Tom Davidson
She drives her teammates crazy with French rap, loves to attack, descends like a devil and climbs with the best. UAE Team ADQ’s Maeva Squiban has stunned the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with two back-to-back stage wins, emerging as this season’s breakout star.
The 23-year-old “pocket rocket” from Brest, Brittany, has lit up Stages 6 and 7 of women’s cycling’s biggest event with her long-range attacks and fearless style. Her wins weren't just opportunistic; they were deliberate and confident. An announcement that Maeva Squiban has arrived.
“I think we know who she is now,” said her sports director, Cherie Pridham.
The team lined up at the Tour with high hopes. Longo Borghini had just won her second Giro d’Italia Women and was eyeing a yellow jersey to match that of Tadej Pogačar’s on the men’s side of the UAE programme. But it wasn’t meant to be. Illness took Longo Borghini out after stage 2, and two more riders fell sick before the race hit the high mountains. Only four remained standing by stage 6.
With GC hopes dashed, the team pivoted. Stage wins became the new mission, and Squiban took her shot on the Col du Chansert. Too far down in the overall to be a threat, she was let go. And then she was gone. Soloing for 31 kilometers, Ambert welcomed her in with a deafening road, as she delivered France its first stage victory of the Tour.
It was a breakout performance. And it lit a fire.
Pridham talks about Squiban like one would about a young colt: young, full of raw energy, eager to break and run free. By the next morning, she was tugging at the reins again.
"[I] didn't quite think it was going to happen today, but Maeve was confident this morning. She said, 'I want to go from kilometre 0.' And we were like, 'OK, but kilometre 0 is a long way',” Pridham said.
Nearly 160 kilometres, in fact, but Squiban didn’t hesitate. With a punchy attack from the gun, she made the early selection. And the directors did their best to keep her on a short leash at first.
"We held her back a little bit," Pridham revealed. "We knew when she was on the climb, we could let her fly, but it was just about keeping her under control, keeping her rhythm, and [then] letting her do her thing.”
And what a thing of beauty it was.
Squiban stretched her leash to take the QOM points atop the Côte de Saint-Franc. She did it again on Côte de Berland. Then, on the day’s biggest challenge, the Col du Granier, she was finally unleashed. And she soared.
None of the breakaway companions could match her on the uphill. And on the descent she delivered a masterclass. With the guts and confidence only seen in compatriot Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Squiban pushed her Colnago to its max, hitting speeds of 90kph while staying in complete control.
In Chambéry, the crowd thundered, banging on the boards and waving their flags. France now had its third-ever stage win at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and Squiban had delivered two of them in a row.
Pridham was over the moon. "What a sensation, absolute sensation," she revelled. "We have one of the best climbers here in the world. Absolutely stunning."
Squiban has single-handedly turned the team's Tour experience around, and the whole team is buzzing.
"We don’t stop dreaming, we just continue in the same vein, and nothing is impossible," said Pridham.
Sitting seven minutes down on the GC with two brutal mountain stages ahead, for Squiban to take the GC win would take something miraculous at this point. But they've got a second card to play. Polish rider Dominika Włodarczyk is sitting in 11th place overall, less than 2 minutes behind yellow-jersey wearer Kim Le Court-Pienaar.
"I never say never," said Pridham about a GC victory. "Now we know what we’re capable of doing with Maeve, we need to go back to the drawing board and have a look at how we’ll progress but one day at a time."
It's highly unlikely we've seen the last of Squiban this Tour. After today's point-hunting, she's now second in the Queen of the Mountains classification, behind Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez). Wouldn't a polka dot jersey be a nice momento for her breakout performance?
It would make for “the perfect Tour de France," Squiban admitted. "But it’s not really my goal to be honest. Tomorrow we fight for the GC with Dominika, and that will be more important than the jersey."
No matter what happens, UAE Team ADQ's Tour has been saved.
“I’m speechless, I’m so proud of UAE Team ADQ. If we could go home now we would,” said Pridham.
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