Visma | Lease a Bike unconcerned after Ferrand-Prévot is dropped twice: ‘Everything is going as expected’

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did not make an unforgettable impression during stage three of the Tour de France Femmes. The French leader of Visma | Lease a Bike did not lose any time to her main general-classification rivals, but she was not dropped on the final climb of the day by choice. Visma | Lease a Bike, however, did not regard the incident as anything particularly significant, according to an official team race report.

Ferrand-Prévot briefly had to let the wheel go when Kim Le Court of AG Insurance-Soudal launched a fierce acceleration on the Côte de Chaux-Champagny. With Demi Vollering of FDJ United-SUEZ, Kasia Niewiadoma of CANYON//SRAM and Elisa Longo Borghini of UAE Team ADQ all alert to the danger, the defending champion appeared to be in serious trouble. However, the leading group of general-classification contenders did not continue to press its advantage.

With Marianne Vos and Femke de Vries among the riders at the front, Ferrand-Prévot managed to regain contact. She was then unable to respond immediately when Vollering accelerated again on a small rise in the finale. Once more, however, Vollering and Le Court failed to establish effective cooperation. A considerable amount of energy was expended, but it ultimately produced no time differences between the leading contenders.

Vos eventually sprinted from the favourites’ group to finish third, taking four bonus seconds that might otherwise have gone to Le Court. As a result, there were no changes among the main favourites in the general classification. Stage winner Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset of Uno-X Mobility did, however, take the yellow jersey from Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime. Vos now sits fifth overall, while Ferrand-Prévot is tenth.

“Team Visma | Lease a Bike can look back on the day with a positive feeling,” the team concluded in its race report. “Team leader Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rode attentively among the favourites, while Marianne Vos sprinted to third place for the second day in a row. With both riders inside the top ten of the general classification, the team heads into the individual time trial with confidence.”

“So far, everything is going as expected,” sports director Jos van Emden said. “Pauline is in a good position, and tomorrow we will aim for the best possible result in the time trial. We are not focusing on the other riders; we are looking purely at ourselves. The objective is to ride as hard and as well as possible. At the end, we will see what the outcome is.”

De Vries was also present when the decisive attacks were launched, although she admitted that the finale had been extremely demanding. “Of course, we were prepared for a difficult stage, but I did not expect it to explode quite like that. With the time trial coming tomorrow, I thought most riders would avoid doing anything too extreme. However, the race completely ignited on the final climb, and from then on it was all hands on deck. I had to dig very deep, but I just managed to stay with them. Fortunately, Pauline did too.”