CyclistCyclists Tour de France Femmes predictions 2024Dont place your bets, its predictions time again, this time for the Tour de France Femmes, and weve brought Cyclists brightest minds.This is the summer of cycling. We went straight from the Tour de France to the Olympics and now were going straight from the Olympics into the Tour de France Femmes (and then the mens Vuelta will come straight after that). What a time to be alive. To make it even better, were going to tell you exactly what will happen. Let us know in the comments or on social media if you think we are stupid and who your picks are.Robyn Davidson, editorial assistantA.S.O./Charly LopezRobyn had a tough run with her mens Tour predictions, despite only ever picking favourites, shell be hoping to bounce back this time around.Yellow jersey: Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime)Its hard to see past the defending champion. Like last year, shell have a quieter start to the race (hopefully with no drafting penalty this time) and assert her dominance in the final two stages in the mountains. Stage 7 atop Le Grand-Bornand will force GC gaps but its Stage 8 where shell really make her mark, presumably already donning the maillot jaune, dropping all her fellow competitors for stage honours with another Tour de France Femmes victory in the bag her last for SD Worx-Protime before she moves next season.Green jersey: Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)The Grand Dpart in the Netherlands is pan flat. Perfect for home rider Lorena Wiebes. The team are going for the yellow jersey later on but will be fully focussed on Wiebes in the early stages.She has been flying this season with victories galore from the UAE Tour to Vuelta a Burgos to the Tour of Britain Women to the Baloise Ladies Tour to you get the point. She grabbed a hattrick of victories at the Ford RideLondon Classique, winning every stage. Sure, resources will be directed towards Vollering but with the power and dominance Wiebes has been riding with this year, that shouldnt hinder her too much anyway.Polka dot jersey: Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM)You could easily put Demi Vollering here. But Im going to wear my heart on my sleeve and say Kasia Niewiadoma will go back-to-back in mountains classifications at the Tour de France Femmes. The Canyon-SRAM rider, who finished eighthat the Olympic Games road race, recently topped the mountains classification standings at the Thringen Ladies Tour.Niewiadoma is looking for overall victory, but if she cant grab the yellow jersey, she might just see the polka dots once more.White jersey: Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek)Ewan jumped in with a frustratingly strong shout (see below) before I made my picks, so erring on the side of caution at duplicating our predictions, Ill go for another big candidate in Shirin van Anrooij. Just last year, she won the Tour de lAvenir and the youngster not only has a bright future but also a bright present.Now 22 years old, she has been sweeping up youth classifications this season, from the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana to the Vuelta a Burgos and the Thringen Ladies Tour. I predict shell replicate her fortune from the 2022 Tour de France Femmes and win the white jersey by three minutes.Bonus prediction: Juliette Labous to podiumJuliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) has beensoclose to getting a podium in all three Grand Tours. In 2022 she came fourth in the Tour de France Femmes. In 2023, she shot to second place at the Giro dItalia and finished fifthat the Tour de France Femmes. This year, she placed fourthat La Vuelta Femenina and fifthat the Giro dItalia.A podium place is calling out her name. Im locked in on Labous.Ewan Wilson, staff writerSD Worx-ProtimeThis brave soul stuck by Jonas Vingegaard for this years Tour de France. You can only chapeau, but hes making up for it by going pure favourites this time around so put your chapeau straight back on.Yellow: Demi VolleringOver the past year, Demi Vollering has confirmed that she is the best Grand Tour rider in the womens peloton. Her performance at the Vuelta a couple of months ago solidified this status. Another win at the Tour de France Femmes feels all too inevitable.Despite her rumoured exit from the Dutch super-squad, I believe Vollering will rally her troops one final time and seal the deal atop Alpe dHuez.Green: Lorena WiebesLorena Wiebes is enjoying her best season to date. In total, shes taken 