This year`s La Course champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, has welcomed the plans for the 2018 edition of the women`s race organised by the Tour de France, which has been scaled back to a one-day race in the Alps. Though the Dutchwoman would like to see it become a multi-day event in the future, she believes the continuing push for the development of women`s cycling need not entail a fixation on the Tour. The route for the fifth edition of La Course was unveiled on Tuesday in Paris at the same time as the unveiling of the route for the 2018 Tour de France. What started out in 2014 as a circuit race on the Champs-Élysées ahead of the arrival of the men`s peloton on the final day of the Tour, became a two-day affair this year with a summit finish on the Col d`Izoard followed by a handicap time trial in Marseille. In 2018 it will return to a one-day format, though not on the Champs-Élysées but in the Alps, with a 118km race that borrows from stage 10 of the men`s race and features two major mountain passes - the Col de Romme and Col de la Colombière - before a descent into Le Grand Bornand.ADVERTISEMENT `I think it`s a beautiful course, using a lot of the same roads as the men, I think that`s great. I love the course,` Van Vleuten told Cyclingnews. `It`s hard, with two climbs, two steep climbs. Usually in women`s cycling we don`t have races with so much uphill, so I am really happy about that, and I think it will really help to showcase women`s cycling. It really adds something to our calendar, having a race with so much climbing.` The move to the two-day format was met with mixed reactions this time last year. While some expressed excitement at the shake-up, others saw it as a missed opportunity to grow the event into what could be seen as a proper women`s version of the biggest event in the sport.
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