Cédrine Kerbaol makes her debut at the Tour de France Femmes in her first year with Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling. The 22-year-old Breton wasted little time in making her presence known, earning the white jersey as best young rider on stage 1 and then extending her lead in the U23 classification on the second day.
After Monday's hilly stage, Kerbaol put on the white jersey for a second day in a row, and this time a bit more securely on her shoulders with 1:21 over second-placed Ella Wyllie (Lifeplus Wahoo).
“It’s always good to take a little bit more time on the other U23 riders, but we never know what can happen. We will try to stay on this way as much as possible,” Kerbaol told Cyclingnews after the stage.
“On paper, it was a really hard stage, but with the headwind in the first 100 km it really changed everything because it was not going full-gas on the climbs like we expected. It really changed the race, and it was only the last climb that made the difference.”
On the last climb, the Côte de Trebiac, Kerbaol was in an elite front group and she was one of the attackers which had just one kilometre from the top of the climb to the finish line. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) had kicked off the attacking as well as Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich) and Marlen Reusser (SD Worx). though nobody would manage to create a gap before the top. Demi Vollering tried to lead out her SD Worx teammate and race leader Lotte Kopecky to the victory, but Liane Lippert (Movistar) came from behind to win the stage.
The aggressive riding by Kerbaol has placed her in the top three of the young rider classification at several other races this year, including a top results in March at Tour de Normandie Féminin. Now riding as the best U23 rider could put her in a bit of a pickle as the race concludes with the finishing time trial in Pau, and she was eager to wear her national colours as the new French ITT champion.
“It is a bit of a dilemma because if I have the white jersey on the last day, I can’t wear the tricolore skinsuit. But I definitely want to keep the white jersey, there will be other opportunities to wear the champion’s skinsuit,” Kerbaol was nonetheless clear about her priorities.
Kerbaol recently started her own YouTube channel, producing and publishing short videos on her racing life. Interestingly enough for a French rider, the videos are in English – but there is a good reason for that.
“My boyfriend is English, most of my friends, most of the people I talk to speak English, and I speak English with them. I started the channel because I wanted to show from the inside what it was like to be a pro cyclist. And I got a GoPro camera for my birthday, so I thought I will do something with it,” the 22-year-old explained.
Four years ago Kerbaol won the junior road race national championship, so she looks to extend her hold on the young rider classification on another hilly day on stage 3.
