Tour de France Femmes stage 6: Yellow jersey Marianne Vos bosses bunch sprint
Tour de France Femmes stage 6: Yellow jersey Marianne Vos bosses bunch sprint
This story originally appeared on VeloNews.com.
Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) blasted to bunch sprint victory after a tough hilly stage of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
The Dutch ace kicked past Marta Bastianelli and Lotte Kopecky to scored a dominant second victory of the Tour and extend her lead in the GC.
Jumbo-Visma and then Trek-Segafredo led out the bunch sprint in Rosheim after the break was caught in the final kilometers of a hard hilly stage into Rosheim.
Longo Borghini launched first but Vos surged past at around 150 meters to go to score her second stage of the race.
Two mountain stages to come meant a brutal battle for the day’s break.
A bunch of 14 racers from 14 teams eventually went away, and it meant business.
Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo), Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM), Christine Majerus (SD Worx), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (BikeExchange-Jayco), Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) and Joss Lowden (Uno-X) were among the riders in a stellar escape.
UAE ADQ and Valcar Travel & Service were two of the few teams to miss the break and kept the escape on a tight leash in hopes of a reduced sprint in Rosheim.
The race exploded to life on the descent of the Mollkrich climb at 25km to go.
Majerus and Henderson railed the fast downhill to pile pressure, but not split, the breakaway.
Meanwhile around one minute behind, Alena Amialiusik (Canyon SRAM), Lotte Kopecky (SD Workx) and green jersey Lorena Weibes (DSM) hit the deck hard as the peloton plummeted down the winding hill. All three were fast back onto the bike but Weibes looked bloodied up and in difficulty as she slowly chased back.
DSM didn’t give up after Wiebes’ wipe-out. The black and blue team piled on in the peloton as it worked for both Wiebes and co-captain Lianne Lippert.
Henderson continued to kick on in the chase for the stage. The Brit attacked again on a small uncategorized climb 15km from the line, and breakaway companions Lowden and Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope) darted cross.
Côte de Boersch crunch
Movistar lit things up on the Côte de Boersch as the stage steamed into its final 10km. Annemiek Van Vleuten’s pain train pulled the breakaway trio to within 20 seconds.
Le Net kicked away from Henderson and Lowden over the summit of the Boersch climb, but the peloton wasn’t letting the stage from its grip.
Trek-Segafredo, Canyon-SRAM and DSM all piled on over the crest of the Côte and caught back the flying Frenchwoman at just 6km to go as the parcours plummeted toward its finale in Rosheim.
What’s to come: Mountains to make mayhem among GC contenders
Stages 7 and 8 will close the race and prove Queenmakers in the inaugural Tour de France Femmes.
Saturday’s stage to Le Markstein Fellering will be decided by a 13.5km grind up the Grand Ballon and the tricky up-and-down plateau to the line.
The yellow jersey will be decided Sunday with what should be a spectacular showdown on the stoney summit finish of the Super Planche des Belles Filles.
Tour de France Femmes (2.WWT) Saint-Dié-des-Vosges → Rosheim
VOS Marianne
VOS Marianne
GERRITSE Femke
BORGSTRÖM Julia
Team SD Worx