Yara Kastelijn made up for the stage 3 heartbreak of her Fenix-Deceuninck teammate Julie Van de Velde, attacking out of the day's breakaway and soloing to victory in Rodez on the longest stage of the Tour de France Femmes.
It was the first professional road victory for the Dutch cyclocross specialist and came after Van de Velde's solo escape was snuffed out with just 200 metres to go on Tuesday's stage to Montignac-Lascaux.
"It's really a dream. I can't believe this - it is really a team victory because I had to do nothing all day. I think the other girls in the front group are a bit angry with me but my coach told us we are not here to make friends. A victory is what we want and we have it now - and I'm super proud of this," Kastelijn said.
"There were so many people on the course and I really wanted to fight for every second. The final metres were amazing."
Kastelijn led the mountains classification after being on the attack on stage 2 but ceded it to her teammate Van De Velde on stage 3. Fenix-Deceuninck put two riders in the move - Kastelijn and Marthe Truyen - to keep the jersey, but came away with a much bigger prize.
"In the beginning, we wanted to be in the break for some points for the classification but I wasn't that explosive and Anouska and the other girl (Kathryn Hammes) took all the points. I was really happy Marthe was with me and so I could stay relaxed. We had a gap of 10 minutes - I didn't expect it in the beginning but it's amazing that we win here.
"Yesterday we were really proud and we are still proud of everybody. It's incredible that yesterday we already had two mountain jerseys and today the victory. It's the best Tour de France so far - it's just amazing."
The mountainous finale also had plenty of intrigue for the general classification. The day's escape gained over 10 minutes on race leader Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx), with Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health) holding the virtual maillot jaune for most of the day.
However, after SD Worx sufficiently brought the gap down, Kopecky herself launched a solo move on the penultimate climb to nullify Cordon-Ragot's advantage. Once back in the group, Kopecky came under attack on the climb from Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), but her move was deftly negated by Demi Vollering.
On the steep final kicker to the finish, the yellow jersey group made contact with the remnants of the early breakaway, and Demi Vollering (SD Worx) sprinted to second thinking she'd won. Breakaway rider Anouska Koster (Uno-X) held off the elite chasers to take third on the stage.
Koster also moved into the mountains classification lead after taking the most points on the stage.
While Kopecky held onto her race lead, finishing 14th on the stage, Vollering gained 16 seconds on Kopecky and 10 seconds on her rivals Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep).
Vollering moved into second overall at 43 seconds thanks to the time bonus, with Moolman-Pasio taking the third spot at 51 seconds on the same time as Niewiadoma, Longo Borghini and Van Vleuten.
With her stage win, Kastelijn climbed into seventh overall at 1:00, with stage 2 winner Liane Lippert (Movistar) eight at 1:39. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich) is ninth at 1:48 and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) rounds out the top 10 at 1:49.
How it unfolded
The longest stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2023 was the first real day for the general classification contenders, and with the first climb, the Col de Crayssac coming at kilometre 16.5, Henrietta Christie (Human Powered Health) launched the first attack to claim the points on the category 4 climb.
However, before the summit Anouska Koster (Uno-X) led the charge to reel her in and claimed the two points ahead of Kathrin Hammes (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), tying stage 3 attacker Julie Van De Velde in the mountains classification.
The leading group soon contained Koster, Hammes, Sheyla Gutierrez (Movistar), Christine Majerus (SD Worx), Coryn Labecki (Jumbo-Visma), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Thalita De Jong and Jeanne Korevaar (Liv Racing Teqfind), Yara Kastelijn and Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck), Celia Le Mouel (St-Michel-Mavic-Auber93), Romy Kasper (AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep), Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health) and Alice Arzuffi (Ceratizit-WNT).
They were chased by Sarah Roy (Canyon-Sram), Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), Tamara Dronova (Israel-Premier Tech Roland), and Teniel Campbell (Jayco AlUla) but with Dronova in the top 10, the peloton quickly brought them back and the lead group were let go.
The breakaway soon opened a huge gap - 5:50 after 47km, putting Cordon-Ragot in the virtual race lead. By the second climb, the leaders' gap yawned out to over 9 minutes where Koster and Hammes again led over the Côte de Falgeyras.
The maximum lead for the escape came with 64km to go when the leaders had 10:16 but soon began being steadily reduced by the peloton. Kasper led the breakaway through the sprint in Rignac with 47km to go
As the leaders hit the hilly final 40km, a brisk chase from SD Worx began to very rapidly slash their advantage, and on the 6.5km-long Côte de Colombiès, the Dutch team carved minutes out of the gap.
Halfway to the summit, Mischa Bredewold shot out of the peloton as the leaders had 6 minutes, and was closely followed by former world champion Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
With the top just over a kilometre away, the race leader Kopecky attacked and Nieuwiadoma leapt across, but Lizzie Deignan kept them from gaining any advantage.
In the breakaway, the fight for the mountain points heated up with Koster and Hammes sprinting flat out for the points and kept pouring on the pressure after the summit as their advantage hovered just over four minutes and falling.
Ragot sprinted out of the breakaway to claim the time bonus sprint at 28km to go, followed by Kastelijn but a series of vicious accelerations first from Van Vleuten, then from the maillot jaune slashed into the escape's lead and shattered the chasing group.
On the descent toward the Côte de Moyrazès, the lead group began to fall apart, holding only three minutes on the yellow jersey. They came back together, however, as the climb commenced, just in time for Kastelijn to launch a move, sending her teammate Truyen out the back. Cordon-Ragot was keen to the challenge and leapt across.
With Cordon-Ragot unable to hold the wheel of the Dutch rider and the gap falling, Kopecky attacked solo to save her race lead. By the final 10km, Cordon-Ragot's hopes of taking the yellow jersey faded, while the chasing group behind Kopecky closed in.
On the final climb of the Côte de Lavernhe, Kastelijn held 1:29 on the remnants of the breakaway as Van Vleuten attacked and caught Kopecky, and blew past most of the former attackers.
Van Vleuten struggled to hold the wheel as Demi Vollering attacked over the summit. She had teammate Sheyla Gutierrez for help and came across. Van Vleuten accelerated again, sending Gutierrez out the back and Vollering then refused to work to stay clear of Kopecky's chasing group.
The demanding uphill run to the line further reduced the yellow jersey group and brought back all of the escapees, bar Kastelijn, as Vollering jumped away thinking she'd won the stage but came in second.
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