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The Dutch Marianne Vos won the second stage of the Tour de France Women between Meaux and Provins. The Jumbo-Visma champion also takes the yellow jersey.
At 35, Marianne Vos already has the best track record in women’s cycling. Road, cyclo-cross, track… She won on all terrains. Monday July 25, she added two new lines during the second stage of the Tour de France Women: a stage victory of the brand new race and above all a yellow jersey.
The experienced Dutchman isolated herself in the lead with a group of six riders then settled her breakaway companions, ahead of Silvia Persico and Katarzyna Niewiadoma on the line. A victory which also allows him to recover the green jersey.
>> To read also: “Tour de France Women: the end of such a long absence”
Nervous peloton throughout the stage
It was a suspicious platoon that took the road to Meaux, from the museum of the Great War. The relaxed atmosphere is over with the strolls of Tadej Pogacar and Benjamin Thomas who came to support their companions after having finished with the men’s Grande Boucle: by analyzing the route of the 136.4 kilometers which separate the start from the finish in Provins and the weather , sports directors predicted a risk of curbs.
A breakaway manages to form all the same composed of Sabrina Stultiens (Liv Racing Xstra), Rotem Gafinovitz (Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad), Marit Raaijmakers (Human Powered Health) and Femke Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenburg). The latter tamed in first position the coast of Tigeaux, gleaning the two points in the mountain classification.
>> To read also: “Lorena Wiebes, gifted sprinter and first yellow jersey in the history of the Tour de France Women”
However, the teams drove hard behind and the breakaway fizzled out, retaken 78 kilometers from the finish. The white jersey Maike van der Duin attacks, raising the nervousness in the peloton. The falls are multiplying and the FDJ is paying the price: its two leaders are caught in the falls. Marta Cavalli ends up giving up. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will also concede time despite the efforts of her teammates. While the objective was not to waste time for the only French team on the World Tour, the day turned into a disaster.
Maike van der Duin, picked up during the first crossing of the finish line, is part of the “good move” which will resist alongside Marianne Vos until the finish. These efforts earned her the title of most combative runner of the day. A red bib which sticks to the skin of the Le Col-Wahoo team since the day before, it was already one of its runners who had obtained it: the Frenchwoman Gladys Verhulst.
