Brilliant Markus falls agonisingly short as Wiebes rewards Kopecky’s huge effort with another Tour victory

Lorena Wiebes has also won the second stage of the Tour de France Femmes. After a fantastic day for the attackers, Lidl-Trek’s Riejanne Markus produced an extraordinary solo effort over the final 40 kilometres. She forced the entire SD Worx-Protime team to empty the tank, but with some assistance from the other sprinters’ teams, Wiebes still got the opportunity to sprint — and what a sprint it was!

Following Wiebes’ superb victory on the opening day, the SD Worx-Protime sprint star appeared in the yellow jersey at the neutral start at 2.20pm. Ten minutes later, the peloton was officially released, which also signalled the beginning of a long battle to establish the breakaway. Even at the summit of the day’s first climb, nobody had managed to get clear.

The mountain points on the Côte de Chexbres therefore went to Cédrine Kerbaol of EF Education-Oatly, while Puck Pieterse and Sara Casasola also collected points for Fenix-Premier Tech. It was not until after the fourth-category Côte de Savigny — where Visma | Lease a Bike’s Marion Bunel took two mountain points ahead of UAE Team ADQ’s Maeva Squiban — that a group finally escaped.

Ema Comte of Cofidis, Anouska Koster of Uno-X Mobility, Eline Jansen of VolkerWessels, Yuliia Biriukova of Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi and Carlota Cipressi of Human Powered Health built a useful advantage on a descending section of the course. Comte and Koster then contested a fierce mountain sprint on the Côte de Cossonay, with Comte taking two points and Koster one.

With 70 kilometres remaining, around the halfway point of the stage, the five riders at the front held an advantage of two minutes. That situation soon began to change. After Wiebes collected 11 points by winning the intermediate sprint from the peloton, AG Insurance-Soudal started to increase the pace on the Côte de Bougy-Villars. Movistar also contributed to the chase.

The acceleration significantly reduced the size of the peloton, with the fifth and final climb of the day still to come. On the Côte de Mont-sur-Rolle, FDJ United-SUEZ rider Célia Gery was among those to attack. That produced five chasers behind three remaining leaders. After all the climbing, only Comte, Koster and Jansen were still at the front, with Koster having added another six mountain points to her total.

However, the trio became prey for the peloton after the climbing was completed. As soon as the catch was made, Lidl-Trek’s Riejanne Markus launched an acceleration. The powerful Dutch rider rapidly opened a lead of around one minute, but with only rolling roads and a flat finish left, the sprinters’ teams knew the responsibility now rested firmly on their shoulders.

It became a battle between powerhouse Markus and the SD Worx-Protime train, as Wiebes’ team was the one expected to take responsibility. The other sprinters’ teams initially waited, even when Markus still had a lead of 30 seconds with eight kilometres remaining. When the gap remained at half a minute with only five kilometres to go, the situation had become genuinely dangerous for Wiebes and her teammates.

The other domestiques had already used up their energy, meaning lead-out rider Lotte Kopecky was forced to move to the front herself and begin closing the gap. Preparing the sprint would have to wait; first, they had to make sure there was going to be a sprint at all. With one enormous turn lasting around a kilometre, Kopecky removed approximately 15 seconds from Markus’ advantage. The sprint trains from several rival teams also began increasing the speed of the peloton.

Markus was finally caught just 300 metres from the finish, but Wiebes had already lost every one of her teammates. It made no difference. Wearing the yellow jersey, she powered clear on her own and put several bike lengths into the other sprinters. Having helped close the gap to Markus, her rivals were once again forced to settle for the minor places.