Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes was earmarked as one of the harder stages of the race, featuring six classified climbs and many other unclassified ascents on a mountainous route through the Massif Central. Compared with the opening day, it was raced much more aggressively, with several breakaways animating the rainy stage.
It was the first of back-to-back hilly stages of the eight-day race, building to the queen stage on the penultimate stage 7 on July 29 with a summit finish at the iconic Tourmalet. Climbers like Georgia Williams (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) were off the front of the race on Monday, and she poke to Cyclingnews at the finish in Mauriac.
“Everyone knew it was going to be a hard day. There was so much climbing, that made the race pretty fast because everyone was constantly fighting for position. And we had wet roads and sketchy descents, that also makes it faster because everyone wants to be in the front,” Williams explained the nervousness in the peloton.
The New Zealander was part of a two-rider breakaway with Hannah Ludwig (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) that went early on the constantly up-and-down 151.7km route, starting with a climb out of Clermont-Ferrand and never really letting up after that.
“It wasn’t actually the plan to go in the break, but I was in the front on the climb. There were a few attacks going, two groups of five got away but came back again. Then Hannah Ludwig went, so I just went with her. I had been hoping for a few more friends, but we rode really well together,” Williams recounted her exploits.
For a while, Williams was leading the mountains classification, having crested the fourth-category Côte du Mont-Dore and Côte de la Stèle first. Even though their time at the front of the race ended halfway through the stage, Williams was satisfied with her day.
“I thought I might as well take the points and see what happens, even though we didn’t know how long we were going to stay out, the time gap kept going out and then coming back,” said Williams, who ended the day third in the mountains classification.
“It was hard, but it was so fun. You could just soak up the atmosphere a bit more when you’re out there instead of in the peloton. There were so many people, the crowds were so good, and everyone was cheering, it was really awesome.”
The attacks started again on the second-category Côte des Plaines. Julie Van der Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) was first at the top ahead of her teammate Yara Kastelijn who then…
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