Wiebes dropped, Kopecky falls short and favourites miscalculate: Huge Norwegian upset at Tour de France Femmes
CyclingMonday, 03 August 2026 at 18:01
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Follow us on GoogleThe third stage of the Tour de France Femmes was won by Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset. The Norwegian champion from Uno-X Mobility attacked with 88 kilometres remaining and completed a phenomenal solo raid, securing both the stage victory and the yellow jersey. Race leader Lorena Wiebes was dropped, Lotte Kopecky could not bridge the gap and finished second, while the main favourites watched one another and allowed a remarkable upset to become reality.
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Until now, the women’s Tour de France had been dominated by the Lorena Wiebes show. The Dutch sprint star won both the opening stage and stage two, but her opportunities to sprint for a third consecutive victory came to an abrupt end on Monday. Even so, she had already produced some hugely impressive performances during this Tour de France...
The riders started Monday’s stage in Switzerland, although the Tour de France soon continued across the border on French soil. The opening part of the stage was particularly demanding, with a tough first-category climb arriving very early in the day. Several more hills followed, although the finale was expected to be predominantly flat. That meant plenty of different scenarios were possible.
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Fireworks had been expected on the opening climb, and the attackers sensed an opportunity to make their move. However, nobody initially managed to establish a meaningful breakaway. The nervousness in the peloton did lead to a crash, with Demi Vollering of FDJ-SUEZ going down alongside several other riders, including Puck Pieterse of Fenix-Premier Tech, Noemi Rüegg and Magdeleine Vallieres of EF Education-Oatly.
The crash happened on an uphill section and therefore did not appear to cause too much damage. The fallen riders were able to get back to their feet and rejoin the race. Pieterse even recovered in time to win the mountains sprint, which put her into the virtual polka-dot jersey. Meanwhile, the pace at the front caused the back of the peloton to split apart, and yellow jersey Wiebes was among those dropped. Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek was another rider who could no longer follow.
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Wiebes dropped as powerful breakaway goes clear
It still took some time before a group finally managed to get away. Lucinda Brand was the instigator, with the Lidl-Trek rider attacking on the second climb of the day before being joined by an exceptionally strong group. Her fellow Dutch riders Nienke Vinke of SD Worx-Protime, Femke de Vries of Visma | Lease a Bike, Loes Adegeest of Lidl-Trek and Yara Kastelijn of Fenix-Premier Tech were also present.
Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx-Protime had made the move as well, together with Célia Gery of FDJ-SUEZ, Rosa Maria Klöser of Canyon//SRAM, Liane Lippert of Movistar, Justine Ghekiere of AG Insurance-Soudal and Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset of Uno-X Mobility. The peloton kept the eleven-rider group within reach, but Wiebes continued to lose more and more time. After 60 kilometres of racing, the yellow jersey was already more than six minutes behind.
The attacking group was not given enough room and was eventually reeled in, but Haugset refused to surrender. The Norwegian champion decided to continue alone and rapidly extended her advantage. The peloton initially appeared comfortable with that situation, but Kopecky attacked on her own a little later, after Pieterse had secured the mountains jersey for the following stage. The Belgian was determined to make her way across to the lone leader.
Can Haugset hold on, or will Kopecky bridge across?
Haugset was certainly not making the pursuit easy for Kopecky. The Uno-X Mobility rider is far from an unknown quantity, as demonstrated by her 14th-place finish at the Giro d’Italia earlier this year. She had also produced a solo attack of more than 100 kilometres at the Norwegian championships. Compared with that enormous effort, launching another long-range move in the Tour appeared to be familiar territory for the powerful all-rounder.
Kopecky found it extremely difficult to reduce the gap. It was only inside the final 40 kilometres that Haugset’s advantage fell below one minute, while the peloton remained four minutes behind. Was the Norwegian heading towards an extraordinary victory? The final climb of the day, the Côte de Chaux-Champagny, was neither particularly long nor especially steep, but it allowed the two-time world champion from SD Worx-Protime to move considerably closer once again.
The peloton appeared to be out of contention, but then Kim Le Court launched an attack. The rider who had started the day second in the general classification accelerated with real force. Kasia Niewiadoma, Femke de Vries, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Demi Vollering followed in her wheel. It was an elite group, but the cooperation soon stalled again. They had removed more than a minute from the leaders’ advantage, although much more still needed to happen if the two riders ahead were to be caught.
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Ferrand-Prévot escapes punishment in difficult finale
An acceleration from Niewiadoma put several of the favourites into difficulty. Only a handful of riders were initially able to follow, while defending champion Ferrand-Prévot was dropped. Her rivals did not realise that she had lost contact, allowing the Frenchwoman to return when the pace eased. Once the riders reached the top, the group slowed again. Haugset still had an advantage of two minutes and 30 seconds over the favourites and remained around 30 seconds ahead of Kopecky.
A lack of cooperation prevented the group of favourites from closing the gap, while several riders who had previously been dropped were also able to return. The urgency had disappeared completely among the biggest names, which meant that Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx-Protime, who had been even further behind, also escaped without losing significant time. Kopecky, meanwhile, continued to move closer to Haugset and could begin to sense that victory was within reach.
The Belgian reduced the gap to approximately ten seconds, but the exhausted Norwegian appeared to have somehow kept a little more energy in reserve. Haugset began to pull away from Kopecky again during the closing kilometres. The Belgian eventually had to concede defeat to the Uno-X Mobility rider, who completed a phenomenal double by winning the stage and gaining further time on the stalled peloton. Kopecky also faded badly and lost more than a minute during the finale.
Results of Stage 3 of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
David Bavin-HobbsChief Editor
David has been working in the sports & cycling industry for 16 years. Covering racing, business and technology, he has worked in communications for cycling companies, teams, and as a journalist. His proudest achievement is winning the first bike race he ever entered. He hasn't won a race since.
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