A kilometer before the finish, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (33) takes a look over her right shoulder, into the valley. Her competitors have turned into small dolls. The leader of Visma-Lease A Bike (Lab) has taken a minute lead over the iconic final climb, the Col de la Madeleine.
When the Tour organization announced the course last year, it was clear that the round would probably be decided here, at a height of two thousand meters. In her preparation for the Tour de France, Ferrand-Prévot had traveled twice to the Madeleine, to get to know the 18.6 kilometers through and through. This Saturday everything comes together.
Only a few meters before the finish line does she raise her right fist several times, while she is shouted by crazy French fans. She falls into the arms of her press chief and caregivers. It will not be the last hugs that she will get in the coming hour. Team leader Jos van Emden embraces her, and tour director Marion Rousse also holds her firmly in handing over the yellow leader’s jersey. Rousse is a good friend of the Française.
On stage, Ferrand-Prévot bites her lower lip to suppress her tears of joy. In recent years she has won everything that can be won on the mountain bike. She returned to the road to drive the tour. “This victory shows that I made the right choice,” she says. Her dream of winning him within three years is probably already becoming reality on Sunday.
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Early flight
The race on the Madeleine explodes uphill after about seven kilometers, when the Australian climber Sarah Gigante of AG-Sinsurance sprints away from the group of favorites. It is immediately clear that the Dutch Tour favorite Demi Volling, which fell heavily earlier this week, cannot follow. Her compatriot Pauliena Rooijakkers does that, and a little later Ferrand-Prévot drives the gap with the pair smoothly.
The pace is soon too powerful. In the meantime, the tactical plan of both AG insurance and Visma-Lab comes into effect. Both teams have sent pawnets with the early flight, who are now sagging one by one for a last turn in the lead. Visma-Renster Marion Bunel is the last to join the two classification rods, to make her leader save some powers.
If Bunel has also burned out, Ferrand-Prévot chooses the attack with 8.5 kilometers to go. Gigante cannot come along and eventually arrives 1.45 minutes later. Fulling commands the order in the group of beaten Rensters. She looks frustrated if nobody wants to take over. She crosses the finish line more than three minutes after Ferrand-Prévot. Next to a crush fence, she pants, bent her head over the wheel. To the NOS she says she is ‘quite rotten’. She descends the mountain in a car from her team FDJ-Suez.
While Ferrand-Prévot undergoes all ceremonial obligations, the Visma-Regers gather one by one with the team bus, which is parked just over the top of the Madeleine in the descent. Femke de Vries is the first to finish showering and is exhausted about the performance of her leader: “Pauline can do crazy things and rise above herself at such moments, if she really has a goal.” For the first time, Visma has a likely Tour winner among the women. “I can’t believe that I can experience this, it feels like I have used drugs,” De Vries flaps out laughing.
You would almost think that the Tour has already been completely decided. But where the men’s peloton traditionally ends in the Champs-Elysées in Paris, so that there are usually no big shifts, the women in the final stage again several alpencols await. Team leader Van Emden suppresses his euphoric mood: “It will be a very tough day. As a rider, I would be afraid of the Joux Plane and De Corbier. The only difference with today is that the stage does not finish on a mountain.”
Two The procession comes to a halt at the bus, Ferrand-Prévot gets out. The yellow is firmly around her slender shoulders.