
The Tour de France Femmes has a new yellow jersey, her name is Ferrand-Prévot. The 33-year-old Visma Lease a Bike captain took the leader's symbol after winning the queen stage that concluded at the top of Col de la Madeleine after 111 kilometers of racing, with five of those kilometers in a solo breakaway to the finish line.
THE STAGE - A handful of kilometers after the start from Chambéry, the stage saw an attack by a group including the dominant rider of the past two days Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly), Marion Bunel (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Mareille Meijering (Movistar Team), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl – Trek), Riejanne Markus (Lidl – Trek), Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance - Soudal Team), Franziska Koch (Team Picnic PostNL), Lotte Claes (Arkéa - B&B Hotels Women) and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health), Elise Chabbey (FDJ – SUEZ), Évita Muzic (FDJ – SUEZ). The breakaway's maximum advantage reached 4 minutes, and the French rider, Vollering's teammate, was the virtual yellow jersey for a long time.
The group of attackers began the Hors Categorie climb with a 1'40" advantage over the group led by CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto, and at the same time, the polka dot jersey Chabbey and Squiban lost contact with the lead group.
Fifteen kilometers from the finish, the lead group was composed of eight athletes who had a 1'45" advantage over the "big" peloton. A few kilometers later, Niamh Fisher-Black's (Lidl – Trek) attack further reduced the lead group, leaving only Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) in her wheel.
In the women's classification group, Kim Le Court worked in favor of her teammate Gigante, and at the -11 km to the finish sign, the Mauritian moved aside, giving the green light to the second-place finisher of the Giro d'Italia Women. Behind the Australian, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Team Visma | Lease a) immediately responded, while Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Pauliena Rooijakkers, and Demi Vollering were reported further back.
The 2014 Ponferrada world champion approached the climb progressively, dropped Gigante's wheel, and went to catch Fisher-Black and Kastelijn.
Under the -5 kilometers to the finish arch, passing through two walls of spectators, Ferrand-Prévot once again accelerated, taking the lead in a solo breakaway.