Van Vleuten roars into overall lead
Annemiek van Vleuten blew apart the Tour de France Femmeswith a 60-kilometre lone attack in the first mountain stage of the week-long race, taking a memorable stage win and the overall race lead with one day’s racing to come. Jeremy Whittle reports from Le Markstein.
Top 10 on GC after stage seven
- Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) 23hr 18min 44sec
- Demi Vollering (SD Worx) +3min 09sec
- Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM) +4min 20sec
- Juliette Labous (DSM) +5min 09sec
- Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) +5min 59sec
- Silvia Perisco (Valcar–Travel & Service) +6min 11sec
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) +6min 15sec
- Evita Muzic (FDJ Nouvelle-Suez-Futuroscope) +10min 13sec
- Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) +12min 06sec
- ELise Chabbey (Canyon/SRAM) +12min 24sec
Annemiek van Vleuten speaks ...
“It was such a rollercoaster after being sick,” she says. “I was so sick and then to win here like this is unbelievable. It’s beautiful to finish here solo. Incroyable!”
Asked if she expected to shake up the GC like that today, she has this to say. “For sure, I had to try. I had lost some seconds and my style is always attacking, not waiting until the final. I did recon the stage and after six days surviving and recovering, I wanted to make sure I made the biggest time gaps by going on the first climb.
And because I’m older than the other girls I can do a lot of training, so this stage was really suited for me. I want to make clear that I’m not saying that my colleagues don’t train as much as I do but that I have training years [in my legs] that maybe give me greater capacity. This stage suited that really well. If my colleagues continue for some more years they can also for sure do it.”
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig takes third. The Danish FDJ Suez Futuroscope rider is next over the line taking four bonus seconds for third place. Juliette Labous (DSM) finishes fourth and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM Racing is fifth.
Demi Vollering finishes second: The 25-year-old SD Worx rider crowns an excellent day’s work by finishing second, 3min 26sec slower than Van Vleuten. She goes second on GC.
Annemiek van Vleuten wins the stage!
Beaming from ear to ear, the 39-year-old Dutch Movistar rider crosses the line, winning at her leisure after a terrific ride. SHe takes the yellow jersey.
Updated
1km to go: Van Veluten, who was so ill with a tummy bug during the week that she couldn’t eat for two days, passes under the flamme rouge. She is home and hosed on this brutal stage.
2.4km to go: The Niewiadoma trio crest the final summit with Danish champion Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig nicely poised at the back, where she has been sitting all the way up the climb. Over the team radio, her directeur sportif tells her she has nothing to lose and should go for third place on the stage.
4.2km to go: Vollering crests the final climb of the day and begins her descent. She’s put a terrific shift in today.
5km to go: Annemiek van Vleuten has completed the final climb of the day and has about 1.5km of descent before the course plateaus towards the finish. She leads Demi Vollering by 3min 38sec. The Niewiadoma trio are a further 2min 20sec behind.
8km to go: Alone in front since the second big climb of the day, Annemiek van Vleuten keeps pedalling towards the summit of the final one. She leads Demi Volleriung, who is also cycling alone, by 3min 41sec. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM Racing), Juliette Labous (DSM) and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) are riding in a trio, 6min 12sec off the pace being set by Van Vleuten.
Updated
10km to go: Afgter a heroic effort, Persico finally catches up with the Niewiadoma group only to be immediately desposited out the back again when the cyclist in whose honour the group is named putsa the hammer down at the front. If I was in Persico’s cleats, there are not enough effs or jeffs in the world to satisfy the amount of swearing I would want to do right now.
11km to go: I can confirm, through the evidence of my own eyes, that Elisa Longo Borghini has been caught by the Niewiadoma group. Her compatriot Silvio Persico has been shelled out the back of that group but is fighting valiantly to re-attach herself.
12km to go: The top five on virtual GC are ...
