Watch The Femmes

Assen shares its race dates with another very significant landmark race in the cycling calendar; The Tour De France Femmes avec Zwift. Now in its fourth edition the TDFF is growing every year. As a result it is giving our young riders visible idols to be inspired by, alongside the Tour de France dream to chase for if they want to try and go down the professional cycling route when they are older. We were curious after today’s final stage to find out from some of our young riders who they are most inspired by and who their idols are within the women’s peloton.

Whilst a lot of riders credited the likes of Lotte Kopecky, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering who have all become household names as a direct result of the growth of the TDFF and their successes in the WWT peloton; others opted for riders who are less in the spotlight. And often the reasons why our young riders idol certain professional riders stemmed much deeper than results alone.

Ava Baker in category 6 told us how inspired she is by her fellow Irish women Mia Griffin, Fiona Mangham and Lara Gillespie taking on the TDFF this year. ‘I really want to be just like them in a few years racing it with the Irish bands on my arms’. The growth of women’s cycling globally has meant that riders like Ava from less traditionally dominant cycling nations now have fellow country women to follow in the footsteps of.

This visibility is super important and it is clear that the three young Irish riders at this year’s TDFF have already left an incredible legacy. The importance of visible role models in women’s cycling from your home country was also echoed by Sophia Wong racing in category 5 who explained how important having multiple track world champion Sarah Lee Wai-Sze who is also from Hong Kong is for her. Sophia explained: ‘I have her book and I often read it for motivation’. This shows how important it is to have idols in cycling who you can personally relate to.

The category 5 German trio of Charlotte Mader, Mathilde Smolka and Enke Fangmann all said they were cheering on German rider Lianne Lippert at this years TDFF which again highlights the importance of not just the TDFF itself but the importance of having fellow country women racing to demonstrate the path to the TDFF. This was also echoed by U17 rider Rosie Wingate who races for Liv Halo which was the junior team Pfeiffer Georgi started out in and is run by Georgi’s father Peter. Having that connection to a rider currently racing in the TDFF shows how it is possible to follow on the same path.

Female riders being inspirations off the bike is as important as being inspirations on the bike. U17’s Georgia Lovett said that former Assen racer Izzy Sharp – now riding for Lidl Trek – is her inspiration not just for her talent on the bike but for her openness talking about issues such as vulnerability and mental health.

Annabelle Carter from Category 6 also highlighted how the growth of the women’s sport on the whole has also helped motivate her to follow her training partner Isabel Mayes who races for continental team O’shea Racing up the cycling pyramid. This was also echoed by Matilda Wilks from category 5 whose inspiration is Coop Repsol rider April Tacey.

A huge well done to all our racers this week and remember to watch the Femmes!