Maeva Squiban won the seventh stage of the Tour de France Femmes. The French rider attacked on the Col du Granier from the early breakaway and soloed to the finish in the streets of Chambéry, ahead of Cédrine Kerbaol and Ruth Edwards. Squiban claimed her second victory in two days. Among the GC contenders, yellow jersey Kim Le Court was forced to drop early on the final climb, but after a strong descent, she was still able to hold on to her yellow jersey.
On day seven of the Tour de France Femmes, the climbing intensified. With 50 kilometers to go, the climbing started with a second-category climb. This was followed immediately by a false flat to the summit of Côte de Berland. Without any descent, the last climb began right away: the well-known Col du Granier. After this second-category ascent, around 20 kilometers remained to the finish. These final kilometers were all downhill, creating a unique finale.
Bourg-en-Bresse) Chambéry)Strong breakaway featuring many Dutch and Belgian riders
On the way to these climbs, a strong and large breakaway formed. In total, seventeen riders escaped, including many Dutch and Belgians. Shirin van Anrooij, Lucinda Brand, Mareille Meijering, Eline Jansen, Maud Rijnbeek, Lotte Kopecky, and Justine Ghekiere were among them, alongside names such as Chloé Dygert, Marie Le Net, and Maeva Squiban, who amazed with a brilliant stage win on Thursday, making it a very strong breakaway group.
The breakaway also built a decent gap. The seventeen leaders had about a four-minute advantage at the start of the second phase of stage seven. In the peloton, the main initiative came from Fenix-Deceuninck, who had no riders in the front group. The first climb of the day, Côte de Saint-François (3.8 km at 7.1%), caused the breakaway to splinter significantly.
Intermediate phase towards Granier
At the top of Côte de Saint-Franc, nine riders remained, including Van Anrooij, Meijering, Kopecky, Ghekiere, Dygert, and Squiban. These leaders held a lead of over four minutes on the peloton, making the breakaway’s chances look increasingly promising. The peloton also did not push the pace on the first climb of the day. In other words, the GC contenders initially appeared to be testing the waters.
In the front group, the same hesitation followed after the first climb. This allowed the peloton to close in considerably, and several riders bridged back to the nine leaders. Among them was Rijnbeek, who took advantage of the moment of uncertainty to launch an immediate attack. The VolkerWessels rider started the final climb of the day, the Col du Granier, solo. The rest of the breakaway followed about 30 seconds behind, with the peloton another two minutes back. The early escapees were still far from securing victory.
Le Court dropped, Squiban goes solo
However, Rijnbeek’s solo adventure was short-lived, as Squiban was climbing impressively. The French rider initially brought Meijering along, but the Dutchwoman was dropped about two kilometers from the top. At the same moment, a big surprise unfolded in the peloton: yellow jersey Le Court was dropped. The rider was forced to let her rivals go very early, including Puck Pieterse and Marianne Vos. This was partly due to a strong acceleration by Pauliena Rooijakkers.
Rooijakkers was clearly feeling strong, shaking things up relentlessly. She helped reduce the group of favorites and brought it closer to the early breakaway. However, for the stage win, the GC riders were too late, as Squiban had a minute and a half lead at the top of Col du Granier. Demi Vollering launched a late attack just before the summit but did not ride hard enough to seriously hurt any of her competitors on the climb. Le Court reached the summit about thirty seconds behind and had to execute a strong descent to defend her yellow jersey.
Two in a row for Squiban, Le Court defends yellow jersey
In the group of favorites, Sarah Gigante struggled again on the descent. Fortunately, Ghekiere had caught up and took her almost by the hand through the long descent. This allowed Gigante to hold her position within the favorites’ group and avoid losing any time in the general classification. Meanwhile, things looked very good up front for Squiban. She rode an excellent descent and extended her lead over closest chaser Meijering. The latter had to hurry to hold off Van Anrooij and Ruth Edwards, but ultimately did not manage to do so.
Squiban crossed the finish line in Chambéry with a one-minute advantage. A rapidly descending Cédrine Kerbaol claimed second place, ahead of Edwards and Van Anrooij. Shortly after, the favorites group arrived, featuring riders like Vollering, Rooijakkers, Anna van der Breggen, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Katarzyna Niewiadoma. And Le Court? She saved her yellow jersey by flying down the Granier descent and rejoining her closest rivals with five kilometers to go.
World champion Kopecky had a better day on Friday - photo: Cor Vos
Squiban dropped Meijering in the final kilometer of the Granier - photo: Cor Vos
Tour de France Femmes| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 03:58:26 | |
| 2 | + 51 | |
| 3 | " | |
| 4 | + 53 | |
| 5 | + 01:00 | |
| 6 | " | |
| 7 | " | |
| 8 | " | |
| 9 | " | |
| 10 | " |
