"It's a dream come true," says Lisa Brennauer.
The dream of a women's Tour de France.
After years of back and forth, the Amaury Sport Organisation, as organizers of the men's race, organized them.
It starts this Sunday in Paris and covers around 1100 kilometers and eight stages.
24 teams with 144 riders are there for the premiere.
Start location and start time are well chosen.
At 1:30 p.m., the women will start their circuit in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Élysées, exactly where the men will hold their final after 21 stages in the evening.
A cycling festival to which women can now also contribute their part.
Eight stages - against the 21 of the men that's not the world, but you shouldn't get the currently best cyclist, the Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten.
“We have the first women's Tour de France and then people say it's only eight days.
But no, it's eight days.
A lot of people look at what we don't have, we focus on what we have.” The German time trial champion Lisa Brennauer, who rides for the Continental team Ceratizit-WNT, agrees.
"It's a great start," she says.
“These eight days offer real highlights.
We will see high-quality and exciting races.”
Brennauer and Liane Lippert, national time trial and road race champions, go into the Tour as Germany's hopes of a stage win.
Both dream of an early triumph and the yellow jersey.
Brennauer was particularly taken with the first three fairly flat sections, but also with the fourth stage, which featured steep climbs and gravel passages.
In the overall standings, Brennauer has no ambitions.
“I have to be realistic and say that the first four stages definitely suit me.
Maybe even the super-long fifth, but when it really goes up into the mountains, I also know that I’ll reach my limits there.”
The eighth and final stage ends in the Vosges on the Planche des belles filles, a dreaded steep section that was also on the program for this year's men's tour.
Brennauer expects tough races.
The first already in Paris.
"I think it will be in a different league, I believe that the intensity will be very high for us as it is for the men.
It will be like that on the Champs-Élyssées, with the audience, the prestige, the history, everyone will want the yellow jersey there.
It's going to be hectic and hot.
I believe that this tour will be a next level for us and for women's cycling."
The women's stages are shorter than the men's, but shorter often means more exciting.
The men drive in a team of eight, the women in teams of six.
"It makes everything a bit more unpredictable," says Brennauer.
“There might be a leader, a sprinter, a starter, and then you only have three helpers.” Fewer support staff makes controlling a race more difficult and more likely to cause surprises.
Brennauer gained experience with tours, among other things, at the Tour of Great Britain.
"It was always a fight for the overall victory, the ranking jerseys, for each individual stage, I always thought to myself: Wow, this is like the Tour." And now, finally, it's actually taking place, the Women's Tour de France.