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- La Course by Le Tour de France: Ana Teresa Casas and Estado de Mexico Faren Kuota Team.
- See also: Tour de France LIVE

- There are 20 teams entered in the La Course by Le Tour de France, a race for the women that will be held in Paris on the final day of the men's Tour de France.  There are 20 stages in the TDF before the final day.  So each day of the men's TDF leading up to Paris, we will feature one women's team and rider for La Course.

Ana Teresa Casas
Estado de Mexico Faren Kuota http://www.estadodemexicoteam.com/home.html
Strengths on the bike: while developing, one day races and time trialing
Age: 22
Nickname: Tere

This year Ana Teresa Casas earned Mexico’s green, white, and red stripes at the national road race after placing second in 2011 at age 19 and missing out on gold last year in the final sprint. And she won in dominating style, four minutes ahead of the next rider. Casas has raced on the road primarily in the Americas until this season when she joined the Mexican team, collecting wins and podiums in the Vuelta a Guatemala, her national time trial contest, and Mexico’s National Olympiad for young athletes. Mountain biking and track racing have brought her success too. In 2013 Casas was a member of her country’s pursuit team which set a national record at the Pan American Continental Championships. Even at her young age she’s participated in the world championships for Mexico.

Casas will race La Course by Le Tour de France with teammates Italian national road gold and bronze finishers Elena Cecchini and Maria Giulia Confalonieri, Anna Trevisi and Giada Borgato also from Italy, and Mexico’s Carolina Rodriguez Gutierrez.

With Mexico’s infusion of support for 2014, the Italian Faren team evolved into the first South American UCI women’s team, Estado de Mexico Faren Kuota. To understand the strength and potential of this squad of over a dozen women, look beyond its three 2014 victories to the young athletes’ multiple podium results. Twenty year-old Rosella Ratto, this year third on general classification and best young rider at The Women’s Tour, third at Giro del Trentino Alto Adige – Sudtirol, and third at road worlds in 2013. Cecchini, age twenty-two and second in the 2014 Chongming Island World Cup. These young women look to Fabiana Luperini’s experience as a multiple-time winner of the Giro Donne and Tour de France Feminine in the late 1990’s. Lacquaniti Fortunato directs the team. Based in Italy, Faren makes chemical products and sponsor Kuota is a bike manufacturer.

Hometown: Puebla, Mexico in a high altitude valley at 2,200 meters (7,218 feet). Mountains and volcanoes surround the valley.
Family of cyclists: Sister Sandra also races bikes, and the girls’ father Gustavo Casas provides advice as coach.
Additional teams: The Mexican champion has raced in the US for Jet Cycling, a women’s development team, at premier events like the Redlands Bicycle Classic.
 

by Mary Topping
(photo currently unavailable as the team did not respond to requests for info)