louise Vardeman finished the Tour de France route to protest against the exclusion of women from cycling's showpiece event. The British rider, founder of the InternationElles, led a group of female amateur riders through the entire 3,500km route one day ahead of the men's peloton. Ad/> Three years on and the inaugural Tour de France Femmes is set to get underway, with Vardeman now seen as a figurehead for women in the sport after her gruelling adventure.

Tour de France Femmes'Now little girls can see us' — Two greats set to light up TDF Femmes2 HOURS AGO Eurosport spoke exclusively to Vardeman as excitement builds ahead of the eight-stage race, which begins in Paris on Sunday. Should the TDF Femmes aim to become a three-week Tour in the long-term? I'm not sure a three-week tour is necessarily what's needed at the moment, because there is not enough depth in the female peloton. I think they would struggle with just fitting three weeks in around the other races.

The riders are definitely capable — if a bunch of amateur women can ride the Tour de France, with day jobs and kids, then the professionals definitely can. I'm not sure they want that at the moment, either. That was something that was cropping up, as while we were riding, the pros we were in contact with said: “Hang on, be careful what you wish for.

I don’t know if we want to ride three weeks of this stuff!” So I don't know if it necessarily has to grow to three weeks. I think the current start of eight stages is great for now. Do you feel short-changed given the route is limited to one corner of France? Initially, yes.