{"id":307833,"date":"2025-07-31T23:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307833\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T23:57:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:57:22","slug":"tour-de-france-femmes-stage-7-preview-can-kim-le-court-strengthen-her-grip-on-gc-as-the-race-heads-into-the-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307833\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Femmes stage 7 preview: can Kim Le Court strengthen her grip on GC as the race heads into the Alps?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stage 7 is another long one, again backloaded with mountain passes, this time in the Alps.<\/p>\n<p>Opening in Bourg-en-Bresse, a popular Tour de France stopover in the 21st century, the profile only gets serious at the 100km mark with the short but stiff Cote de Saint-Franc climb (3.8km at 6.9%).<\/p>\n<p>Whoever opens a gap on the much longer Col du Granier (8.9km at 5.4%) will need to be confident in their descending skills because much of the final 18km is down a 5.8% slope, before a flatter finale into the town.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday&#8217;s stage 6 was won by Maeva Squiban, providing a first stage win by a French rider at this year&#8217;s Tour. Juliette Labous completed a French one-two.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Le Court Pienaar, who became the first African rider to win a Tour de France Femmes stage on Wednesday, will wear the yellow jersey on stage 7.<\/p>\n<p>Read more on the Tour de France Femmes<\/p>\n<p>Stage 7: Bourg-en-Bresse &gt; Chamb\u00e9ry<\/p>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> 1 August<br \/><strong>Distance:<\/strong> 159.7km<br \/><strong>Stage type:<\/strong> Hilly<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"407\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TdeF-Femmes-Stage-7-Schedule.jpg\" alt=\"TdeF Femmes Stage 7 - Schedule \/ Bourg-en-Bresse &gt; Chamb\u00e9ry\" class=\"wp-image-930181\"\/><br \/>\nRoute profile<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1758\" height=\"681\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TdeF-Femmes-Stage-7-Elevation.jpg\" alt=\"TdeF Femmes Stage 7 - Elevation \/ Bourg-en-Bresse &gt; Chamb\u00e9ry\" class=\"wp-image-930178\"\/><br \/>\nRoute map<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"1358\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TdeF-Femmes-Stage-7-Map.jpg\" alt=\"TdeF Femmes Stage 7 - Map \/ Bourg-en-Bresse &gt; Chamb\u00e9ry\" class=\"wp-image-930180\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chamb\u00e9ry\u2019s prime location in the Savoie department, close to climbs such as the Mont du Chat and Col de Plainpalais, makes it an ideal base for the talented Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale pro cycling and development teams, whose many riders can often be seen honing their legs and fitness on the nearby passes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the magnificent monastery at Brou, the race will start on flat roads on the edge of the Dombes and the Ain plain,\u201d says race director Marion Rousse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe riders will skim past the Glandieu waterfall before finding their pace checked by the Saint-Franc climb.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After passing through Les \u00c9chelles and the Guiers Vif gorges, they\u2019ll head for the Col du Granier (8.9km at 5.4%). The dive into the finish, located in front of the Chamb\u00e9ry Savoie Stadium, is likely to be fast and technical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One to watch: C\u00e9drine Kerbaol<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TdeF-Femmes-Stage-7-GettyImages-2177402142.jpg\" alt=\"Cedrine Kerbaol winner of the the 4th Tre Valli Varesine Women's Race 2024\" class=\"wp-image-930179\"\/>Cedrine Kerbaol (centre) will be targeting another mountain-stage success. Tim de Waele \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>C\u00e9drine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) likes the mountains and was a winner last year in Morteau.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s stage could suit her nicely.<\/p>\n<p>Did you know?<\/p>\n<p>Chamb\u00e9ry hosted the 1989 Road World Championships. France\u2019s Jeannie Longo won the fourth of five world titles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stage 7 is another long one, again backloaded with mountain passes, this time in the Alps. Opening in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-307833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114950560475626669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}