- Annemiek van Vleuten
- Demi Vollering (+3min 17sec )
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma (+5min 20sec)
- Silvia Persico (+5min 20sec)
- Elisa Longo Borghini (+5min 25sec)
The current maillot jaune, Marianne Vos is 18min 26sec behind Van Vleuten on the road today but is as good as guaranteed the Green jersey.
Updated
16km to go: Annemiek Van Vleuten picks up three bonus seconds as the first rider through the ... um, bonus seconds section. Her lead over Demi Vollering in second place is 3min 20sec. Elisa Longo Borghini is another 3min 20sec behind, about 40 seconds ahead of the Niewiadoma group.
Correction: I appear to have been sold a pup by the Tour timing system, which seems to have gone temporarily haywire. Elisa Longo Borghini has not - repeat, not – been caught by the Niewiadoma group ... yet. She still has a 40-second lead over them but remains 2min 52sec behind Demi Vollering, who is in second place on the stage. Apologies.
20km to go: Elisa Longo Borghini has allowed herself to be caught by and absorbed into the Niewiadoma group, who are now six minutes behind Van Vleuten.
22km to go: Annemiek van Vleuten is about to begin the 13.5km ascent to the Grand Balon with a lead of 2min 16sec over Demi Vollering. Elis Longo Borghini is a further 3min 14sec behind. The Italian is now only 40 seconds ahead of the six-strong Katarzyna Niewiadoma group.
Lorena Wiebes: I’d been wondering how this week’s dual stage winner was faring after she fell behind in the early stages and it turns out the Dutch DSM rider abandoned some time ago.
It’s no great surprise, considering the injuries she sustained in a quite bad crash yesterday. A sprinter by trade, there was little at stake for her beyond personal pride. She leaves this tour bloodied, unbowed, with her head held high and two stage wins under her belt.
31km to go: Van Vleuten completes the long downhill from Le Marksteinand passes through the intermediate sprint with a 1min 54sec lead over Demi Vollering. Elisa Longo Borghini is in third place, a further 3m 30sec back.
42km to go: stage leader and virtual maillot jaune Van Vleuten continues her long descent, increasing her lead over Demi Vollering to almost 90 seconds.
47km to go: One of the fancied riders for today’s stage, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon/Sram) is in a six-rider group that is curtrently 6min 20-sec behind Van Vleuten. They’re a minute behind third-placed Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), who is 3min 55sec behind Demi Vollering in second.
54km to go: Annemiek van Vleuten rockets through Le Markstein Fellering, crossing what will be the finish line next time she visits. Before that, she has the small matter of the Category 1 Grand Balon to negotiate. It’s 1,344m high, 13.5km in length and has a gradient of 6.7%. She need not concern herself with that for the moment, as the climb doesn’t begin for another 34 kilometres.
56km to go: Van Vleuten is descending the Col du Platzerwasel at a terrifying rate of knots and has a one-minute lead over Demi Vollering. In third place, Elisa Longo Borghini is 4min 35sec off the blistering pace being set by Van Vleuten.
.@AvVleuten launches an attack 600m before the summit of Col du Platzerwasel averaging 17.6km/h on the climb💥
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
The current Olympic ITT champion won't be worried about facing the final 61km of racing alone after a solo 105km ride at the 2019 World Championships 🌈 pic.twitter.com/fglGemdErB
60km to go: Caught in no-mans land between Vollering and the Niewiadoma group, Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) is in third place on the stage, riding alone 4m 08sec off the pace being set by Annemiek van Vleuten.
61km to go: Van Vleuten continues to set a ferocious pace as she crests Col du Platzerwasel. She has a lead of 20 seconds or so over Vollering, who is a brilliant descender of mountains. Van Veluten now leads the virtual GC standings, while the current custodian of the yellow jersey is in a group over 11 minutes behind the stage leader.
62km to go: Past the one-kilometre to go to the summit sign and Van Vleuten is out of the saddle and pulling away from Demi Vollering, who looks in a bit of bother. Vollering took maximum QOM points over today’s first climb but it seems Van Vleuten is going to take them on the second.
