Marianne Vos takes a frantic opening stage win at the Tour de France Femmes

Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from a small group sprint in Plumelec on Saturday evening.

Vos’s team dominated the final 5km, putting a huge effort into leading out Vos for the uphill finish. The team ran out of riders early on, and their GC favourite rode away from the bunch and seemed certain to become the first French woman to wear the leader’s yellow jersey. However, she ran out of steam and was closed down by Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal). 

Vos was on her wheel, though, coming over the top in the final metres to take the stage and the leader’s yellow jersey. Le Court was second, while Ferrand-Prevot held on for third.

The win came on the back of a huge effort from her team which led the bunch from around five kilometres out. Ferrand-Prevot was chased up the climb by Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protome) but when the Dutch woman faced, Ferrand-Prevot had a gap. And her victory seemed assured. 

Though she didn’t win, the French woman now leads her general classification rivals, with defending champion, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrytpo) four seconds down, and favourite Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) a further three seconds back.

The fourth edition of the Tour de France avec Zwift kicked off in style with a very short and very sharp opening stage between Vannes and Plumelec in one of France’s cycling heartlands, Brittany, in the far north-west.

Only 78.8km, the route headed inland and north to the finish town, taking on a single fourth-category climb en route before entering a closing circuit for two laps of 13.7km around Plumelec. The final was likely to be one for the puncheurs, replicating the GP Morbihan one-day race, the closing 1.8km averaged more than 6% all the way to the line.

The day didn’t start too well, with a small crash taking out some riders and delaying the start, the bunch held at kilometre zero as opposed to rolling through because of the stage’s short distance. 

Once on the move, attacks came immediately, Laura Tomasi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) getting a few seconds lead before being joined by Maud Reijnbeek (VolkerWessels), though the pair weren’t given much space at all. With 22km done and the gap at only 25 seconds, Rijnbeek decided to go it alone, and the Italian was caught.

Rijnbeek took 25 seconds over the top of the day’s first classified climb, the Côte de Botségalo, winning two points for the polka-dot jersey, but the peloton was soon breathing down her neck and she was caught. The race then settled until, about 36km from the line, on the approach to the closing circuit, the pace lifted. 

On the run into Plumelec and the intermediate sprint, which came on the first passing of the finish line, a crash took down Marlen Reusser and Liane Lippert. The two Movistar riders were favourites for the overall classification and the day’s stage respectively, but Reusser, who had been suffering from illness prior to the race, was unable to get back on, eventually abandoning the race.

Looking for points in the green jersey classification, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) crossed the line first with Franziska Koch (Picnic-PostNL) on her wheel, the German looking to launch an attack. The pair were soon caught, but the race entered a new, more dynamic phase, Koch’s team mate Francesca Barale getting up the road, though not for long.

Mountains points were available on the second time up the climb to the finish line, where Elise Chabbey (FDJ-SUEZ) took maximum points on the third category climb, putting her in the polkadot jersey at the end of the day. The Swiss rider carried on over the top, leading a small group up the road, initiating a flurry of attacks, Dominka Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Koch each getting small gaps on the SD Worx-Protime led bunch.

With the attacks under control, it was time for Visma | Lease a bike to take control in the final five kilometres.