Liane Lippert wins second stage Tour de France Femmes, Eva van Agt regains consciousness after a terrible fall | Tour de France

Kopecky, 27, took the lead in the sprint after a good lead-out from her teammate Demi Vollering, but Lippert, 25, still passed the Belgian champion in the uphill sprint after a tough 151km stage from Clermont-Ferrand to Mauriac. The Dutch favorites for the overall victory, Demi Vollering and Annemiek Van Vleuten, finished seventh and ninth respectively in the same time as the winner.

“I am very happy. It is very special to win here in the German championship jersey. I fell twice, but luckily I was able to continue. The team helped me a lot,” said Lippert. “It was a dangerous stage because of the heavy rain, but I actually like these conditions. Despite those crashes, I remained calm and I knew that my qualities lie in an uphill sprint, so I’m happy that I was able to live up to that.”

Lippert is a teammate of Annemiek van Vleuten with the Spanish cycling team Movistar, who is working on her farewell year in the peloton. “I knew she could do this. She is very strong on such a finish that rises a bit,” said 40-year-old Van Vleuten. “Two of them steered at right angles to each other, so that’s where I went to the ground. Liane hit the ground, so I fell too. In the Giro you sometimes let each other in between, but in the Tour the interests are even greater and the battle is even fiercer.”

The second stage in the pouring rain was marred by nasty crashes, especially in the last 20 kilometers. Eva van Agt of Jumbo-Visma in particular suffered a huge blow when she crashed on the descent of the final climb and came into contact with the crash barrier.

In the replay it was clearly visible that she fell very hard and slid towards the crash barrier, but fortunately it was also clear a little later that she was still moving.

The 26-year-old cyclist from Nijmegen is the granddaughter of former politician Dries van Agt, who was Prime Minister from 1977 to 1982.

At 47.5 kilometers from the finish Lippert and Van Vleuten had already crashed in a bigger crash.

Lotte Kopecky did win the first stage in the Tour de France Femmes yesterday. The Belgian champion of Team SD Worx went solo in the closing stages of the opening stage and held on. She won the stage and takes the yellow jersey. Lorena Wiebes, Kopecky’s teammate, sprinted to second place in more than half a minute. The Dutch also stranded in third place (Charlotte Kool) and four (Marianne Vos). Today Kopecky took the lead again in the sprint, but due to a flat rear tire she was unable to finish the job this time.

It is the second edition of the Tour de France for women as a stage race. Annemiek van Vleuten took the overall victory last year. She is participating again in her last year as a professional. The Tour de France Femmes has a total of eight stages and ends on Sunday 30 July with an individual time trial of 22.6 kilometers in Pau. On Saturday there is another mountain stage of 90 kilometers with the finish on the Tourmalet. Before that there are two flat stages and two hilly stages.