64km to go: Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) is leading the way up the second climb of the stage with Demi Vollering (SD Worx) on her wheel, occasionally grimacingOur two leaders have less than two kilometres to go to the summit of the Col du Platzerwasel. Elisa Longo Borghini is 2min 35sec behind the duo.
66km to go: Marianne Vos will lose the yellow jersey today as the bgrupetto she’s in is already more than eight minutes behind the leaders.
66km to go: Vollering and Van Vleuten have a 1min 32sec lead over Longo Borghini, with a group of six riders including Katarzyna Niewiadoma is a further minute back. The group containing current Queen of the Mountains Femke Gerritse is a furtther three minutes back.
67km to go: With 6.4km to go to the summit of the Category 1 Col du Platzerwasel, here’s a reminder of what out stage leaders Annemiek van Veluten and Demi Vollering have to look forward to.
The 2nd climb of the day might be the shortest but it's also the steepest, averaging 8.3% for 7.1km and featuring a series of steep ramps.
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
The current @Strava 👑 is @JulietteLabous. She will be hoping to be in the lead group at the top of Col du Platzerwasel today #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/Gpe4psgvge
73km to go: The descent down Petit Balon is well under way, with Vollering and Van Vleuten holding a 1min 34sec lead over Elisa Longo Borghini. The polka-dot jersey group is over five minutes off the pace, while maillot jaune Marianne Vos is even further behind.
Updated
80km to go: Inside the final two kilometres of the first climb, Van Vleuten and Vollering have a 40-second lead over Longo-Borghini. Ludwig, Brown, Muzic, Persico, Labous and Niewiadoma are 1min 20sec off the pace.
82km to go: Elisa Longho Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) is chasing our two leaders.
84km to go: The bunch has been smithereened on the first of today’s climb. Vollering and Van Vleuten are 24 seconds ahead of a chasing group of seven riders, who are in turn a minute ahead of the main bunch. Marianne Vos and polka-dot jersey Femke Gerritse are in a small group over three minutes behind the leaders.
84km to go: Demi Vollering (SD Worx) and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), two of today’s favourites, have attacked on the climb to the Petit Balon.
86km to go: The lead riders are at the foot of the day’s first climb, the Category 1 Petit Balon, which is 1,163m high, 9.3km in length with a gradient of 8.1%.
There are 3 mountains🏔️ that need to be climbed on today's stage, the first of which is Petit Ballon.
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
The 9.3km ascent has an average gradient of 8.1%⚡️ and will greet the riders after 39km of racing. Steep and narrow at the bottom, the @Strava QOM is up for grabs #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/IfWrFXPfby
87km to go: Your 33 leaders: Balsamo and Van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo), Biannic (Movistar), Majerus and Van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx), Brown, Guazzini and Le Net (FDJ Suez Futuroscope), Henderson and Swinkels (Jumbo-Visma), Georgi (Team DSM), Cromwell and Paladin (Canyon//Sram), Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ), Manly, Rosemann-Gannon and Santesteban (BikeExchange-Jayco), Brennauer (Ceratizit-WNT), Arzuffi and Sanguineti (Valcar-Travel & Service), Neylan and Berteau (Cofidis), De Jong, Demey and Smulders (Liv Racing Xstra), Cant and Schweinberger (Plantur-Pura), Van der Duin and Vandenbulcke (Le Col-Wahoo), Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Barnes (Uno-X), Bideau and Pompanon (St Michel Auber 93), Dronova (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss).
95km to go: A group of 33 riders put 35 seconds between themselves and the peloton, where the ridders of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB are leading the chase.
Updated
99km to go: Trek-Segafredo rider Elisa Balsamo and |Parkhotel Valkenburg’s Femke Gerritse, who currently wears the Queen of the Mountains jersey, have opened a small gap over the bunch.
