Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) confirmed that she was placing the whole lot into profitable the inexperienced jersey on the Tour de France Femmes, transferring into the factors lead after profitable the dash for second place on stage 6 into Morteau.
Distanced on the final climb, Côte des Fins, Vos fought desperately to rejoin the choice on the descent, reconnecting within the closing kilometres of the race. However whereas she was the quickest sprinter within the group, the win went to late-race breakaway rider Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT).
“It is a disgrace Cédrine had already opened up an enormous hole; in any other case, I might need sprinted for the win. Sadly, that was past my management,” Vos spoke to the worldwide media on the end line in Morteau.
“After the ultimate climb, I used to be relieved to reconnect with the peloton. I achieved the absolute best consequence at this time. I actually wish to carry the inexperienced jersey to the end of the Tour de France Femmes, however first, I have to get better from this gruelling effort.”
Charlotte Kool (Crew dsm-firmenich PostNL) began the stage within the lead of the inexperienced jersey factors classification with 120 factors, Vos in second place with 95 factors.
To safe extra factors, Vos bridged throughout to the day’s breakaway with 87km to go after which gained the day’s intermediate dash in Sancey to equal the factors tally to Kool.
Though three riders had cut up off the entrance of the group within the final climbs, they had been caught within the closing kilometres and the choose group raced into the Côte des Fins, Juliette Labous (Crew dsm-firmenich PostNL) launching an assault that decreased the group even additional.
Vos was distanced simply 500 metres from the highest, visibly struggling to regain contact with the leaders.
“I made a decision to make the crossing and I succeeded. From that second on it was a wrestle. It was actually powerful,” Vos stated.
She desperately tried to reconnect with the entrance group on the descent, doing so simply in time to catch her breath after which dash for the end line, taking second place and sufficient factors for the inexperienced jersey lead.
“Over the past climb, I used to be glad I may nonetheless see the tail finish of the peloton and will return to it. That somebody was away already; I could not do a lot about it. So the utmost [sprint] factors was then the very best achievement potential,” Vos stated.
Vos now leads the factors classification with 145 factors, whereas Kool slipped to second with 120 factors. Vos aimed to maintain the jersey over the ultimate two mountain phases. If she maintains her lead on Sunday’s finale atop Alpe d’Huez, she is going to win her second inexperienced jersey since 2022.
“I do not know if there have been many photos of me struggling and making an attempt to battle again, however I struggled fairly a bit. I used to be simply making an attempt to outlive till the end,” Vos stated. “I wish to defend it, however I’m going to get better from this primary.”
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