Updated August 3, 2026 10:48AM
Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) rode solo at the front of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for more than two hours of racing to deliver a slightly bonkers against-all-odds victory Monday.
The Norsewoman attacked out of the day’s early breakaway 88km from the line on stage 3 into Poligny and held strong for only the second victory of her career.
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) finished second after she spent an equally crazy 75km chasing solo behind Haugset’s daring attack.
Haugset came to the line 1:24 ahead of Kopecky and close to three minutes ahead of the GC favorites.
Haugset’s huge raid leaves her with a commanding grip on the yellow jersey ahead of a crucial time trial on Tuesday.
Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance Soudal) is second on GC, 2:02 back. Demi Vollering (FDJ Suez) is third overall at 2:06.
Haugset takes yellow with longest solo break in history of Tour de France Femmes
Sigrid Haugset celebrates a very well deserved yellow jersey. (Photo: Getty Images)
Haugset isn’t likely to still be wearing the maillot jaune when the race hits the mountains at the end of the week, but this was an enormous win nonetheless.
The 27-year-old had only ever won the 2026 Norwegian championships before now. And guess what? She reportedly won that one with a 112km solo.
“I never thought this was possible,” Haugset said in her TV interview at the finish on Monday. “Sitting here is unreal.
“When I went, it wasn’t many seconds (advantage), and I thought ‘Lotte will catch me, should I drop back to her? Second is good,’” Haugset laughed.
“But I kept on and the team director was really good pushing me. I thought of my teammates and everyone cheering from home. I had to give it all,” she continued. “And in the Norwegian jersey, it’s fantastic.
“I was so dizzy in the end I coudn’t celebrate, I couldn’t lift my arms from the bike.”
Vollering crashed early in the stage but was clearly able to brush off any after-effects by lighting up the final hour with an attack for bonus seconds.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix Premier Tech), Noemi Ruegg, and Magdeliene Vallieres (EF Education Oatly) were also involved in Vollering’s crash. None of the four were reported to have sustained any injuries.
Wiebes out the back and out of yellow as race transitions to France
Wiebes was dropped early in the stage and lost her yellow jersey. (Photo: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
The Tour de France Femmes hit home turf on stage 3 on Monday. The peloton rolled from Geneva and climbed over the border into France for a flat finish in Poligny.
The 157km course was split into two halves: a hard, hilly start and an “easy” end that trended downward from the stage’s early high point.
Every team in the peloton that wasn’t SD Worx Protime knew the assignment: Get rid of sprint dominator Lorena Wiebes on the back-to-back climbs that opened the stage and don’t let her claw her way back.
Wiebes did well to cling on through much of the tough Cat.1 that opened the stage, but she was gapped at the summit. The muscly mega-sprinter and her Lidl-Trek rival Elisa Balsamo were part of a small gruppetto that formed at the top of the Col de la Faucille after only 25km of racing.
SD Worx and Lidl-Trek seemed to sense the race was up the road and didn’t even try to bring back their fast finishers.
Haugset goes long … very long
Sigrid Hauset animated the stage with a mind-bending 94km solo attack outo of the break. (Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP via Getty Images)
Haugset was crucial to forming a strong break of 11 riders that grouped together soon after the stage’s opening climbs.
But the Norsewoman wasn’t done after she helped make the first move.
The 27-year-old attacked a second time 88km from the line and romped solo across the hilly parcours.
Kopecky launched a solo chase behind the lone leader around 15km later, and the two locked in a two-up pursuit match that at first seemed futile so early in the stage.
However, the race swung their way when the pace fizzled out of a peloton fried beneath a 37 degree sun. USA’s Kristen Faulkner was one of several riders seen struggling under the intensity of a fresh blast of the European heatwave.
Haugset was still some 5 minutes ahead of the bunch with 50km to go. Kopecky was around 1 minute behind her.
Meanwhile, the peloton was barely making inroads with its half-hearted chase.
Vollering brushes off crash with kick for bonus seconds
Vollering was the aggressor among the GC favorites in the final. (Photo: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Vollering briefly kicked the race out of its siesta on the final categorized climb of the stage, around 30km from the line.
The Dutchwoman sparked a flurry of attacks among the GC favorites when she attacked for the bonus seconds available at the summit of the Côte de Chaux-Champagny.
The stage returned to a painful two-up pursuit race soon afterward.
Kopecky cut her gap to Haugset to just 10 seconds inside the 10km as the Norwegian started to fade, fast. However, the Belgian chaser ran out of gas faster than the Norwegian.
Haugset extended her gap to more than a minute in the final run to Poligny before she crossed the line and collapsed in exhaustion.
Tour de France Femmes stage 3 results