Stage 1 – Lorena Wiebes

Who’s Winning the Tour de France Femmes?

Team DSM came to the stage race with a clear GC contender in Juliette Labous, and a powerful and cemented sprinter Lorena Wiebes who took the win today at the Champs-Élyseés, beating the one and only Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma). Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx finished in third. Wiebes will be in yellow for tomorrow’s start.

As expected, the short 82-kilometre race was a spicy one, with attacks early on, plus sprints and QOM points that kept the pace high. The day saw at least two crashes, and many more dropped chains and mechanicals.

Movistar and Jumbo were the only teams with clear sprint trains in the last kilometres of the race, though Ellen van Dijk from Trek-Segafredo drove the pace while teammate Elisa Balsamo improvised in the peloton to get into a better position for the sprint. The Jumbo-Visma sprint train released Vos for a long sprint, but it was Wiebes who came from the far left to make it a drag race and win the first race for yellow.

The Combativity Award went to Gladys Verhulst from Le Cool Wahoo after she managed to stay ahead of the peloton until 2.5km to go.

Who’s really winning the Tour?

All the favourites for the General Classification finished within the bunch taking the same time. Some gaps did open up on riders like Leah Thomas (Trek-Segafredo), Christine Majerus (SD Worx), and Soraya Paladin (Canyon Sram), but no serious contenders lose time.

While today was clearly one for the sprinters and tomorrow’s stage looking to play out the same way, we won’t see the real favorites for the GC come out to play just yet. Riders like Movistar’s Annemiek van Vleuten, Demi Vollering (SD Worx), and Marta Bastianelli (FDJ) just need to hold tight, stay rubber-side down, and hydrated in the upcoming days.

TdF Femmes Saffa Watch

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio finished safely in the front group, Frances Janse van Rensburg 56 seconds back.

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