The Tour de France is finally French again as GC shaken up on final stage – 6 Key Takeaways from the Tour de France Femmes stage 9

Although she was in a tough position, all hope was not lost for Maëva Squiban in the queen of the mountains race, especially given how tired Elise Chabbey was after fighting all week for it. On the first climb of the day Squiban beat Demi Vollering to second place and moved within 8 points of Chabbey. However, the race exploded on the Col de Joux Plane and Squiban was dropped, failing to pick up anymore points and securing the jersey for Chabbey.

After losing significant time to Sarah Gigante yesterday, last year's top two knew that they would have to stay with the Australian up the mighty Joux Plane and then hope to drop her on the descent. The situation played out perfectly for them as Gigante pulled the group up the climb and they were able to move clear of her on the long descent that followed.

A big bonus for Vollering was the survival of teammate Juliette Labous. Combined with this was the presence of Niamh Fisher-Black and Dominika Wlodarczyk, with the five riders working well together on the descent and the flat roads, which comprised the majority of the final 56 kilometres. This ensured Gigante was distanced, moving Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney up one place each – subsequently completing the podium. 

FDJ Suez and Vollering surely dreamed of more than second when they woke up this morning. This became clear as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot found herself behind a split, which FDJ were quick to notice, and they started pulling hard in the peloton. Visma | Lease a Bike brought their leader back to front, but at a cost, and the French superstar was left isolated. 

However, this mattered little as Ferrand-Prévot easily distanced Vollering up the final ramp to the line. While it is a disappointing result, Vollering just wasn’t strong enough to win the race and it is still admirable that the team tried to win when they could have ridden defensively for second place all day instead. 

Despite being the second best climber at this years Tour de France Femmes, Gigante only came home sixth in the end. It has always been a trend in the women’s peloton that climbing prowess matters much less in comparison to men’s stage races. So often the most substantial time gaps are created on flat roads and descents. For Gigante, descending had always been a concern at this race, but she had survived up until now thanks to other teams not focusing on her and some brilliant teamwork.

There was nowhere to hide today unfortunately, and she could do nothing but watch the top five fly down the road away from her. She knew that her best chance was dropping riders on the tough climb of the Joux Plane, but there were still six riders at the top and realistically her race was over from this point. While AG Insurance-Soudal have come up clutch for her in moments, the lack of a good climbing domestique was on full display here and cost her the podium at the end of the day. 

If Gigante could have had the help of someone like Juliette Labous today, she probably would have got back to the front group, rather than having to ride solo against a five-woman team time trial. This is certainly something for AG Insurance to consider if they want to challenge for overall victory at Grand Tours next year, something that the Australian easily has the talent for. 

Gigante wasn’t the only strong finisher from yesterday to suffer today. Cédrine Kerbaol crashed entering the Col de Joux Plane, while Pauliena Rooijakkers dropped into a group with the EF rider on the same climb. Despite having teammates and a relatively large group; they were never able to recover, eventually coming in almost 10 minutes down, and even losing five minutes to Gigante’s 50km solo effort. This meant Kerbaol fell to 8th and Rooijakkers 9th overall. 

After years of misery for the France in the country's biggest sporting event, Ferrand-Prévot put herself on the verge of that first overall win since 1989 yesterday, but anything could happen on the final stage. 

To end in the way it did then was truly magical. A French rider, in the yellow jersey riding towards the finish line of the final stage solo. After heartbreaks with Pinot, that wild 2019 Alaphilippe run and podiums with Bardet, French fans can finally bask in the glory of Tour de France victory again. 

Beginning the stage at the back end of the top 10, in seventh and eighth, not much was expected of these two on the final day. However, they played the race perfectly. Keeping out of trouble early, they stuck with the favourites over the top of the Joux Plane, watched Gigante go out the back and worked well to maximise the gap to her. While they were distanced slightly by Ferrand-Prévot to the line, the work they had done was enough to see them pass Gigante, Kerbaol and Rooijakkers, hence both moving into the top five.