Liane Lippert sprinted through the rain to take victory on stage two of the Tour de France Femmes in Mauriac as Lotte Kopecky had to settle for second in the yellow jersey.
German champion Lippert overcame some early spills of her own to survive a crash-strewn finish in damp conditions, coming around Kopecky on the drag up to the line as the race leader blamed a flat tire for hampering her efforts.
Rain fell at the end of the 152km stage from Clermont-Ferrand to create some treacherous conditions which caught out a number of riders, including Eva van Agt in the breakaway, before the peloton split to pieces on the Cote de Trebiac inside the last five kilometres.
That saw a much-reduced peloton contest the stage, with Demi Vollering providing the lead-out for stage one winner Kopecky.
But Lippert opened the taps to come around the Belgian on the left and, as Kopecky’s shoulders slumped in disappointment, she only just held on to second place ahead of Silvia Persico.
“It’s so special and I’m so proud of this,” the 25-year-old Lippert said. “I crashed two times in the neutral zone and then again on the climb and there was a bit of stress.
“The team did so well and everybody was a big part of this, the whole team came back after the crash and stayed calm in the rain. I always race well in the rain so I was happy when it started.
“I didn’t think I was going to win. I just focused on Lotte for the whole final and stayed really calm. Then I thought I should open it now because my quality is more on the uphill harder sprints, but I didn’t believe it even when I crossed the line. I still need some time to realise it.”
Kopecky was in the ideal position after the lead-out from Vollering, but said a loss of pressure cost her the chance to win.
“Unfortunately I had a flat tire so I couldn’t sprint fully,” she said. “It would have been nice to win in the yellow jersey but after all this was a good day for our team.”
Kopecky’s lead in yellow stood at 49 seconds after Lippert moved up to second on the back of bonus seconds.
The key general classification hopefuls, including defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten, Elisa Longo Borghini, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Vollering are 59 seconds down.
