Greig Leach

The inaugural running of La Course, the first women's bike race on the Champs Elysees, was mounted by the organizers of the Tour de France. With the unpredictability of the 101st Tour de France, it somehow seems appropriate that this was the year that the Tour finally let the women race. It was equally appropriate that the Women's World Road Racing Champion, Marianne Vos (Rabobank) was the first women to cross the line to win a race under the shadow of the L'Arc de Triomphe, maybe even more so that they opened up the sprint under the gaze of the statue of Joan d'Arc. Vos just got around the fading sprint of Kirsten Wild (Giant Shimano), fortunately for Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) her sprint was not a foreshadowing of how he would fare in a couple of hours.