Lotto Intermarché Ladies has selected Belgian speed skater Sandrine Tas for her Tour de France Femmes debut, five months after she missed an Olympic medal by 0.13 seconds.
The 30-year-old will lead the seven-rider squad announced on Tuesday, July 28, for the nine-stage race from Lausanne to Nice. The Tour de France Femmes begins on Saturday, August 1.
Tas came closest to a medal in the 5,000 metres at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, finishing fourth and just 0.13 seconds behind the bronze medallist. Across a busy four-event programme at her second Winter Games, she also placed seventh in the 3,000 metres, sixth in the team pursuit and 13th in the mass start.
She began her professional road career at La Flèche Wallonne Femmes on April 22, describing her WorldTour debut as “a real honour” and “an invaluable experience”. She progressed at the Bretagne Ladies Tour in May, where she won two stages and claimed her first professional cycling victories.
Tas subsequently finished second in the Belgian national time trial championships and third in the road race.
Lotto Intermarché's seven-rider selection
Tas is joined by Dina Boels, Elisabeth Ebras, Romina Hinojosa Cruz, Marieke Meert, Linda Riedmann and Sterre Vervloet in the complete squad.
Riedmann gives Lotto Intermarché another recent stage winner. The German won stage 4 of the Volta a Portugal Feminina on July 4, taking a reduced-peloton sprint after an uphill finish in Águeda.
In 2018, Tas switched from inline skating to speed skating after collecting seven inline world championship medals between 2015 and 2019. She took up road racing in 2021 and won Belgium's Elite 2 national title in 2024.
“I grew up with cycling: the Tour of Flanders was always a big day at home,” Tas said in an interview published by the International Olympic Committee.
The Tour totals 1,175km and 18,795 metres of climbing. Key climbs include a summit finish on Mont Ventoux on stage 7 and, in the final stage around Nice, four ascents of the Col d'Èze.
Cover image (La Flèche Wallonne Femmes - Tas on left of image): ASO/Billy Ceusters
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