CHATEL, France — French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt received the ladies’s Tour de France in her first try Sunday, launching an assault to clinch the ultimate stage and enhance her in a single day lead.
It gave Ferrand-Prévôt a convincing victory. She completed 3 minutes, 42 seconds forward of 2023 champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands and 4:09 away from defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland.
There was little of the drama of final 12 months’s remaining day, which produced a four-second profitable margin for the narrowest victory within the historical past of the ladies’s and males’s races.
The 33-year-old Ferrand-Prévôt had put herself largely in management by profitable Saturday’s eighth and penultimate stage with an audacious solo breakaway on the ultimate climb. That gave her an in a single day lead of two:37 over Australian rider Sarah Gigante and three:18 over Vollering.
Sunday’s ninth stage from Praz-sur-Arly to Châtel was a 77-mile trek that includes three large mountain climbs. However Ferrand-Prévôt didn’t face any large assaults and as an alternative launched one in every of her personal with lower than 4 miles left.
The crowds cheered her all the best way to the end line, and moments later, the tears flowed as she lay on her again, exhausted however elated.
Vollering was 20 seconds behind in second place, and Niewiadoma adopted in third place as they sprinted to the road.
Earlier, Ferrand-Prévôt was with Gigante and some others after they tackled the mammoth climb up Col de Joux Aircraft — a 7.2-mile grind with a gradient of 8.5%.
Gigante is understood to have bother descending at velocity and was dropped on the lengthy downhill. She couldn’t make the time up, particularly with no teammates to assist her, and misplaced her podium spot, ending sixth total.
Having received Olympic gold in mountain biking and conquered the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix traditional, Ferrand-Prévôt added one other line to her glittering résumé with a Tour victory.