Marianne Vos has lost her yellow jersey in the Tour de France Femmes again to Kimberley Le Court. The rider from Mauritius won the sprint of the favorites’ group with dominance, although Demi Vollering came close at the finish line.
Le Court, who also took the yellow from Vos after the second stage, was left with six other favorites in the finish place Guéret. She started the sprint first and dared to cheer early. Vollering came on strong, but had to settle for second place. This made Le Court the first African with a stage win in the Tour de France Femmes.
Anna van der Breggen finished third, ahead of last year’s Tour winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma. In the standings, Le Court is 18 seconds ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and 23 seconds ahead of Vollering. Niewiadoma and Van der Breggen are also within half a minute of Le Court.
Vos crossed the finish line in eighth place, more than half a minute after the first group. She has dropped to sixth place in the standings, 37 seconds behind the yellow jersey.
Watch how Le Court takes yellow after impressive sprint
Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) joined the day’s breakaway 100 kilometers from the finish, which was set up by the Italian Francesca Barale. Later, Dijkstra and Barale were joined by Alison Jackson and Catalina Anais Soto. The Canadian and Chilean had also been on an adventure together in Monday’s stage. Later, the Australian Brodie Chapman also joined.
Elisa Balsamo and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner had to abandon the stage due to physical discomfort. The five at the front, meanwhile, gained more than four minutes’ lead. But Dijkstra, Barale, Jackson, Soto and Chapman soon had to give up ground, as Liane Lippert’s Movistar team started riding at the front.
Dijkstra also had to drop out on the Côte de Chabannes, the first climb of the day. Chapman lasted the longest at the front and was joined after a number of riders jumped away from the peloton. But they had to admit defeat in the run-up to the final climb, Le Maupuy of the third category.
Green jersey wearer Lorena Wiebes and her teammate Lotte Kopecky had already been dropped from the peloton. Le Court won the intermediate sprint halfway up Le Maupuy, ahead of Ferrand-Prévot and Niewiadoma. Van der Breggen was the first to the top. Vos could not follow and was already riding about twenty seconds behind the new leading group.
After that it was still 7 kilometers to the finish in Guéret. The favorites stayed away and Vos could no longer close the gap to the leading group. Van der Breggen tried it in the final kilometers, but Le Court had the strongest sprint.
The Tour de Frances Femmes lasts until Sunday. The first serious mountain stage is on Thursday. In the 124 kilometers between Clermont-Ferrand and Ambert, there are five climbs on the menu.