Annemieke van Fruten (Mitchelton-Scott) was critical of the 2020 La Course by Tour de France road race, which will be held in Nice on August 29. The world champion said the 96-km race is not challenging enough to be part of the Women's World Tour.

"I checked out the course of this year's La Course by Le Tour de France ...... I can't believe it's a 96km "race", only two laps and a third climb: ....... Not World Tour level," he posted on Twitter over the weekend.

The revised Women's World Tour calendar includes 15 events running from August 1 through November 8. La Course was changed from the July 19 circuit race on the Champs-Elysées in Paris and was rescheduled along with the Tour de France after the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant changes to the calendar.

Van Vleuten, who won La Course in 2017 and 2018, initially expressed disappointment with ASO for returning this one-day race to the Champs-Elysées this year, calling the previous route "nothing more than a criterium."

She clarified at a ZOOM press conference last week that the circuit race was simply not up to her capabilities. She said, "The Champs-Elysées course is more for sprinters, and for me the La Course race was not very interesting."

ASO released a route map of the new La Course in Nice last week. The women's race will be a 96 km road race. The course will start on the Mediterranean coast and head north to the category 3 Côte de Limies, just 8 km into the race. The women's race heads further north toward Castagniers.

After crossing the start-finish line in Nice, the race will then cross a second climb over the Côte de Limiese at 56.5 km and another major loop. The women will then return to Nice for a sprint competition on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

Asked about the new La Course route at last week's ZOOM press conference, van Breuten said he is looking forward to the one-day race on the opening day of the Tour de France. He also said that the race in Nice could be interesting with a bit more climbing.

However, after examining the route in more detail, he said it was not at the level expected for a Women's World Tour race.

Chloe Hosking (Rally), who won La Course in 2016, defended the course for ASO's new one-day road race in Nice. She felt the route was challenging enough, considering the peloton had not raced since early March, when the season was interrupted by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

"Personally, I don't think Anne-Mike is that outrageous," Hosking wrote on Twitter. 'I haven't raced in six months and this will be my second race back on the World Tour. For many of the riders this is their first race. It's going to be an exciting race, both the course and the distance.

ASO has invited 23 teams to this edition of La Course.