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There are 113 riders in the front group including, I believe, all the GC contenders.
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Dsm–firmenich PostNL’s Charlotte Kool, meanwhile, has abandoned:
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💛💚 Yellow jersey and green jersey on the #TDFF2024, @charlotte_kool quits the race.
💛💚 @MaillotjauneLCL et maillot vert sur le #TDFF2024, @charlotte_kool abandonne la course. #TDFF2024 l #WatchTheFemmes l @GoZwift pic.twitter.com/07HjYkvEDv
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 17, 2024
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Kool won stage one, in the The Hague, last weekend:
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The first six days have been eventful – from the extremely congested top of the general classification, to Demi Vollering’s stage five crash that looks likely to have cost her overall victory. But everything remains up for grabs in this weekend’s concluding two stages.
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Just 22sec separates the top four riders in GC and over a minute is the range across the top 10: Vollering, of SD Worx Protime, now sits 10th and 1min 19sec is the margin that separates the reigning champion from the current overall leader, Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon/Sram Racing.
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As Niewiadoma said after stage five and Vollering’s mishap, “1:19 in the mountains is nothing to be honest”, so expect the GC to be shaken up significantly by the coming 166.4km route, featuring five categorised climbs, between Champagnole and Le Grand Bornand. If tomorrow’s finish atop Alpe d’Huez is the Queen Stage, today is first in line to the throne.
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Scheduled stage start time: 11.30 BST
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Main Events
52km remaining: The gap between Blake and the pack widened to 5 minutes 20 seconds.
55km remaining: Géquiere (3 points) took first place at the Côte de Cercier.
“We have riders with a wide range of interests,” says Iris Slappendel, who rides for Eurosport Bikes.
“Foss didn’t have to work so hard for the sprint… while Gekiere is going for the mountain points.”
“All the riders I spoke to this morning were complaining about being tired… It takes a lot to get away today. Hats off to this group for getting away today and making a big difference in time.”
56km remaining: LIVE! Dressed in polka dots, Gekiere is in second place in the lead pack of six riders, behind her teammate Van de Velde. She points at her teammate and nods to the camera, as if to say, “She’s very strong and doing a good job.”
In fairness, that’s borne out by television footage.
Eurosport’s Matt Stevens I spoke with Demi Vollering before the start today.
How does she feel?
“I feel good,” Vollering replied. “I was happy about yesterday.
“I had the power and it felt good to be able to follow it with ease.” [after Thursday’s crash].
“It’s a very long, very tough day today with a lot of climbing. It will be interesting to see what I can do on the big climbs.”
59km remaining: More than ten riders withdrew today, including Cool, Guarischi, Storrier, Spratt, Rowe, Henderson, Bertisolo, Williams, Docks and Cristoforou.
61km remaining: Needless to say, Voss almost won the intermediate sprint out of the break but didn’t quite win, which is a good 25 points to extend his lead in the points standings.
Why not check out the standings from stage 6 onwards? Official website.
70km remaining: “Sponsors will be willing to invest if they think they can get an audience,” Jeremy Boyce wrote of the lack of live broadcasting. “The audience is ready and waiting…”
71km remaining: The gap has now widened to 2 minutes 13 seconds. The top six riders are working well together. In summary, the riders who joined the breakaway are:
Marianne Voss (Team Visma | Lease-A-Bike)
Justine Ghekiere and Julie Van de Velde (AG Insurance – Soudal)
Sara Martin (Movistar)
Sarah Roy (Cofidis Women’s)
Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health).
73km remaining: The gap in the break with six riders is now two minutes, and any team that misses out on this move will have a lot of DS to worry about.
74km remaining: Pieters and Géquiere are competing for QOM points, with Pieters scoring maximum points on the Category 1 Col de la Croix de la Serra, closing the gap to just one point over his rival, but Géquiere took the lead on the Côte des Bois d’Arot and earned two more points from a breakaway, widening his lead again to three points.
Julie Van de Velde came in second, earning one point.
76km remaining: After the long descent from the first climb six riders broke away from the front and built a lead of 1 minute 25 seconds: Vos (Visma Lease A Bike), Gekier (AG Insurance Soudal), Van de Velde (AG Insurance Soudal), Edwards (Human Powered Health), Roy (Cofidis) and Martin (Movistar).
