Saturday was the first of two consecutive summit finishes of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, and it was somehow appropriate that the day’s winner was the polka dot jersey, Belgian Justine Ghekiere. Katarzyna Niewiadoma retained the yellow jersey on the penultimate day, and leads Puck Pieterse by 27 seconds.. Simone Boilard was once more the top Canadian in 47th.
The Course
It was time for the heavy-duty mountains. Five categorized climbs were on offer across 166.4 km. The final two climbs formed steps, with Cat. 2 Col de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt leading immediately to Cat. 2 summit finish climb Grand Bornand-Montée de Chinaillon.
🚲 Stage 7 / Étape 7 🚲
🚩 Champagnole
🏁 @mongrandbo
📏 166,4 km
⏰ 10:30 CEST > 15:44 CEST
⛰ 1×1️⃣c, 2×2️⃣c, 1×3️⃣c, 1×4️⃣c
💚 km 100,6#TDFF2024 pic.twitter.com/aKH7oNtFiP— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 17, 2024
Saturday’s breakaway was a high-powered one, formed fairly late, with Ghekiere and 15th place Marianne Vos the core of the six riders. Ghekiere added points to her polka dot lead and Vos added to her green jersey lead before taking over the virtual yellow jersey. With 42 km remaining, the gap was 5:00.
Fenix-Deceuninck, Canyon-SRAM, SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek pulled the peloton. By the time Col de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt kicked up with 14 km to go, the fugitives’ lead was 3:20. Two escapees immediately lost contact. Julie Van de Velde, who had pulled all day for teammate Ghekiere, was the next to drop, prompting the polka dot jersey to attack. By the peak, Ghekiere was 56 seconds ahead of Vos and 2:35 ahead of the now-Kristen Faulknerless peloton.
Grand Bornand-Montée de Chinaillon
The digs began in the peloton. Ghekiere was still 2:00 ahead. Eighth place Pauliena Rooijakkers made her move, spurring Demi Vollering into counterattacking. Niewiadoma chased Rooijakkers, bringing Vos back with her efforts. Ghekiere had 1:30 with 2.4 km to climb. Niewiadoma finally flared away and only Vollering couldn’t hang with her. Vollering took the last of the bonus seconds.
Sunday’s conclusion sets the Tour de France Femmes’s climax atop the mythical Alpe d’Huez.
2024 Tour de France Femmes Stage 7
1) Justine Ghekiere (Belgium/AG Insurance-Soudal) 4:26:58
2) Maëva Squiban (France/Arkéa-B&B Hotels +1:15
3) Demi Vollering (The Netherlands/SD Worx-Protime) +1:23
47) Simone Boilard (Canada/Uno-X) +9:23
48) Olivia Baril…
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