Liane Lippert (Movistar) denied race leader Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) two wins in two days to start the Tour de France Femmes, outsprinting the yellow jersey in the dying metres to win stage 2 in Mauriac.
The German champion came from behind in the sprint from a select group at the end of a hilly, challenging 152km second stage, beating the Belgian at the line as Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) rounded out the podium in third place.
After the peloton was whittled down to a group of 29 riders during the hilly run-in over the final climb of the Côte de Trebiac, it was SD Worx who grasped the mantle on the final run to the line.
Demi Vollering took to the front to provide the lead out for Kopecky as a small group detached from the front of the peloton on the uphill dash. At 150 metres to go, the Dutchwoman was preparing to pull off when Lippert, three riders back, made her move to start the sprint.
Kopecky turned and reacted, but the German had the jump, going up the left and working her way past the yellow jersey inside the final 25 metres. On the other side, Persico was doing her best to do the same, but would have to settle for third place, fractions behind Kopecky.
“I think it will still take a little bit to realise it but I’m really happy. It’s so special. I’m really happy and proud of this,” Lippert said after the win, her first outside of the German national championships since 2020.
“I crashed two times – in the neutral and then on the climb. It was a bit of stress but the team did so well. Everybody was a big, big part of this. We came back and stayed calm in this rain. But I always race well in the rain so I was happy when it started.
“I didn’t think that I was going to win. I just focussed on Lotte the whole final and I stayed really calm. My quality is more in the uphill and longer, harder sprints. But I didn’t believe it even when I crossed the line. I thought maybe there’s a breakaway gone or something. It still needs some time to realise.”
The result doesn’t change the race lead after Kopecky’s 41-second solo win into Clermont-Ferrand on stage 1, though Lippert does now vault into second overall at 49 seconds down after Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) dropped well before the finish. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep) lies third at 59 seconds, level with six other riders.
How it unfolded
With five classified climbs on the rolling road from Clermont-Ferrand to Mauriac, stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes was sure to bring some change in the general classification, especially given the final climb, the Côte de Trebiac (3.4km at 5.8%) coming inside the final 5km.
It was a perfect day for the breakaway to venture out and sweep up some QOM points to nab the polka-dot jersey from Kopecky. Georgie Williams (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) and Hannah Ludwig (Uno-X) were the two women who did just that, jumping from the peloton inside the first 15km of racing.
The pair’s time gap wouldn’t reach out to much more than 1:40, though, with the peloton tightly controlling the situation ahead of the finale, where the GC riders would come out to contest the stage.
The early climbs of the Côte du Mont-Dore and Côte de la Stèle would see Williams lead the way, sweeping up four QOM points and with it the provisional classification lead. However, the duo’s time out front would come to an end 55km from the line and before the final three hills on the stage.
Shortly afterwards on the Côte des Plaines, coming just after Lippert, Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) were caught in a crash, Julie Van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) tried to make a move off the front, leading her teammates Yara Kastelijn at the top before being caught.
Kastelijn would go solo soon afterwards, adding to her three QOM points on the Côte des Plaines with another two on the Côte des Boissières 44km out. Eva van Agt (Jumbo-Visma) and Anouska Koster (Uno-X) soon joined her to make it a three-woman move, with the trio soon building their lead to the minute mark.
At the Côte de Merlhac, 23km out, Kastelijn led the way again for another two points to make it seven and the polka-dot jersey shortly before heavy rain showers hit the race.
The rain would affect the Dutchwoman at 10km to go, as she ran wide on a wet corner and lost contact with the break, while throughout the peloton there would be numerous crashes on the slippery roads.
Van Agt seemed to be the worst off, however, coming off on the outside of a bend while attacking a descent off the front with 7km to go. Her crash more or less spelled the end for the break, with the move coming to a close at the start of the final climb of the Côte de Trebiac.
There, it was Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) who kicked off the attacking as the peloton quickly slimmed on the uphill. More attacks came, including efforts by Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich), Cedrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), and Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), though nobody would manage to create a gap before the top.
Instead it would be Vollering who took it up on the front heading into the final kilometre, pulling the group along and also launching the lead out for Kopecky. But at the finish it wasn’t to be for the powerhouse Dutch squad, who would be denied a 50th victory of the season by a dazzling late burst by Lippert.
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