81km remaining: The four climbs we will be climbing today are:
Côte de Bois d’Arlot (Distance 2.4km, average gradient 4.6%)
Cote de Cercier (4km, 4.8%)
Pass of Saint-Jean-de-Six (5.4km, 5.1%)
Le Grand-Bornand (7km, 5.1%)
There will also be an intermediate sprint at the flange between the Côte de Bois d’Arot and the Côte de Cersier with 65.8km remaining.
🚲 Stage 7 / Etap 7 🚲
🚩 Champagnole
🏁 Mont Grambo
📏 166.4 km
⏰ 10:30 CEST > 15:44 CEST
⛰ 1×1️⃣c, 2×2️⃣c, 1×3️⃣c, 1×4️⃣c
💚 100.6 kg#TDFF2024 pic.twitter.com/aKH7oNtFiP
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 17, 2024
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88km remaining: Their average speed so far is 38.3 kilometres per hour, which is extremely fast when you consider the small hiccup of the Category 1 climb they’ve overcome, and the immutable law of “what goes up must come down.”
“Riders have covered 35.1km in the first two hours of the race,” the official website said. “The average speed so far is 38.4km/h, beating the fastest expected schedule.”
92km remaining: There is complete confusion regarding Eurosport’s television schedule.
Website Although the listing says that live coverage will begin at 11:30, it actually appears to be 12:30 BST / 13:30 CET.
97km remaining: Pac Pieters won Stage 4 in dramatic fashion, being the first to cross the summit of Col de la Croix de la Serra.
1. Peters (Phoenix Deceuninck) 10 points
2. Gekier (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) 8 points
3. Castelin (Phoenix Deceuninck) 6 points
4. Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) 4 points
5. Niewia Doma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) 2 points
6. Lipert (Movistar Team) 1 point
Cool is abandoned
108km remaining: The group has just reached the top of Col de la Croix de la Serra, the first climb and the only category 1 climb on the day’s menu.
There were 113 riders in the top group, which I believe included all of the overall favourites.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Kool of Dsm–firmenich PostNL renounced:
💛💚 Yellow jersey and green jersey #TDFF2024, Charlotte Cool Withdraw from the race.
💛💚 Follow Wearing a green hat #TDFF2024, Charlotte Cool Abandon course. #TDFF2024 l #WatchTheFems l Follow pic.twitter.com/07HjYkvEDv
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 17, 2024
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Cool won the first stage in The Hague last weekend.
A quick summary of Stage 6…
Cedrine Kerbaol launched a bold attack with 15km to go from the finish in Morteau to become the first French rider to win a stage in the modern Tour de France Femme and move up to second in the overall standings with two mountain stages remaining in the race.
“Being the first French person to win the Tour de France Femme is pretty amazing,” Kerbaoglu said after his stage 6 victory. “Hopefully this will be a big inspiration for the next generation, that’s what I think.” A social media post from Kerbaoglu’s Seratizit WNT team was more succinct: “Seriously!” Shouted at X.
The road to her success was paved by an initial attack from local rider Juliette Labous, racing along the same routes as her youth, but Labous was closely watched by the favourites and was unable to break away, whereas Kerbaoul was unable to break away and raced solo to the top of the final climb, the Cote des Fins.
Read more here…
preamble
The first six days have been eventful, with a very close race at the top of the GC and Demi Vollering’s crash on Stage 5 that almost cost her the GC win, but it all comes down to the final two stages this weekend.
The top four riders in the overall standings are separated by just 22 seconds, and the top 10 are separated by over a minute. SD Worx Protime’s Vollering is currently in 10th place, 1 minute 19 seconds behind reigning champion and current overall leader, Canyon/SRAM Racing’s Kasia Niewiadoma.
“To be honest, 1h19m in the mountains is nothing,” Nieviadoma said after stage 5 and the Vollering incident. So we can expect big changes in the overall standings over the 166.4km course from Champagnole to Le Grand-Bornand, which includes five categorized climbs. If tomorrow’s finish at the summit of Alpe d’Huez is the queen stage, today will be the first place to the crown.
Stage start time: 11:30 BST
