Fire and hearts: EF Education-Cannondale are going to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

On Wednesday morning general manager Esra Tromp and the rest of her EF Education-Cannondale staff gathered for their weekly planning meeting. Unlike normal, it was a relatively short affair, especially given that the Vuelta Femenina squad had already been picked. Nevertheless, with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift wildcards set to be announced at some in the week, everything else within the team felt like it was on hold. The message on the call was simple; let’s see what happens with the wildcards and go from there.

And then it happened. In the blink of an eye Tour organisers ASO posted to Twitter and announced that the second-tier American team had secured a spot in the biggest race in the world. Cue senses of relief, joy, and unadulterated happiness as the team’s Whatsapp groups blew up in excitement.

“The riders are really, really happy,” Tromp told GCN on Wednesday evening once the news was public.

“I’ve had a lot of emojis, like the celebrating one, and the fire and hearts, and the riders are really happy. The rest of the team, and the management are really excited to, and looking forward to racing the Netherlands and France. I’m happy to start here too, so can I share my home country,” the Dutch woman added.

Read more: New team, new philosophy – how EF Education-Cannondale are plotting Tour de France Femmes success

Selection for the Tour de France during the team’s maiden campaign is a huge moment for the squad. The entire roster has raced their hearts out since the turn of the year, and they’ve taken eight victories and countless major placings in the process. There was always the hope of attracting ASO’s gaze and securing a wildcard place, but until it was confirmed, Tromp and her squad had to be patient.

“We found out like everyone else, when ASO made the announcement online,” she said.“Everyone knows this is the biggest event of the year so it means a lot to our riders and our sponsors. The riders have worked really hard, and they’ve tried to put on a show and make the best out of every race. It means a lot, but I see the selection as a compliment to our team, our one team with the men’s side too, and we race hard. Our marketing team has done a great job too. It’s a credit to the whole organisation,” she added.

“There are no real selection criteria, so what we said at the beginning of the year was that we wanted to be in the finals of racing and make attractive races. We wanted to go out there and show ourselves.”

Gaining selection for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift means that Tromp and her staff can properly finalise their roster for the Grand Tours, especially the Tour de France, which runs August 12-18. The team has already shown that it can rally against WorldTour level opposition and Tromp is targeting a stage win come the main event this summer.

“This Tour de France is pretty late in the season and that’s a bit lucky for us this year. Today we had our meeting scheduled to plan out the rest of the season, and it was quite a short meeting because we knew that this week the Tour de France would announce the selection of the teams. We did some planning but we need the news on the selection. It means that we have some work to do tomorrow,” Tromp said.

“We definitely go for a stage win. The time trial is really interesting for some of our riders and the stages in between the time trial and the flatter days and mountain stages are also interesting for us. We need to have a good mix of riders who can climb really well but also some riders like Noemi Rüegg, who like hillier days but not the mountain days. We’re going for a stage win.”

A stage win would be a monumental milestone for Tromp’s team but given their passion, and the way in which they’ve raced so far this year, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see even more hearts and fire emojis emanating from the team this August.