The Dutch rider scored a double blow this Saturday, during the penultimate stage of the 2022 Tour.
The big favorite of the Tour de France Women, the Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten, knocked out the 7th stage arriving on Saturday in the Vosges station of Markstein and puts on the yellow jersey on the eve of the finish. Her compatriot Demi Vollering, the only one capable of competing with van Vleuten for just one time, is in second place in the general classification, 3 min 14 sec ahead of the Polish Katarzyna Niewiadoma, relegated to 4 min 33 sec.
“It’s been such a rollercoaster. I have been so sick. To win like that is incredible. And it’s wonderful to end here solo“, savored the triple winner of the Giro (2022, 2019 and 2018), diminished at the start of the week by a gastrointestinal virus.
I wanted to make the biggest time gaps possible and that meant attacking on the first climb
Annemiek van Vleuten
The almost forty-year-old (in October) launched hostilities about 80 kilometers from the finish, from the first bends in the mountains of this reborn women’s Grande Boucle, the Petit Ballon (9.3 km at 8.1% average slope) . “I did a reconnaissance of the stage and noticed that the Petit Ballon was a difficult climb. After six days of waiting, surviving and recovering, I wanted to make the biggest time gaps possible and that meant attacking on the first climb“, she described.
Van Vleuten, who was a minute and a half behind the yellow jersey Marianne Vos, quickly outpaced her on Saturday, like the whole peloton – with the exception of Vollering – in this first acceleration. A movement full of panache reminiscent of the attack that crowned her world champion in Yorkshire in 2019 after a solo raid of 105 kilometers. “My style is always to attack without waiting for the end“recalled the Dutch. After this first take-off in the Petit Ballon, van Vleuten unclipped Vollering about sixty kilometers from the finish in the last few hundred meters of the Platzerwasel pass.
Victory reaches out to Van Vleuten
The final victory on Sunday at the top of the Super Planche des Belles Filles is reaching out to him after this solo number in the most rugged stage of this Tour de France – more than 3,000 meters of elevation gain in 127.1 kilometers.
The Grand Ballon (8.7 km at 8.9%) then the final finish at the top of the Super Planche des Belles Filles (7 km at 8.7%) on Sunday will be above all the scene of the race for the podium where hope to climb the French Juliette Labous, fourth at 49 seconds from Niewiadoma. Like the leader of the FDJ-Suez team Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, winner of the third stage in Épernay and third in the stage on Saturday and in ambush less than a minute and a half from the Pole.
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