Anna van der Breggen’s long-awaited debut at the Tour de
France Femmes is turning into a quietly impressive comeback. The 35-year-old,
riding for Team SD Worx – Protime, finished third on stage 5 and now sits fifth
in the general classification, just 27 seconds behind race leader Kim Le Court.
Despite four Giro d’Italia titles and two world championship wins, Van der
Breggen never had the chance to race a women’s Tour before retiring in 2021.
With Lotte Kopecky absent from the stage wins so far, all eyes have shifted to
Van der Breggen as the team’s key contender.
Kim Le Court claimed the stage 5 win with a well-timed move
in the final stretch. “I know I’m not the fastest in a sprint like this,
so I tried to attack first. But I’m happy with it. The feeling is good.”
Van der Breggen, meanwhile, was content with her third-place finish. “It’s
great to finish in this elite group. I know I don’t have the fastest final
sprint, so it was important to be first. I was looking for a gap, but
unfortunately it didn’t happen. Third was the best I could do.”
Reflecting on the day’s effort, Van der Breggen added:
“This was a super long and tough day. For 160 kilometers, it was really
hard, and we were fighting for our position. So it’s understandable that most
of us felt a bit out of sorts.”
With several mountain stages ahead, Van der Breggen remains
cautious. “It’s great that I’m getting through this tough stage well. But
it’s not yet a benchmark for the really long and tough climbs. But I’ll take
this into account. Now I’m going to try to recover well and then we’ll
see.”
Still, her early results have been encouraging. “My
Tour de France Femmes is going much better than expected. That’s a good
feeling. However, this doesn’t say much for the future. The real giant climbs
are still to come.”