Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a bike) went deep at the Tour de France avec Zwift. Real deep. Stages 6 and 7 saw her give a masterclass in suffering and grit as she pursued the green points jersey. The camera showed a rare sight of the 37-year-old at the edge of her limit—teeth clenched, shoulders sagging, willing her bike forward with sheer willpower.
"[The green jersey] is not the first ambition," Vos had told Cycling Weekly at the beginning of the week, seeking stage wins instead. But when the green jersey came within reach, the Dutch veteran went all in, leaving everything on the road.
Stage 6 was a challenging and hilly stage with plenty of fireworks. A promising breakaway of 13 riders formed early, with Vos content to let her teammate Fem van Empel lead the charge. Eventually, though, Vos decided to double the team's chances and bridged across with 87 kilometres remaining in the race.
From the front group, Vos claimed the intermediate sprint, drawing level with Charlotte Kool in the points classification. Yet the stage was far from over. The hills kept coming as did the attack. The QOM points was hotly contested and Vos got distances on the last climb of the day, the Côte des Fins. Dangling up to 2 minutes behind the leaders, Vos refused to give up.
"It was fighting and suffering today," a depleted Vos said at the stage finish. "Over the last climb, I was happy I could still see the tail of the peloton and could return to it."
While Vos clawed herself back on just in time for finale in Morteau, Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) had long gotten away by then. Vos missed her chance for a stage win, but her second-place finish was good enough to seize the green jersey.
"I really want to bring the green jersey to the finish of the Tour de France Femmes, but first, I need to recover from this gruelling effort," she remarked.
Stage 7 brought the first of the mountain stages and Vos started the penultimate stage head-to-toe in green, ready to defend her jersey now that stage wins were looking unlikely. On the docket for the day were 166.4 hilly kilometers and a mountaintop finish atop Le Grand-Bornand, and it took some time for the day's definitive breakaway to form. When it did, the green jersey was among them.
"I wanted to be sharp and alert today. I didn't expect to end up in the breakaway, but I saw the attack going, and I tried to join and immediately," Vos recounted post-race. "We had quite the gap, and the cooperation was quite good, so that was really nice. For the points jersey, that was a very good situation."
The six riders stretched their lead to five minutes, temporarily placing Vos in the virtual yellow jersey. This sparked the GC teams into action, with Canyon-SRAM and FDJ-Suez leading the chase to close down the gap.
Vos admitted that she briefly entertained thoughts of a stage victory, but she was realistic about the GC lead.
"I knew what was coming behind me and I also knew what was coming ahead so I had no real dreams about the yellow," she said.
On the final climb up the Grand-Bornand, Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance—Soudal Team) surged ahead, proving why she wears the Queen of the Mountains jersey. Vos, along with Sara Martin (Movistar), was caught just a few kilometres before the summit, ultimately finishing the stage in 19th place.
"Today, I suffered a lot again, especially towards the end of the stage," Vos said. But the effort has paid off. Assuming she finishes the final stage atop the Alpe d'Huez tomorrow, she will go home with her second Tour de France green jersey in three years.
"I'm very happy to bring the jersey to the final stage tomorrow," she said. "I still have to finish on Alpe d'Huez. That’s not going to be easy. It will be a tough day, but one I can approach with confidence."
