Ready for le Tour: Canyon//SRAM Racing

The Tour de France Femmes is almost here. And Canyon/SRAM Racing is ready. 2024 has already been their best season in seven years of partnership with Giro Sport Design, with a win at Flèche Wallonne plus stages and jerseys at Tour de Suisse and Giro d’Italia Women. We caught up with three riders before they headed to Rotterdam for the Grand Depart.

Kasia Niewiadoma, can you share how you’ve been preparing for the Tour?

I had a lot of racing in June with Tour de Suisse and LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour. I then used July to do a lot of time at altitude in the mountains to prepare. Last weekend at Paris Olympic Games road race was a way to get back into the racing mindset with a crazy crowd atmosphere!

Last year on the Tourmalet, you made a brilliant attack - is there a particular stage you are excited for this year?

I'm excited for the final two stages in the mountains, especially Alpe d'Huez. I expect hard racing and hopefully great crowds like at Tourmalet in 2023.

This year there is a double stage day with a time trial - can you share what you thought of the new Aerohead II helmet the first time you saw it?

Whoa! It's definitely out there. But I like that our partners are striving for innovation and looking at ways to make us faster.

Neve Bradbury, you’ve had an amazing season with 4 World Tour GC podiums and wins at Giro d’Italia and Tour de Suisse. Are there any extra emotions that the Tour de France brings?

It's obviously a really big race, or the biggest race, so there's a lot of media and so much hype around it, but I go into it with quite a relaxed mind just because I am there to help and I'm confident in my form at the same time. So it's kind of like, you know, a win -win situation: I'm more excited than anything.

You had a huge win on the Blockhaus stage of Giro d’Italia - are you looking forward to l’Alpe d’Huez at the Tour?

Yeah, I am really looking forward to it. It is quite similar to the stage that I won. It's really, really hard. And it's also at the end of the race, which usually is quite good for me because, I just seem to get better the longer the race and especially at the end of the race. But this time I don't have the pressure of doing well: I'm there to support my teammates. But if the opportunity comes to [win] the stage, then I'll go for it.

How does having a partner like Giro affect your attitude and your confidence in races?

It just builds my confidence. I've done my part, done the training and everything. But then it's just like a bonus knowing that I have the best equipment in the field.

Alice Towers, you’re lining up for your second Tour de France. Last year when we filmed the team’s pre-Tour recon, we put a GoPro on the back of your bike because we heard you’d be in front on any descent. Obviously we all love to descend, but how is it different in a race vs. training?

Oh yeah, that was down the Col d’Aspin! Descending in training, I don't go crazy: I think it's silly to take risks in training. But for sure in races it's completely different and it almost feels like you kind of unlock an extra level of, like, comfortableness on a descent. I don't really overthink it and I think sometimes that's the best way to do it - smooth is fast.

Canyon//SRAM has a reputation for being a very tight-knit team, but is there any one rider you’re particularly close to?

I'd say me and Neve are close. I'm actually staying at her apartment now. We were training [at altitude] in Andorra together for a while and then we both came down to Girona yesterday. Then we head to Rotterdam for the Tour start.

How does it motivate you knowing you have someone like Neve or Kasia who could contend for the overall?

It's super inspiring to be around people who are successful. I think if you surround yourself with people who are successful, then it brings success to you as well. It's all about the people that you surround yourself with in the environment.

You have a couple different Giro helmets to choose from on road stages, so Aries or Eclipse - which is your favorite?

Oh, to be honest, I really like the Eclipse because I like the amount of team colours that's going on - there's just more surface area for the design.