'A perfect day for us' - Visma celebrate 1-3 finish in Tour de France Femmes opener

Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Plumelec on Saturday evening, sprinting to victory ahead of Kim Le Court (AG Insurance Soudal) and her teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma | Lease a Bike), to claim the first yellow jersey of the 2025 edition. 

The greatest of all time planned her effort to perfection on the uphill finish, catching her teammate Ferrand-Prévot metres from the finish line after the French rider had launched an early sprint, but faded towards the finish.  

"It's really special. It's the Tour de France, it's the first day, you can't really describe what it means," said Vos after her victory. "It's a bonus to take the yellow jersey, I couldn't even think about it up front."

The short, intense stage created nervous racing throughout, with Visma-Lease a Bike executing their pre-race strategy to perfection. The team positioned both Vos and Ferrand-Prévot ideally before the final climb to the finish, and Vos credited her teammates for their support throughout the stage. 

"The whole race was short, so we knew it was going to be nervous," Vos explained. "Sometimes it was spread out, but you could feel the tension in the bunch, and we wanted to do a lead-out as a team before the final descent before the corner to put Pauline and me in a good position. The girls did an amazing job."

For a while inside the closing kilometre, it looked as though Ferrand-Prévot would be the Visma rider who would claim the opening stage and yellow jersey, after launching her attack with around half a kilometre to go, catching the other contenders out. 

"I was at the front in the climb, so I said, 'What do I do?' I had a small gap, so I kept pushing until the end," said Ferrand-Prévot, speaking to TNT Sports. "I think in the end it was better to have kind of a long sprint, and not on and off,” she added. 

Vos was in a precarious situation with Ferrand-Prévot fading out front and with Kim Le Court posing a threat to steal the stage, meaning that the Dutch rider had to seize control and pass her teammate to take the victory. 

"I looked around at who was coming, I saw Kim Le Court coming, she really had a good sprint, so I went with her," Vos recalled. "I didn't know if Pauline was still hanging in for the finish, but in the end I saw her dropping her speed, so it was a sprint with Kim and we just caught Pauline, which is, of course, a double feeling," added Vos.

There were no hard feelings from Ferrand-Prévot, who looked ecstatic at the finish line after the outcome of the stage, and the Visma 1-3 on the stage. 

"I'm so happy for her, she really helped me to win Roubaix, so today the plan was to go for her," said Ferrand-Prevot. "It was a perfect day for us."

Visma will have another hilly day to contend with on stage 2 to defend the yellow jersey, but based on Saturday’s performance, Visma can’t be ruled out of doubling up in stage wins.