July 30, 2022
The Movistar rider was, quite simply, untouchable in the race’s Queen stage
At the finish of stage seven of the Tour de France Femmes, there was an anticlimactic feeling in the air. Riders crossed the line in dribs and drabs, exhausted, shattered and, mostly, disappointed. Elisa Longo Borghini sat on the tarmac sobbing, consoled by soigneurs. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig gave short, blunt answers to journalists, a far cry from the elation she’d shown a few days earlier after her victory on stage three.
“I did everything that I could and I think the rest of them did also, she was just stronger. So congrats to her.” Uttrup Ludwig said wryly after the line, shrugging her shoulders. The Dane finished third on the stage, outsprinting Kasia Niewiadoma and Juliette Labous in a three-up sprint.
Niewiadoma appeared a little more chirpy when questioned, but she still had an air of helplessness in her answers. “Annemiek is beyond our capacity, let’s say,” explained Canyon//SRAM rider.
Van Vleuten’s attack came with still 85 kilometres remaining of the stage which contained over three thousand metres of elevation gain. The only rider who could follow the Olympic time trial champion when she launched her move was SD Worx’s Demi Vollering. The 25-year-old hung on to Van Vleuten’s rear wheel until they were close to the summit of the second of three major climbs, with over 60 kilometres still remaining. From then, Vollering time trialled to the line, aiming solely to limit her losses to Van Vleuten who ended up winning with a three and a half minute advantage.
Vollering expressed after the stage that Van Vleuten’s performance was largely unfathomable. “That’s not normal. I said to her it’s not normal what you did. She said: I have so much more training experience and experience overall [than you]. She said to me that it will come to me, so let’s hope.”
Image: ASO/Fabian Boukla
Van Vleuten is 14 years Vollering’s senior, and has been in the professional peloton since 2008. When asked by the press why she has such an advantage over her competitors on these long, mountain stages, Van Vleuten put this down to age, too.
“It’s something that comes with years. I want to make it really clear that sometimes my colleagues get comments that they should train as much as I do, but that’s not possible,” said the Dutchwoman. “That’s something that’s just a process…