Everyone expected Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) to deliver something special today at the Tour de France Femmes, yet despite such high expectations, somehow she managed to produce a performance that still left everyone watching flabbergasted.
Any doubts that she was still sub-100% following her recent bout of illness, or that her legs may be fatigued following her victory at the Giro Donne earlier this month, were categorically dismissed as she won stage seven at a canter.
It wasn’t the fact she decided to make her attack so early that was so extraordinary. We all know about the Dutchwoman’s fondness for a long-range attack, as anyone watching from the roadside in Yorkshire at the 2019 World Championships during her 100km attack will know. It came as no surprise to learn from Movistar’s DS that her move on the first climb of the day, the Petit Ballon, over 80km from the finish, was in fact premeditated.
Nor was it the fact she rode so much of the day alone. She’s famed for her engine and is arguably the best time triallist in the world, and besides, most of the 60km she rode solo after dropping her final hanger-on, Demi Vollering (SD Worx), were uphill, diluting the benefits of slipstreaming.
No, what was really astonishing about this ride, that set it above even her other great victories, was the sheer enormity of the time gaps between Van Vleuten and everyone else. After dropping Vollering on the second climb of the day, the Col du Platzerwasel, she reached the summit with a lead of 30 seconds; on the descent and valley roads that follow in the lead-up to the foot of the final climb, that had ballooned all the way up to 2-30; and she put more time in excess of a minute on the Grand Ballon, so that her eventual winning margin was a whopping 3-40.
Her advantage over everyone else was even more enormous. The main group of chasers that featured the other top GC riders, including Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) and Silvia Persico (Valcar Travel & Service) were already almost three minutes adrift from Van Vleuten when the (frustratingly delayed) TV live coverage began, halfway up the Platzerwasel. By the top it was 4-40, then the start of the Grand Ballon it was about six minutes, and although Niewiadoma, Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) and Juliette Labous (DSM) rode a strong final climb to make up a little ground to reduce their losses to 5-18, other key GC contenders Persico and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) were…