Justine Guéquiere of the AG Insurance Soudal team won the 166.4km seventh stage of the Tour de France Femme and consolidated her lead in the Queen of the Mountains standings after a six-rider breakaway collapsed on the approach to the final climb of Le Sinaillon.
Behind the Belgian, defending champion Demi Forering overtook race leader Kasia Niewiadoma in the final 200 metres to take third place on the stage, closing the gap to the Pole by four seconds.
With the race’s key climbs, Col de Glandon and Alpe d’Huez, looming in Sunday’s final stage, Niewiadoma leads Vollering by one minute, 15 seconds.
Géquiere was the last surviving member of the day’s attack, the longest day of the Tour, which saw the pack tackle five categorized climbs from the northern Jura to Haute-Savoie, including the first-category Col de la Croix de la Serra and the final second-category climb, Le Sinaillon above Le Grand-Bornand.
“,”credit”:””}”>
Quick Guide
How do I sign up for breaking sports alerts?
show
- Download the Guardian app by searching “The Guardian” in the iOS App Store for iPhone or the Google Play Store for Android.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you have the latest version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the menu button in the bottom right[設定](gear icon),[通知]Go to:
- Turn on sports notifications.
In a stage where the favourites seemed content to keep each other company for much of the race, Marianne Voss lit the fuse again to take the lead and take the lead by a considerable margin, with the breakaway group including Gequier, Julie van de Velde, Sara Martin, Ruth Edwards and Sarah Roy far behind the pack.
However, on the long, penultimate climb, the Col de Saint-Jean-de-Sixtos, the group broke up and Géquiere accelerated away on his own.
After newsletter promotion
As Nieviadoma, Vollering and the French FDJ Suez team picked up speed, Voss’s threat to the overall standings disappeared with three kilometres to go.
