Gretchen Powers experienced magic when she was able to photograph the scene at the finish line of the last stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Gretchen Powers
Even before arriving at the final finish line of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Gretchen Powers knew she would be watching history unfold. One day prior, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot had claimed the yellow jersey with a stunning solo stage win atop the Col de la Madeleine. In all likelihood, at the end of the day on Sunday she would become the first French rider to win a Tour de France since 1985.
On that momentous Madeleine stage, Powers had photographed the start, not the finish, but for stage 9, with Ferrand-Prévot in yellow and record-breaking numbers on the sides of the road, the finish was set to be an epic one.
A huge TV near the finish kept Powers and the other photographers abreast of what was happening in the race and what they might expect as they impatiently waited, cameras slung around ASO vests.
“For the finish of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, similarly, in a way, to how I shot the start of stage 8, I was thinking about ‘How do I like tell the full story of stage 9 while only being at the finish of it,'” Powers told Escape Collective. “I didn’t have any opportunity to shoot anything else that day. My only opportunity really was ‘How do I capture Pauline winning this in France,’ which was a historic event in that a French rider hadn’t won it in a number of years.”
What will history maker Pauline Ferrand-Prévot do next?
Ferrand-Prévot didn’t need the three-year window she gave herself to win the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. With two years left on her contract, what will she do now?
What struck Powers while standing at the finish line, as other photographers around her prepared their equipment, soigneurs held their breath, and ASO employees ran helter-skelter around the barriers holding back the adoring public, was the sense that some seismic shift was about to happen. To France, and to women’s cycling.
“Bringing it back to shooting the [Nordic skiing] World Championships in Norway, watching Johannes Klæbo win all seven events in his home country, the nation’s spirit and the nation’s pride for their national sport,” Powers recalls. “While that was happening in Norway, I was saying to myself, ‘I bet this is what watching cycling in countries like France and Spain and Italy is like.'”
“My expectation was entirely correct in that the crowds were massive, and the fan spirit was and the nation’s pride was just astounding.”
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