Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday, claiming the yellow jersey after a sprint finish in Lausanne.
The SD Worx rider, 27, beat Mauritian Kim Le Court and Dutch rider Demi Vollering at the top of the Côte Saint-François. It was Wiebes’s 14th win of the season and her sixth stage victory on the race, bringing her career total to 132.
Wiebes said it had been a long sprint and a terrible effort, adding that she held on through the steepest gradients of the final climb from 1,500 metres out. At the one-kilometre mark, she said, she knew the puncheurs would not be able to drop her.
GC contenders
Vollering’s third-place finish earned her four seconds of bonus time as the race heads toward a Nice finish in nine days. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot finished eighth in the same time as Wiebes, with 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma ninth. Paula Blasi and Anna van der Breggen each conceded eight seconds.
Stage 2 starts Sunday in Aigle, home of the UCI, with the finish in Geneva.
