Wiebes confirms green jersey bid at Tour de France Femmes

After winning her second successive stage at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Tuesday, Lorena Wiebes has confirmed that she will now chase the green points jersey over the coming days.

The SD Worx-Protime rider is now leading the classification by 40 points from Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike), with their nearest rival for the title a further 87 points behind. 

Stage 4 to Poitiers was always expected to be a nailed on opportunity for the sprinters and so it turned out, with Wiebes bagging the win everyone predicted she would. However, the coming days see a change in the race, with lumpier stages for the rest of the week. 

The points classification is weighted towards the sprinters with the two stages Wiebes has already won awarding a maximum 50 points on the line. Hilly stages like stage five award 30 points, while only 20 can be won on the mountain stages. However, every day has an intermediate sprint where a maximum of 25 points can be won, favouring those brave enough to get in breakaways.

With a punchy finish, Wednesday’s stage could well be one for the GC riders, but if it’s ridden favourably, Wiebes could yet add to her tally of victories. The day’s only category 3 climb starts 10km from the finish and is likely to be ridden aggressively as there is a bonus second sprint half way up. In Wiebes’s favour, however, is the 7km descent, where she will hope to get back on.

“We have to see how hard tomorrow is and hopefully I can get some points again and then I think the days after I need to try and be in the breakaway,” Wiebes told TNT Sport after Tuesday’s stage. “The team did a recon of the whole Tour de France and they know the finishes,” Wiebes told TNT Sport. 

“It’s quite a technical finish again tomorrow but there’s a climb before the finish so we have to see what the other teams are doing. I think it’s also a good day for Anna [van der Breggen] tomorrow.”

Wiebes won the points classification at the Giro d’Italia Women earlier this month, following exactly the same strategy, winning stages and getting in breakaways, so she knows what to do. The only issue might be Van der Breggen’s position on GC, though Wiebes is versatile enough to help out on the climbs if she is up the road. 

Tuesday’s stage was not as straightforward a victory as on stage 3 and Wiebes relied on Van der Breggen to position her for the final. Once in the finishing straight she was forced to fend for herself slightly and was slightly boxed in at a critical moment.

“It was quite a lot of chaos trying not to get boxed in,” she explained. “Anna did a really good job, we said in the meeting that it would be perfect if she could do the uphill part around 3km to go. She was there then Lotte took over and then Anna again, so it was super strong from her and I’m happy that she did it.

“I went quite early, I followed Dygert and then I was a bit afraid if she moves to the right and I was boxed in, so I had to go a bit early, you doing want to take the risk and get boxed in.”