The organisers of the Tour de France Femmes were aiming for maximum GC tension heading into the final weekend of the race, and they’ve achieved just that, albeit at the expense of a dynamic battle for the yellow jersey throughout the week.
Once again, stage 7 of the race, a 160km run from Bourg-en-Bresse over two second-category climbs, including the Col du Granier to Chambéry, saw the top favourites race to the line with no major movements.
Yellow jersey Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) came under pressure on the final climb of the day, the 8.9km Granier, but, after the best downhill ride of her career, she held onto the lead for another day, finishing fifth among the main GC group and retaining her 26-second lead.
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The Mauritian at one point was out of virtual yellow, falling over half a minute behind second-placed Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease A Bike) on the Granier as the Frenchwoman and several other big names – including Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto), Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) – rode off up the road.
Speaking after the finish, Ferrand-Prévot, racing the Tour for the first time and among the favourites to end the race in yellow, said that she wasn’t thinking about the maillot jaune on Friday.
“I told myself, ‘My race is tomorrow.’ Today it wasn’t the goal to take the yellow jersey,” she said in Chambéry. “I tell myself that it’s also good to avoid all the stress [of leading] today. We need to be able to recover properly and be ready for tomorrow’s stage, which, in my opinion, will be decisive.”
Ferrand-Prévot heads into the penultimate stage at 26 seconds down on Le Court-Pienaar, the best-placed woman to take the lead, though only a handful of seconds up on Niewiadoma-Phinney, Vollering, and Van der Breggen.
The quartet, who lie from second to fifth, are separated by just nine seconds after seven days of racing, with the gaps from stage 1 in the hills of Brittany still intact a week later.
None of the four have made any major attacks in the past two days, even with over 4,000 metres of climbing on the menu.
Instead, it seems that the main objective has been to save energy while avoiding any unnecessary risks or time losses. After all, the Madeleine and stage 8’s mammoth 3,500 metres of climbing loom on Saturday.
“I’m not tired. I was in control today. For me, it’s been a good day,” Ferrand-Prévot told journalists, including Cycling Weekly, after stage 7. “I don’t know how the others are now, but for sure, I felt good again today.
“I’m happy with my day and to have saved as much energy as possible. I think I’m still fresh for tomorrow, so let’s see.
“Hah, poker face,” she replied to a journalist who noted that she didn’t show any sign of suffering on the Granier.
‘Poker face’ Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is well-placed on GC to please home fans on Saturday (Image credit: Getty Images)
There was little sign of trouble from any of the other main favourites on the way up, either, though Ferrand-Prévot said she might watch back the stage to try and seek any sign of a grimace in her competitors.
Le Court-Pienaar was certainly grimacing on the Granier. She is, however, widely expected to lose yellow for good on the Madeleine, with her AG Insurance-Soudal team hoping teammate Sarah Gigante can replicate her Giro d’Italia Women performances to take over.
Gigante has struggled massively on the descents of stages 6 and 7, though teammate Justine Ghekiere has been on hand to guide her back and limit her losses each time. The Australian has managed to limit her losses to just 11 seconds across the two days and has admitted she might’ve lost minutes without her Belgian teammate.
With rival team directors including Danny Stam of SD Worx-Protime and Jos Van Emden of Visma-Lease A Bike singling Gigante out as a huge threat on the Madeleine, the lack of impetus on behalf of the other GC contenders does come as something of a surprise. Why not push harder on the downhills and take Gigante out of the equation?
As it stands, the 24-year-old, who raced to third at the Giro d’Italia Women, lies in seventh at 1:03 off the lead (37 seconds off Ferrand-Prévot’s second place), while Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), another rider who has struggled on the descents, finishing with Gigante in Chambéry, lies 10 seconds up.
In Cédrine Kerboal (EF Education-Oatly), stage 7 did at least have one rider who tried to make the most of the downhill. The Breton racer slipped away late on the descent towards the finish to nine seconds plus six more bonus seconds, shifting herself up into seventh overall, smack-bang between Rooijakkers and Gigante.
They’re all in the mix, then, a clear list of seven hopefuls looking at the 2,000-metre-high Madeleine with a dream. After seven days of entertaining racing, anything can still happen in the battle for the yellow jersey.
France may have been abuzz with talk of their new racing sensation, double stage winner and potential future contender Maëva Squiban, on Friday evening. But in Ferrand-Prévot, they have someone who might yet bring home the Tour win this weekend.
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