
33 years since the yellow jersey was last awarded to the women’s peloton at the Tour de France, today saw teams battle it out to take the coveted honour of claiming the first leader’s jersey at this year’s race – with Team DSM and Lorena Wiebes duly delivering on their favourite status.
The opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes saw the peloton tackle 13 laps of the now famous Champs-Élysées circuit, making for a fast 81 kilometre blast around the streets of Paris. As expected it was an attacking start to the day with lots of riders and team’s looking to make the breakaway and fight it out for the first polka dot jersey as queen of the mountains.
Franziska Koch and Liane Lippert rode well to make sure that any larger and dangerous moves were brought back and eventually a duo managed to form out front with 60 kilometres to go. However, some of the teams that missed out weren’t happy and pulled things back ahead of the intermediate sprint where Wiebes took second place for the team. With a slowing of pace, a lone rider counter attacked and built up an advantage that peaked at 40 seconds. Yet, once again things regrouped heading into the final 25 kilometres and the attacks started all over. A three rider group managed to escape to fight it out for the QOM points, as the pace slowly ramped up behind in the peloton before a lone counter attack over the top would see a solo rider lead by 45 seconds at ten kilometres to go.
Commanded by road captain Pfeiffer Georgi, the team held their position firm and peeled off one-by-one as the pace increased. Coming around the final corner with the finish gantry in sight, it was messy in the bunch but the team delivered Wiebes to the 200 metre to go mark where she unleashed a devastating kick. Surging all the way to the line, Wiebes was able to raise her arms aloft in jubilation, celebrating an incredible win and a special moment in history for Team DSM and Women’s cycling.
Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | WIEBES Lorena | Team DSM | 1:54:00 | 50 |
2 | VOS Marianne | Team Jumbo-Visma | ,, | 40 |
3 | KOPECKY Lotte | Team SD Worx | ,, | 30 |