Lotte Kopecky solos to first yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes
Clara Emond the top Canadian
Lotte Kopecky swapped her Belgian national champion’s jersey for a yellow jersey after winning Sunday’s first stage of the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes. The Tour of Flanders champion attacked on the stage’s only categorized climb to take the big prize. Clara Emond was the top Canadian in 35th.
The Course
Stage 1 was a fairly-flat 124 km around Clermont-Ferrand in central France. A single Cat. 3 climb, Côte de Durtol, was perched 9.3 km from the finish line. And, oui, it was tres chaud.
Here we go then! We are racing on stage 1! ?️
It’s an intriguing first stage with a cat.3 climb in the finale that should ignite the race! ⛰️? pic.twitter.com/KEYXwYGlbS
— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) July 23, 2023
Van Vleuten the Grand Tour Ace
The question at the beginning of the second TdFF was, “Can Annemiek van Vleuten sweep the Women’s World Tour Grand Tours for the second year in a row and then retire?” Last year, she won the Giro d’Italia Donne, Tour and Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta with 1:44 her smallest gap to the runner-up. This season, she took the renamed La Vuelta Femenina by 9 seconds over Demi Vollering and the Giro Donne over Juliette Labous by nearly 4:00. Vollering and Labous are in France, as are 19 out of the first Tour’s entire top-20. Vollering leads the WorldTour, nearly 1900 points over third place van Vleuten.
The Canadian contingent was a septet: UAE Team ADQ’s Olivia Baril, Arkéa’s Clara Emond, EF Education-TIBCO-SVB trio Alison Jackson, Sara Poidevin and Magdeleine Vallieres, Cofidis’s Gabrielle Pilote Fortin and St Michel–Mavic–Auber93’s Simone Boilard. Baril was top Canadian at the 2023 Vuelta. Vallieres was top Canadian at last year’s Tour in 66th. Jackson is the top Canadian in the World Tour at 27th, Baril is 49th.
Jackson will wear a red national champion kit.
“I'm really excited to wear the national champion’s kit and to get back with the team. So I'm just excited to be a part of the Tour team and I know we can accomplish some goals together.” -Alison Jackson
More from Alison on her new threads: https://t.co/CtXbtEvgvV pic.twitter.com/ZblZWkodkY
— EF Education-TIBCO-SVB (@EF_TIBCO_SVB) July 22, 2023
Gabrielle Pilote Fortin’s nails were on point.
Les couleurs de l'équipe ?⚪️ et du #TDFF2023 ? ⚪️? jusqu'au bout des doigts pour @Gabpilote ?
? @GettySport pic.twitter.com/03JmqM1pJ4
— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) July 23, 2023
The first half of Sunday’s opening stage was characterized by several individual attempts to break away, mostly French riders, all unable to stick. With 46 km remaining, Polish rider Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT) busted out; SD Worx-Protime pulled the peloton and Lach came to heel 15 km later.
Lizzie Deignan scored the intermediate points in Saint-Hippolyte.
By the time it got to Côte de Durtol, the peloton had been streamlined. Lidl-Trek and SD Worx drove into the slopes. Marlen Reusser’s tremendous pace left riders spread all over the slopes. Kopecky attacked over the top.
Thirteen riders including Vollering and van Vleuten were in the chase group. But Kopecky was pounding along, and even though the pursuing bunch grew, she eluded it.
Monday’s route is more much hilly, and concludes with a Cat. 3 climb leading to Mauriac.
2023 Tour de France Femmes
1) Lotte Kopecky (Belgium/SD Worx-Protime) 3:04:09
2) Lorena Wiebes (The Netherlands/SD Worx-Protime) +0:41
3) Charlotte Kool (The Netherlands/Team DSM-Firmenich s.t.
35) Clara Emond (Canada/Arkéa) +1:26
44) Simone Boilard (Canada/St Michel–Mavic–Auber93) +2:00
48) Olivia Baril (Canada/UAE Team ADQ) s.t.
53) Sara Poidevin (Canada/EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) +2:06
