41-Year-Old Mavi Garcia Stuns Tour Femmes Field with Solo Victory in Quimper, Kim Le Court takes Yellow

Smulders and Chabbey fought an interesting battle for the mountain points, taking first and second also on the Locronan and the first ascent of Chemin de Trohéir. It was too hard for Rijnbeek, but Maeva Squiban had taken her position at the front. Together with Smulders and Chabbey, she started the final local lap of over 25 kilometers, holding a 40-second lead on the peloton.

Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma, and Markus make their presence felt
On a small hill in that last lap, there was a bonus sprint offering 6, 4, and 2 seconds, but the breakaway took those seconds. Behind, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma made their presence known with a two-woman attack, but the peloton was alert and did not let them get away. Riejanne Markus also tried to escape during this hilly phase; she jumped up to the group with Chabbey, Smulders, and Squiban.

This situation was far from ideal for Visma | Lease a Bike, as the yellow-black team led the chase and reeled in the four attackers with 12 kilometers remaining. At high speed, the peloton approached the final ascent of Côte du Chemin de Trohéir (1.1 km at 5.7%), but the experienced Mavi García broke away before that climb. She started the hill 6 kilometers from the finish with a lead of more than 15 seconds.

Tension in the tough finale: peloton underestimates Garcia
FDJ-SUEZ rider Juliette Labous launched the finale on the climb but quickly faded. Elisa Balsamo and Elisa Longo Borghini also dropped back; the final proved too demanding for them. The first attack from the favorites came from Demi Vollering, who began to thin the group of contenders. Garcia crested the climb solo, but the reduced peloton was close behind. Kopecky again struggled to keep up.

In the descent, Shirin van Anrooij tried to surprise the group but failed. Garcia held a solo lead of over 10 seconds at the start of the last 2 kilometers, but the finale was far from easy. The peloton’s lack of organization played to the Spanish rider’s advantage, yet Kopecky and Anna van der Breggen pushed the pace to support Lorena Wiebes.