Tour de France Femmes: Tashkent lose four riders on day one, but they still deserve to be there
Some reflections after a day of controversy and criticism
Day one of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is over. It was a hot, flat and intense day. The foot stayed on the gas throughout, with the big teams not wanting to let a breakaway get away.
It was a day of casualty for Uzbek team Tashkent City Women PCT, who lost four riders over the 124 kilometres from Rotterdam to The Hague. First, Ekaterina Knebeleva dropped off the back of the peloton not even a third of the way into the stage. Over the next hour, Ekaterina Knebeleva and Asal Rizaeva pulled out. And in the run-in, Madina Kakhorova failed to finish.
Just Yanina Kuskova, Margarita Misyurina and Nafosat Kozieva are left - Kuskova was the only rider in the front peloton of 115. It was brutal for Tashkent and must be a bitter blow to their riders’ morale, especially after a Giro d’Italia Women last month in which none of them were able to finish.
“The team are not feeling really good because we lost four riders,” the team’s Director Sportif Volodymyr Starchyk told Cyclingnews after the stage. He added that it was “for sure the legs and for sure speed” as to why the quartet dropped out, rather than any illness or injury.
Several commentators have criticised the team online, suggesting that they shouldn’t have been at the race and that their spot should have gone to a stronger, European team.
I have already explained in a previous post how Tashkent came to be at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, and other WorldTour events this year, by virtue of the UCI’s wildcard system.
Tashkent have become the first team from Uzbekistan to race the Tour, Hommes or Femmes. Starchyk bit back against the team’s critics, saying that their participation in the race is “something big” for the Central Asian nation.
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