said<\/a>.<\/p>\nHer ride capped a calculated week. The 32-year-old, better known in recent years for her mountain bike dominance, had returned to the road this summer with the Tour as her main target. She kept her cards close early. The French rider was cagey \u2014 avoiding any unnecessary effort \u2014 then delivered the decisive blow when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
For French cycling, it was a long-awaited moment. Not since Jeannie Longo had a home rider taken such a commanding win in a women\u2019s Grand Tour.<\/p>\n
PFP has focused on MTB for a decade \u2014 and dayum, she dominated there, too. But when she returned this season with a Paris-Roubaix victory already under her belt \u2014 and now the Tour de France Femmes title, cementing her comeback in classic fashion.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s champ, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, battled hard on the descents to secure a podium spot. She narrowly beat climber Sarah Gigante, who struggled on the descents. Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s stage win gave her a 2:37 lead over Gigante heading into the finale.<\/p>\n
Canadian riders stood out, too. Nadia Gontova (Winspace \u2013 Orange Seal) and Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res impressed, with Valli\u00e8res finishing 18th overall \u2014 the best ever for a Canadian woman in this race. Sarah Van Dam (Ceratizit) earned a top-10 sprint finish. And our national champ Alison Jackson made her mark in breakaways.<\/p>\n
On the final stage from Praz-sur-Arly to Ch\u00e2tel Les Portes du Soleil (124.1 km), Gontova delivered an inspiring performance, living up to her promise despite recent setbacks. \u201cIt\u2019s super exciting being part of the race, and the crowds are incredible,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying the learning experience and hoping to have good legs in the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Tour de France Fellas and Tour de France Femmes are over, there\u2019s lots left. The Tour of Denmark is up next \u2014 and don\u2019t forget the WorldTour pros head over here to Canada for Les Grands Prix Cyclistes de Qu\u00e9bec et Montr\u00e9al. And Tadej Poga\u010dar is coming!<\/p>\n
And Wout van Aert. And probably my cranky editor. All reasons to check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PFP took an incredible win at the Tour de France Femmes, and her rivals knew they were doomed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-334439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115007312675035857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334439","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=334439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}