“Another day in yellow and more solid in green. What a beautiful day.” Marianne Vos has strengthened her lead in the Tour de France for women on Friday. In Rosheim she won a stage for the second time during this Tour de France. She crossed the line first after a majestic final sprint.
The sixth stage started in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and finished after about 129 kilometers in Rosheim. The ride was seen as a warm-up for the tough closing weekend. In the run-up to Friday’s last climb, the Côte de Boersch, Vos’ British teammate Anna Henderson, France’s Marie Le Net and Joscelin Lowden from England broke away from the leading group.
Le Net tried it alone for a while, but she was caught in Rosheim with 5 kilometers from the finish. Led by world champion time trial Ellen van Dijk, the peloton headed for a bunch sprint. Vos sat attentively in the front and didn’t let anyone come close in the sprint. It was the second stage win for the Jumbo-Visma leader. Vos was ahead of a large group of Marta Bastianelli from Italy and Lotte Kopecky from Belgium in the sprint.
‘This is of course fantastic’
“We all wanted to go for the stage victory. You have to wait and see if it will work, but everything has been done. And that we succeeded is of course fantastic. We did not receive it as a gift. We fought very hard for it. I I didn’t feel any wind today until the last two hundred meters. All credits to the team, all week and again today,” Vos told NOS afterwards.
She complimented her teammates for the cooperation. One of them, Riejanne Markus, said that Vos wasn’t feeling well before the start. “Well, I think everyone notices it in their legs”, Vos reacted.
Partly because of this win, Vos already has 76 points more than the number two, Lorean Wiebes, in the battle for the green jersey. There is a huge chance that Vos will in any case win the points classification, provided she finishes the Tour.
ALSO READ:
Mieke Havik was the first woman to wear the yellow jersey: ‘A lot has changed’
Parents of Marianne Vos follow the Tour for women in a camper