17 race wins so far in 2024 and I suspect that will increase at the Tour. Fresh from analmostclean sweep at the recent Tour of Belgium, Wiebes is showing no signs of slowing down.The early flat stages in the Netherlands suit her strengths. If all goes to plan, she should start the race in yellow and swap that out for green along the way.Polka dot: Demi VolleringAround 75% of the total KOM points will be contested in the final two stages. In particular, over half of the points on offer in that classification will be awarded during the final stage to Alpe dHuez.For this reason, I believe itll be hard for a breakaway rider to win the classification. If the race is controlled tightly on Stage 8, then the balance of polka dot power swings into the hands of the GC riders. Therefore, I have to stand by this belief and choose my overall winner Demi Vollering. Boring, I know.White: Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM)Bradbury has podiumed four UCI WorldTour races this year, including a recent GC podium at the Giro dItalia Women. A stage win at the Giro and the Tour de Suisse underlines the Australians strength in the mountains. With this form, I am fully prepared for another strong performance at the Tour, especially on Stages 7 and 8.Bonus: Grace Brown wins a stageIm not being very risky with this, I am aware.FDJ-Suezs Grace Brown is the newly crowned Olympic time-trial champion and shes the current holder of the Lige-Bastogne-Ligetitle. Stages 3 and 4 should suit her to a T in that case.In her final Tour de France, it feels right that Brown gets a fairytale send-off. It worked for Mark Cavendish at the mens Tour, so why not hope that lightning strikes twice at the Tour de France Femmes? And we might even get it on a gold bike for the short time-trial.Pete Muir, editorHe finally broke his predictions curse by predicting that hed get a prediction right, so beware of black magic here.Yellow: Demi VolleringItll all be decided in the mountains in the last couple of stages, and its hard to envision any other finish than Vollering, resplendent in yellow, crossing the line at Alpe dHuez, arms aloft, to take her second Tour victory in two years.Green: Marianne VosThe GOAT just keeps on going and keeps on winning. She may not be able to challenge Vollering in the mountains but she will be in the mix at all the sprints and will be able to scoop up points in the hilly stages. May she keep goating for many years to come.Polka dot: Demi VolleringWhen predicting the Queen of the Mountains there are only two ways to go about it. One is to put on a blindfold and throw a dart at a list of names of all competitors; the other is to accept that the majority of mountain points will come on those final two stages, so its pretty likely that the winner of the yellow jersey will also take home the polka dots. Hence Vollering. Dull but inevitable.White: Shirin van AnrooijHow does a flat country like the Netherlands produce so many talented climbers? Who knows? But Van Anrooij is the latest in a long line of Dutch women who excel in cyclocross and Classics, but can also be at the pointy end in the mountains stages. A future Tour winner in the making.Other: Lizzie Deignan to win a stage and then announce her retirementTwo predictions in one! Dangerous stuff. At 35, Deignan is still a force to be reckoned with (as demonstrated by an impressive Olympic showing) but not likely to trouble the GC, so shell remind everyone of what she can do with a breakaway win on Stage 6 (three predictions!), and then announce that shes calling it a day at the end of her contract in 2025.Martin James, production editorA.S.O./Thomas MaheuxThe only one to successfully predict Cdrine Kerbaols white jersey win in 2023 is back and ready to hit again.Yellow jersey: Demi Vollering Defending champion? Check. Rides for the strongest team? Check. Race starts in her home country? Check. The nature of the Tour de France Femmes route might keep the GC relatively tight before the double whammy of summit finishes on the final weekend, but its hard to see anyone getting the better of Demi Vollering once the battle for GC honours finally takes centre stage.Green jersey: Lorena Wiebes In the absence of teammate Lotte Kopecky, this feels like another fairly nailed on prediction. With the full SD Worx train behind her, Lorena Wiebes has every chance of going two-for-two on home soil on the opening weekend, at which point the biggest remaining challenge would be actually finishing the race given she failed to do so