'I admit it has been tough' – Marianne Vos on refocusing after personal loss ahead of the Tour de France Femmes

She has endured a challenging and highly public first half of the season, fraught with injury and personal loss. But with days to go until the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Marianne Vos is feeling fit and ready to help team-mate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot defend her GC title.

Vos is to be Visma-Lease a Bike's road captain for this year's race, which begins this Saturday 1 August and runs for nine stages until the following Sunday. The GC is the priority, although, she says, she will happily take any stage-winning opportunities as they come.

Vos missed numerous Spring Classics this year, choosing instead to be with her father, Henk, whose health was deteriorating. After he died at the beginning of April, she returned to racing only to break her collarbone a month later at the Vuelta Femenina. However, she says, her run-in to the Tour Femmes has gone well.

"It's not a secret that the winter has been pretty tough with family circumstances," Vos said, "and so the preparation for the road season has been different and difficult. But actually after coming back from my collarbone fracture, the training went well, and also the preparation towards the Tour de France went well.

"The last preparations have not been too different [to usual]. We have had a good altitude block and of course you're always curious where you stand, but yeah, I feel ready to go for it with the team."

At 39, the Dutch rider will be the second-oldest rider at next week's Tour, behind 42-year-old Mavi García of UAE Team L'Imad.

Vos said she had also been grateful for the support of the team during her father's illness, with trust shown both ways.

"They give me the freedom where needed and the support that I needed," she said. "So I'm really thankful for that. There is trust from both sides. But for now I think the bike is the thing I love most and I like to do most. When things settled a bit more, I really liked to focus again on the sport and try and prepare as good as possible. Although, I admit it has been tough."

Vos's road captain role at the Tour involves her shepherding her team with the support of the staff in the car, and making on-bike decisions where needed. A GC win for Ferrand-Prévot is the absolute focus, she says, although there could be opportunities to go for a stage depending on the circumstances. She has won three times since the inaugural Tour de France Femmes in 2022; she has netted nine podiums too.

"Road captain is a role I really enjoy, and try to do as well as possible," she said. "It's nice to have one rider that has a bit more of an overview and communication with the team car. But in the end, if there's an opportunity to go for a stage, then I think it won't be too difficult to switch."

She also tackled briefly the issues of heatwaves sweeping France – already experienced by the men's Tour de France riders – saying the temperatures would play a part but "cooling is definitely something the whole team works works on… next to that you just go with the circumstances you have, so you adapt to what you get."

Of the spectre of night-time anti-doping testing, to which riders were subject at the men's race, she said it was something that she personally had not had any experience of, adding: "In a stage race, your sleep is very important, so it can be very annoying. But a clean sport for me goes above all. If it's necessary in this fight, then it's unfortunately necessary."

Finally, of the inevitable challenge by 2023 Tour winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) to Ferrand-Prevot's defending champion status, she called her compatriot "one of the biggest names in the sport… she's always there to fight and will be for sure a huge contender".

But, she said, "When Pauline has her mind on something, she will make it work," adding: "We aim to get her on the highest spot. I'm looking forward to a good battle."