All eyes 👀 are likely to be on the blue jerseys of @Movistar_Team💙 today. They did a great job to keep @AvVleuten safe when she was unwell at the start of the week and will now be focussing on GC victory tomorrow atop La Super Planche des Belles Filles #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/8sJ8XFl9Ms
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
114km to go: The bunch is largely intact after 13 kilometres but there are signs that it could be a long, long day for Lorena Wiebes. There’s shades of Caleb Ewan about the Dutch DSM rider as she’s already struggling to stay in touch with the peloton, no doubt suffering from the after-effects of yesterday’s crash.
The 3rd and final climb the riders will face today is Grand Ballon which tops out at 1336m 🏔️
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
It's the longest climb of the race at 13.5km and has an average gradient of 6.7%. The current @Strava time to beat is 47'29" but we could see that topple today #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/S85vRfiiH6
The 2nd climb of the day might be the shortest but it's also the steepest, averaging 8.3% for 7.1km and featuring a series of steep ramps.
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
The current @Strava 👑 is @JulietteLabous. She will be hoping to be in the lead group at the top of Col du Platzerwasel today #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/Gpe4psgvge
There are 3 mountains🏔️ that need to be climbed on today's stage, the first of which is Petit Ballon.
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
The 9.3km ascent has an average gradient of 8.1%⚡️ and will greet the riders after 39km of racing. Steep and narrow at the bottom, the @Strava QOM is up for grabs #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/IfWrFXPfby
They’re away and racing on stage seven: The riders cross kilometre zero after a slightly elongated roll-out during which a couple of them were given time to change their bikes after suffering mechanicals.
Two withdrawals: Marlen Reusser (SD Worx) and Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing Xstra) have not lined up at the start today, leaving the peloton 122-womon strong.
The top 10 on GC after stage six
- Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) 19hr 30min 14sec
- Silvia Persico (Valcar-Travel & Service) +30sec
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) +30sec
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) +35sec
- Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (SD Worx) +1min 05sec
- Demi Vollering (SD Worx) +1min 11sec
- Juliette Labous (DSM) +1min 19sec
- Aneemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) +1min 28
- Cecile Ludwig (FDJ-Suez-Futurscope) +2min 02sec
- Elise Chabbey (Canyon/SRAM Racing) +2min 34sec
They've been waiting patiently for the past 6 days and now it's time for the climbers to come to the fore in the high mountains 💥🏔️
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 30, 2022
They have over 160 wins between them, including numerous GCs and mountains classifications. Here are 5 to watch this weekend! #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/gOweEUixMs
Lorena Wiebes cleared to continue racing ...
The sprint queen and dual stage winner from Team DSM crashed heavily on a descent yesterday, finishing the stage dripping blood from a lacerated elbow and with torn shorts and visible road-rash on her thigh and backside. Despite looking in tremendous pain, the Dutch rider had her wounds stitched and has turned up for the start this morning. Here’s hoping she’s not in too much discomfort.
Despite some injuries following her crash yesterday, 🟢@lorenawiebes is ready to start. 💪
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 30, 2022
Malgré quelques blessures suite à sa chute d'hier, 🟢@lorenawiebes est bien présente au départ. 💪#TDFF #WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/ToSRhwni9v
Vos consoilidates lead with stage six success
The Tour de France Femmes leader, Marianne Vos, of the Jumbo-Visma team, won stage six of the race, from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Rosheim, in the Alsace, taking her second stage victory after Monday’s success in Provins. Jeremy Whittle was there to see her do it ...
Stage seven: Sélestat to Le Markstein Fellering (127.1km)
It’s the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour and is a fairly brutal one one that should separate the women from the girls. On their first mountain stage, the riders must tackle no fewer than three Category 1 climbs in the wooded Vosges, located in eastern France near the border with Germany.
With a combined total of over 30 kilometres to climb today, with the first test coming 36 kilometres into the stage. Despite suffering a debilitating stomach bug earlier this week, the pre-race favourite Annemiek van Vleuten has declared herself fit and is the white-hot favourite to win today’s stage and take the yellow jersey from Marianne Vos. Her main rivals for the stage win today include Elisa Longo Borghini, Mavi Garcia and Kasia Niewiadoma.