in 2022 and 2023.Polka dot jersey: Kasia Niewiadoma As pointed out by Ewan, so many points are being dished out on the final two stages that itll actually be hard for the overall winner not to also pick up this jersey by default. But if Demi Vollering is already in yellow going into the final day, that could leave room for Kasia Niewiadoma to edge her out in a thrilling finale on Alpe dHuez and nab the climbing prize for herself.White: Neve BradburyLook throughout these predictions and its painfully obvious that a small number of established names seem to exist on a separate playing field to the rest of the womens peloton. Bradbury is very much the exception, however. The 22-year-old Australian had achieved practically nothing of note before this season, yet she comes into the Tour de France having won a stage and the youth classification in both of her last two races the Giro dItalia and Tour de Suisse. Even if she doesnt grab a stage win, the young riders jersey and possibly even a podium place on GC are very much on the cards.Bonus: Kasia Niewiadoma to win on Alpe dHuezConsidering Kasia Niewiadoma has been among the top riders in the womens peloton for the best part of a decade now, actual wins have proven frustratingly elusive. Its been no different in the Tour de France: in 16 stages of the race to date, shes had nine top-ten finishes but zero victories. So what better place to break the trend and get her first TdFF stage win than on the hallowed slopes of Alpe dHuez?Will Strickson, website editorMarco Zac/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesI tried not to pick the favourites, it wasnt easy but stay with me theres logic.Yellow: Kasia Niewiadoma, Canyon-SRAMIts time. Kasia Niewiadoma has been getting better as the Tour de France Femmes grows, and this year should suit her skillset even more than last year when she missed out on second place despite finishing on the same time as Lotte Kopecky. Going into the Tourmalet stage last year Niewiadoma was actually ahead of Vollering by 12 seconds, but then lost time on that big mountain day and in the time-trial. With just a prologue-worthy TT this time itll come down to whether she can stick around on Le Grand Bornand. But thats not even the final day? I hear you cry. Well, I think Niewiadoma will go into that stage in yellow after a big solo win on the Ardennes stage that takes in climbs from Amstel Gold Race and Lige-Bastogne-Lige. Shell then lose some time to Vollering on that penultimate stage to Le Grand Bornand and then shell repeat last year on the final stage by attacking over the top of the Col du Glandon, going clear on the descent and holding on all the way up Alpe dHuez which is not as hard as the Tourmalet to a very popular victory.Green: Charlotte Kool, DSM-Firmenich-PostNLIts going to be a nightmare Tour for SD Worx. Not only will Vollering not win on her farewell, Lorena Wiebes will fumble the home sprints, losing out to compatriot and former leadout Charlotte Kool. Now Kool has not had great form this year, only winning once and losing to Wiebes a lot, however shes peaking for the Tour, Ive got a feeling. She also has a solid leadout including Rachele Barbieri and Pfeiffer Georgi to get her to the right place and the right time.Polka dot: Kasia Niewiadoma, Canyon-SRAMTo win yellow shell need to win polka dots, therell be points in the Ardennes, a few points at Le Grand Bornand but theyll mostly come on that final day though it wont be maximum points, more on that below.White: Neve Bradbury, Canyon-SRAMWhat Ewan said. The former Zwift Academy winner has had a breakout year and has been mightily impressive. Shes been the best young rider at the UAE Tour, Tour de Suisse and Giro dItalia, and this will be her biggest notch yet as she helps her teammate Niewiadoma to yellow.Bonus: breakaway win on Alpe dHuezIts the drama, Mick. Breakaways havent had loads of success at the Tour de France Femmes, especially not on the mountain stages, which have been dominated. This year, there will be a clever rider losing time deliberately to be allowed to get away, but theyll have to be a good enough climber to stay away on Alpe dHuez. Its Puck Pieterse.Mic drop. Related Posts The climbs that will decide the Tour de France Femmes 2024 Big Ride: A climb and a half on Alpe dHuez Tour de France Femmes 2024: Route, how to watch and all you need to know Classic climb: Alpe dHuez, the most famous climb in pro cycling? The post Cyclists Tour de France Femmes predictions 2024 appeared first on Cyclist.