'You've just got to embrace the chaos, you know?' – The Tour de France Femmes, as told by its first-timers

The Tour de France Femmes stands alone in the cycling calendar – it's simultaneously the biggest, the most-watched, and the most-written about race in the world.

Even at just four editions old, the Grand Tour is already the highlight of the cycling calendar, swiftly acquiring a reputation similar to that of its older brother. And each year, dozens of riders face up to it for the first time, rolling off the start line at the Grand Départ and into nine days of chaos and excitement that is Le Tour.

This year, 49 of the 154 starters – just under a third – are debutants. The list includes the youngest woman in the race, 19-year-old Imogen Wolff, and the second-oldest, 34-year-old Brodie Chapman. Breton rider Titia Ryo has raced on home roads, while Emily Watts is very far from her hometown of Lithgow in Australia.

After giving the new crop of first-timers a few days to find their bearings, Cyclingnews sought out several of the new faces in France to hear about their first experience of the Tour.

"It's my first Tour but not my first rodeo, so I know what to expect, I know the riders in the peloton, I know the dynamic of the racing a lot of the time," said Chapman, a breakaway fixture at this year's race for UAE Team ADQ.

"I would just say you really have to take it day by day because one day can be horrible, the next day can be fantastic. So, you really just focus on the day and what you're doing in each moment, then reset and go after the next day because you never know."

Chapman's words have proven extraordinarily prescient, as, amid the loss of leader Elisa Longo Borghini and a wave of illness in the team, UAE have racked up four combativity prizes in addition to back-to-back stages won by the race's breakout star, Maëva Squiban.

Of course, with only nine stages to go around, not every team at the race can walk away with multiple stage victories. For the French squad, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93, the goals are more modest.

"For a small team, we're punching above our weight," Emily Watts, racing her first season at the ProTeam, said after stage 7. "We've had some really positive days with Alicia González getting up there for the sprints in stages 3 and 4, and she was also in the breakaway today. We've had some great success."

As is the case in the men's race, the jump up in speed is a notable feature of the Tour de France Femmes, though those characteristics are not necessarily overwhelming.

"It has been a super big step up," Watts said. "I think the first two days, it was a very much a reality shock. Now that we're into it, it kind of feels like any other WorldTour race, but at the start it was very crazy."

Canadian Ceratizit racer Sarah Van Dam said that the higher intensity is part and parcel of the Tour being the Tour.

"Everyone wants a result, and with that comes the speed and people being aggressive. It's been full gas, but it makes the racing fun to watch and entertaining too," she said, while Irish road champion Mia Griffin of Roland La Dévoluy pointed out the chaos of the sprints.

"The sprints were really chaotic, and my impression was that it's not like any other race," she said. "Everyone is more intense, and everyone is dying for the gap, I would say.

"Everything is on another level to other races. On the first day, I was like 'Oh my god, this is just crazy.' But after that, I think I'm getting more and more into it."

UAE Team ADQ directeur sportif Cherie Pridham raced the modern Tour's predecessor, the Grande Boucle Féminine, eight times during her career, so she's no stranger to the race.

"Some riders handle the pressure a little bit better. It's about managing the girls and their expectations because it's just another level completely here at the Tour," she said.

"Even in my day in the 'forgotten' Tour de France, it was what we were all aspiring to do, so it's just the vibe, you know? Everybody's at a high level, everybody's prepared."

Away from the peloton, there are differences between the Tour and other races, too. Speaking to Cycling Weekly earlier in the week, Visma-Lease a Bike teenager Imogen Wolff talked about how she had always dreamt of riding this race, a sentiment no doubt held about this race more than any other.

"Growing up, it was always a dream to ride here, and for so long, it wasn't possible. Then the women's race came in, and I still didn't think it was possible. [Being here] is a pinch-me moment."

Those moments have kept on coming during the race, too, with fans packing the roadsides during the Grand Départ in Brittany and vast numbers of spectators coming out to watch the stages since.

"I couldn't have possibly imagined just how enthusiastic they are, lining the roads at almost every kilometre of the race. You're out in the middle of a field and it's just full of people," Chapman said. While Titia Ryo, a Breton racer who was cheered on by her own fan club during the opening weekend, said, "It's been very special and a big emotion. It's been really impressive. Everything is bigger."

The support for the race and its riders has only grown year-on-year since the race's inaugural edition in 2022. Griffin was another rider who had been taken aback – and encouraged – by the number of fans.

"I've never seen it like that before. It's so nice just to have that much support for women's racing," she said. "The number of fans that are on the roadside is just crazy."

Those fans will again be lining the roads on Saturday afternoon as the Tour's debutants face what may well be the toughest climb many of them have raced, the Col de la Madeleine.

The 19km Alpine ascent will be another intense, memorable, and perhaps emotional experience, but, as Chapman said, "I think you've just got to embrace the chaos, you know?"

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