It may have been only the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, but already some hopefuls found themselves losing valuable seconds after the aggressively raced climbs before the line, including the Côte de Durtol, shredded the field.
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) won the stage and stepped into the first yellow jersey of the race after launching with just under 10km of racing and then carving out a gap to finish solo, 41 seconds ahead of a chase group of around 20, with teammate Lorena Wiebes, Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich) and Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma contesting the sprint from that bunch.
After time bonuses, Kopecky is 45 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, the stage runner-up Wiebes. It’s enough of a buffer that Kopecky has hopes of holding yellow for some time, but SD Worx is still completely behind Demi Vollering as the best chance to be wearing the jersey after the Tourmalet stage and time trial finale in Pau after eight days of racing.
Vollering finished in the chase group behind Kopecky, which was split slightly on the run into the line due to the acceleration of the sprint for the remaining podium places. The rider who placed second in the overall in 2022 now sits 53 second back from her yellow-clad teammate at 53 seconds among a group that includes most, but not all, of those who had designs on a top ten finish overall.
The 18 riders from the chase group that are on the same time as Vollering includes defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten and her Movistar teammate Liane Lippert, Elisa Longo Borghini and Lidl-Trek teammate Amanda Spratt, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Evita Muzic of FDJ-Suez, Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind), Ane Santesteban (Jayco-AlUla), Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Tibco SVB), Kasia Niewiadoma and Elise Chabbey of Canyon-SRAM, Tamara Dronova (Israel-Premier Tech), Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) and Vollering’s teammate Marlen Reusser.
Then it is Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) sitting a few seconds further back on one minute, making it three riders well-positioned for FDJ-Suez. Still Grace Brown, who is now two minutes down, had hoped to be up there as well.
UAE Team ADQ may had Magnaldi in the first chase group, but the fifth-placed finisher at the Giro d’Italia Donne was heading into the race with expectations of being in a support role for Silvia Persico and Olivia Baril, as both are likely to fare better in the time trial on the final stage. However,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…