A year after she won the Olympic MTB cross-country title in Paris, France's Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) took a giant step towards another major success on home soil when she won stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift at the summit of the legendary Col de la Madeleine, her solo victory also moving her into the yellow jersey.
In an incident-packed day that saw race leader Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) crash over a barrier on a mid-stage descent and then fight her way back up to the bunch, the Madeleine finally delivered the verdict on the strength of the GC contenders, who had been evenly matched until they reached the foot of the 2,000-metre pass.
The first key move was made by Le Court's teammate Sarah Gigante, who attacked 10km from the finish. While defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and 2023 Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) lost ground, Ferrand-Prévot eased her way up to the Australian's wheel. After her young Visma teammate Marion Bunel had set the tempo for another kilometre, Ferrand-Prévot went to the front and cruised clear, her margin at the finish 1-45 over Gigante, with Lidl-Trek's Niamh Fisher-Black in third at 2-15 and Vollering fourth just over three minutes back.
With one more stage remaining, Ferrand-Prévot's overall lead over second-placed Gigante is a huge 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Vollering is third at 3-18.
"Once I'd attacked I just focused on riding as fast I could. I didn't look round, I just concentrated on my effort and it's incredible," said Ferrand-Prévot. "The team have done so much work for me during this week, enabling me to preserve as much energy as I could.
"The reason I came back to the road was to participate in the Tour de France, and this victory today shows that I made the right choice and I'm very, very happy with it.
"Before the Tour I didn't know what might happen. I knew that I was in good form, but I didn't know how that would compare to the form of the others. I was really stepping into the unknown, but this was like a mountain bike effort, one hour twenty or one hour thirty of climbing, and I just wanted to go right to my limit and thankfully that worked out."
HOW THE STAGE UNFOLDED
It had been raining just before the start, but was it was dry again as the riders set off from Chambéry, heading straight up the first-category Col de Plainpalais. Halfway up the 13km climb, the break formed and featured Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) and teammate Niamh Fisher-Black, mountains leader Elise Chabbey and teammate Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal), Magdeleine Vallières (EF Education-Oatly), Ana Santesteban (Laboral Kutxa), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health), Mareille Meijering (Movistar), Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL) and Hannah Ludwig (Cofidis).
Approaching the top of the climb, double stage winner Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) accelerated out of the peloton and quickly bridged the 30-second gap to the front group. On the plateau beyond the Plainpalais pass, the gap grew rapidly, ultimately topping out at 3-55, at which point race leader Le Court’s teammates began to set the tempo at the head of the peloton.
Le Court took the lead herself as the bunch swept down the very technical descent off uncategorized Col du Frène. Coming into a tight left-hander, the yellow jersey misjudged the corner, went through the bend and somersaulted over the roadside barrier. Although she was quickly back on her bike, she looked shaken by her tumble and had a minute to make up on the peloton, a task that required 20km of effort.
At the foot of the second climb, the second-category Côte de Saint-Georges-d’Hurtières, the break’s lead, which had been reduced to less than three minutes, had stretched again to four. But it was halved to two minutes as the riders reached the early slopes of the 19.5km Madeleine.
As race leader Le Court set the pace in the bunch for teammate Sarah Gigante, the break began to disintegrate, Squiban and Chabbey two of the first to lose ground. The first surprise in the yellow jersey group came 15km from the top when Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx ProTime) dropped back after Chabbey had taken over from Le Court at the front of the bunch.
Three kilometres later, Gigante made her move, accelerating away from the yellow jersey group, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) the only rider able to follow initially, although the pair were quickly joined by Ferrand-Prévot.
While defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) wasn’t too far off the pace initially, 2023 champion Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) quickly fell back, her deficit growing to more than a minute as Marion Bunel dropped back from the break to set the pace for her Visma leader Ferrand-Prévot.
Up front, just two of the original breakaways were still clear, Kastelijn and Fisher-Black, but their advantage was tumbling. The pair were a minute clear with 9km left, but that didn't last for long. Soon after Bunel pulled aside, her team leader Ferrand-Prévot went to the front. Although there was no obvious acceleration, Gigante was soon distanced and the Frenchwoman quickly had Kastelijn and Fisher-Black in her sights.
With 8km left, PFP was 30 seconds clear of Gigante, 90 ahead of Niewiadoma-Phinney and close to two minutes in front of Vollering. A kilometre later, she bridged up to Kastelijn and Fisher-Black, who hitched themselves to her wheel.
Kastelijn fell away from it 6km from the summit finish. Fisher-Black hung on for another kilometre, before Ferrand-Prévot breezed clear, the stage win and the yellow jersey in her sights. With 4km left, she had a minute on Gigante and more than two on a group that featured Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering.
As she raced through large and hugely enthusiastic crowds in the final kilometres, the only question left to be answered was how wide her margin of victory and her overall lead would be. She's not quite out of sight ahead of a testing final day in the Alps, but one would surely bet against her winning the Tour de France Femmes now.
RESULTS
TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES STAGE EIGHT:
CHAMBÉRY > COL DE LA MADELEINE (111.9km)
1. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 3:47:24
2. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal +1:45
3. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek +2:15
4. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ +3:03
5. Yara Kastelijn (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, at same time
6. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly +3:18
7. Dominika Włodarczyk (Pol) UAE Team ADQ +3:22
8. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto +3:26
9. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck +3:38
10. Marion Bunel (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4:31
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE EIGHT
1. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 26:16:11
2. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal +2:37
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ, + 3:18
4. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, +3:40
5. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly, +4:11
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +4:26
7. Dominika Włodarczyk (Pol) UAE Team ADQ +5:02
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek +5:52
9. Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-SUEZ, +5:58
10. Juliette Labous (Fra) FDJ-SUEZ +7:14
