Cédrine Kerbaol came to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with hopes of improving on her GC finish last year (12th, and Best Young Rider). With two stages to go, the Ceratizit-WNT team leader is in prime position for that and more after a bold late-stage raid netted her a stage win and a jump up to second in the overall standings. Kerbaol is the first French rider ever to win a stage of the Tour.
On the second-longest day of the race, Kerbaol patiently waited for the early break to be caught before launching a ferocious late-race attack just after the final QOM. After dropping her initial companion, Fenix-Deceuninck’s Pauliena Rooijakkers, Kerbaol roosted the descent and flat final kilometers to take a satisfying solo win in Morteau. Race leader Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) finished safely in an elite group of chasers 21 seconds behind and retains her yellow jersey, with only minor changes to the top 10 overall.
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How it happened
- The 159.2 km ride from Remiremont to Morteau was always a day that looked auspicious for a breakaway and, sure enough, a big move went early: 18 riders, initiated by Human Powered Health’s Audrey Cordon-Ragot. Other notable names included Visma-Lease a Bike’s Marianne Vos, Niamh Fisher-Black of SD Worx-Protime, and FDJ-Suez’s Grace Brown.
- The group worked well together, but a wary peloton never allowed them a long leash. At the back of the peloton, riders dropped under pressure, including green jersey Charlotte Kool (DSM Firmenich-PostNL), who spent a good chunk of the day yo-yoing out and back in to the peloton.
- Up front, the break began to disintegrate on the day’s primary difficulty, the Cat 2 La Roche du Prêtre climb that began roughly 30 km from the finish. Under sustained pressure from Fisher-Black, the group quickly broke up and by the top, only Brown and AG Insurance-Soudal’s Justine Ghekiere were left. Behind, the pack kept the gap tight with a chase puzzingly led partly by FDJ.
- Ultimately, it wasn’t the Prêtre that proved the break’s undoing, but the long, draggy false flat and final climb of the Côte des Fins. As Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) launched out of the field to take the QOM points, Kerbaol cagily countered just after the summit along with Rooijakkers.
- But Kerbaol quickly dropped her companion to go solo. The young French star completely sold out on the descent, fearlessly railing corners and building her advantage to 40 seconds by the bottom, with just a short, 6 km flat section to the finish. She easily held off the chase for a satisfying solo win. Vos led home the pack, which had slightly swelled to just over 20 riders.
In the descent I knew I could make some difference compared to the other girls. I saw there was a gap, so I thought, ‘Let’s go in time trial mode.’
Kerbaol on committing to her move, as translated on Eurosport by Marty MacDonald McCrossan
Brief analysis
- You can’t overstate the importance of this win for Kerbaol, or France. Long tipped as a talented all-around rider, the 23-year-old Frenchwoman has steadily progressed in her four seasons as a pro. But this season has been up and down, with a win at Durango-Durango and a strong performance at the Volta a Catalunya followed by a DNF at the Giro d’Italia Women in July. As leader of the underdog Ceratizit team and a French GC hope, there’s a lot of pressure on her young shoulders, and today more than showed she can handle it. She’s in perfect position for a solid final two days and one of her best GC finishes ever.
- The Tour will obviously be won and lost in the next two days, but keep an eye on team strength and cohesion in that battle. While SD Worx-Protime is on paper a strong team, there are definitely questions about cohesion after yesterday’s stage. Today, Demi Vollering finished with just one teammate in the main chase and that rider – Fisher-Black – went deep today in the breakaway, which could limit her effectiveness in the high mountain stages this weekend.
- For her part, yellow jersey Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) finished without teammates, although Neve Bradbury, who did a bunch of work in the late-stage chase, was not far behind. With two summit finish stages to finish off the race it will likely come down to isolation battles between team leaders, but a team with a clear strategy and cohesive execution could be the key to getting said leader to the crucial moments a bit fresher than the rest.
Up next
It’s all climbs, all the time from here on out, starting with Saturday’s stage 7 to Le Grand Bornand. The longest day of the race at 166.4 km, it also features 3,000 meters of climbing across five categorized ascents. The first, the Cat 2 Col de la Croix de la Sierra, will certainly break things up and reduce the field (and likely see a break go clear), and it’s up and down all the way to the finish, with a double climb at the end consisting of the Cat 2 Col de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt followed by the summit finish on Le Grand Bornand.
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