We’re lining up for the Tour de l’Ardéche starting Thursday 3 September in St Martin de l’Ardéche, France. Our team’s roster for the seven day stage race will be Alice Barnes, Tiffany Cromwell, Tanja Erath, Hannah Ludwig, Jess Pratt and Christa Riffel.

“I’ve never raced here but I have heard a lot of stories of some tough racing and a lot of climbing. Some editions have included Mont Ventoux, so to be honest I’m not too sad that isn’t in this year’s parcours,” joked Alice.

Still, the race covers 844km with over 11,000m of elevation gain in the seven days. With two queen stage with summit finishes, four flat stages and one stage somewhere in between, Alice believes she has a good chance to get a result during the tour.

“I’m expecting tough racing with some of the stages having a lot of altitude gain, but I am also excited to see what opportunities there are for us as a team. We’re not here with a team of climbers so will need to race savvy and look at how we can get stage wins,” explained Alice.

“I have had a look at Veloviewer and I’ve also had a chance to ride some of the stage finals. I feel like if I put myself in the right position I can give myself a good chance of a stage win.”

Criticised for having 75% time limits on some stages in 2019, the race organisers have reduced the time limit on each stage to 20% for the 2020 edition. The jerseys on offer include: GC leader, QOM leader, best young rider, sprint classification, rushes classification, combined points classification, best team classification, and a daily prize for the most combative rider.

The first stage is 90km from Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche to Bourg-Saint-Andéol and starts at 14:30CEST on Thursday 3 September. The race can be followed on Twitter with #TCFIA, as well as limited live coverage on the Facebook page here or YouTube channel here, with stage highlights planned each evening.

Watch some live clips from the stages as well as daily highlights on the race organisation Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/TCFIA/

Watch some live clips from the stages as well as daily highlights on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/user/TCFIA

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