After an emphatic victory on the opening stage, Lorena Wiebes took another win on stage two of the Tour de France Femmes, as she dominated the bunch sprint to claim back-to-back wins and retain the maillot jaune as overall leader of the race.
The Dutch sprinter had to fight her way through to the front in the final few hundred metres, as she was left without a leadout, after her SD Worx-Protime team were forced to chase down a solo move from a resilient Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), who was only caught inside the final kilometre.
“Our team worked really hard for it. The girls were chasing full gas in the final to bring back Riejanne Markus, so it was even more beautiful to finish it off in yellow,” Wiebes said in her interview after the stage.
“At one point we decided to put Lotte [Kopecky] in the chase, because we needed everyone,” she continued. “I also knew that it was up to me to find my own way and I found some good wheels. I could come out with around 200m to go and then I just launched my sprint.”
Once she emerged into clear air, Wiebes once again proved to be a level above the rest of the sprinters, with Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) finishing a distant second and third respectively.
When asked if she ever gets bored of winning so dominantly, Wiebes replied: “No, I think every sprint is quite exciting, because if you make a small mistake, the sprint is over and you cannot finish it off for the team. So for me, it’s exciting every time and a bit nervous sometimes to sprint.”
With some tougher climbs coming up on tomorrow’s stage, the maillot jaune could be up for grabs ahead of the time trial on stage 4. On whether she believes she can retain the jersey, Wiebes said: “I think tomorrow it will be really hard to keep it, but we will do our best.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a thrilling opening stage in Switzerland, the riders faced a 148km-long stage from Aigle to Geneva on stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, as the race began to head towards the French border along the shores of Lake Geneva.
It was a slow start to the stage, with no early breakaway forming in the opening kilometres, which allowed riders from the peloton to contest the first two categorised climbs, with Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Maeva Squiban (UAE Team L’IMAD) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) among those to claim points for the mountains classification.
A breakaway did eventually form with around 95km to go, with Eline Janssen (VolkerWessels), Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health) and Yuliia Biriukova (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) getting themselves up the road, before being joined by Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) and Ema Comte (Cofidis) shortly afterwards.
They were never allowed more than three minutes of an advantage by the peloton, as the general classification contenders’ teams kept them on a relatively tight leash throughout the day.
Biriukova won the intermediate sprint from the breakaway with 59km to go, whilst the maillot jaune Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) claimed maximum points from the peloton behind to increase her lead in the points classification, as she continued to go about defending her maillot vert from last year’s race.
The race then began to liven up as the riders approached the Côte de Bougy-Villars (0.9km at 10.4%) a few kilometres later, as teams looked to keep their leaders well-positioned in the bunch.
It was here that the breakaway began to fragment, with Cipressi and Biriukova dropped from the head of the race, whilst Janssen managed to hold on as Comte and Koster began to attack each other on the climb, with the latter taking the maximum points at the summit.
The Côte de Mont-sur-Rolle (2.3km at 6.5%) then followed shortly afterwards with 50km to go, with the peloton quickly closing the gap to the breakaway to around a minute as they began the climb. This then triggered a move from the peloton, as Célia Gery (FDJ United-SUEZ) went on the attack to bridge across to the three riders at the head of the race.
The French rider drew Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly) with her, before Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sara Casasola (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) also bridged across to the move.
Koster then outsprinted Comte once again to take the maximum points, before the chasing group then joined the leading trio over the top of the climb to form an eight-rider breakaway at the head of the race, but they only had a handful of seconds over the peloton behind.
A lack of cooperation hindered their situation further, as they began to attack each other before they were inevitably caught by the bunch.
Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) then immediately counterattacked and went solo with around 40km to go. The Dutch rider then proceeded to draw out an advantage of more than a minute on the peloton over the following 15km, before the bunch realised the threat she posed and began working to reel her in.
However, Markus’ abilities as a time trial specialist made it difficult for the sprinters’ teams to close the gap and she still had half a minute of an advantage over the peloton with 5km to go.
It was all hands to the pump for SD Worx-Protime, who were receiving little to no assistance from the other sprinters’ teams and had to call upon Anna van der Breggen and Lotte Kopecky to help bring the race back together for a sprint finish for Lorena Wiebes.
Once Kopecky had finished her final turn on the front, Wiebes was isolated and had to surf the wheels amongst the leadout trains to stay well-positioned in the bunch.
As they went under the flamme rouge, Markus still had a slender advantage over the charging peloton behind, but it was ultimately not enough for her to hang on, as she was caught with around 500m to go.
The peloton then swung around the final corner and the sprint was launched. Several sprinters went on the left side of the road, opening up a pocket of space on the right, which Wiebes immediately burst through with a surge of power
From there it was essentially a foregone conclusion, as she kicked again and powered to victory, finishing four bike lengths clear of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in second place.
RESULTS
TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES STAGE TWO: AIGLE > GENEVA (148KM)
1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 03:42:08
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
4. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) AG Insurance-Soudal
5. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picnic PostNL
7. Zoe Bäckstedt (GBr) Canyon-SRAM
8. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly
9. Malwina Mul (Pol) Cofidis
10. Linda Riedmann (Ger) Lotto Intermarché, all at same time
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO
1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 07:10:59
2. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, +14s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez, +16s
4. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly, +20s
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team L'IMAD
6. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly
7. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
8. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
9. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, all at same time
