Juliette Labous on the attack and moves up on GC at Tour de France Femmes

On the longest stage of the race, a big break managed to go clear while behind there was action in the GC group with Juliette Labous making multiple attacks, finishing 12th on the stage and moving up to ninth on GC.

Rolling out from Cahors early this afternoon, 177 kilometres lay ahead of the peloton. It was a steady start to proceedings before a large group was able to get clear and with all Team dsm-firmenich riders in the bunch, focus remained on staying safe and protecting GC finisher Labous for the finale. With the gap to those out front still holding steady at ten minutes with 50 kilometres to go, it was clear that someone from the break would take the win, with Kastelijn ultimately taking the honours at the end of day.

Back in the peloton, the pace ramped up over the multiple climbs in the finale with the team working well to position Labous, as the group thinned down. Heading into the closing climbs, a strong group of GC favourites went clear, with Labous riding strongly to bridge the gap. Building an advantage over those behind, the pace lulled in the group and Labous found a moment to attack, surging clear. Yet, those behind were alert and didn’t give her too much of an advantage, and brought her back on the final ramp to the line. Pushing to the finish, Labous crossed the line in 12th place and as a result moved back into the top ten on GC, in ninth place.

“The start wasn’t super hard,” explained Labous. “The break went and in the bunch it was quite slow so they got a big gap. There was a lot of talking but we stayed calm and rode really well together. The girls positioned me really well when we needed to be at the front. The first long climb was pretty hard but I was in control and I tried to attack but SD Worx closed it on me. I then just gave everything. In the final I had a small gap to the GC leaders and they first let me go but then they understood that they could play for the podium, so they rode full gas and I was caught. I’m happy with the feelings and we’re in a better place on GC now so it’s good motivation for the coming days.”

Team dsm-firmenich coach Kelvin Dekker added: “It was a shame to lose Elise as she was strong in the opening two days, but she wasn’t 100 percent from yesterday. We hoped that she would feel better but unfortunately she couldn’t continue. Racing wise, we decided to not get busy with the break in the beginning. A big group went clear but we were fine with it as we said earlier in the day we just wanted to focus on setting up Juliette in the best way possible so she could go for it in the final. From kilometre 80 onwards we regained our focus, as it had been quite slow in the bunch, and we did a good job from thereon for the important moments. We wanted to make use of the climbs and set a good pace there, which is what we did with Esmée who did a good job, before other teams took over and more attacks happened which is what we wanted. Léa also survived the climbs well and could position Juliette for the next climb. Juliette then did attacks where she could, and come back to the best over the top of the climb, and we knew that would be a good situation. She then put in a strong attack in the finale, but unfortunately there were still a few riders behind to help their leaders, so they caught her on the final rise to the line, and she lost a handful of seconds to the other GC riders. It was good to see us race like this though. We half-jokingly said this morning that today we would take back the time we lost on the first stage today and we did that on everyone apart from those in that front group, so Juliette now moves up on GC and that gives us confidence for the next days.”