Unlike the men’s Grande Boucle, it is often beneficial to participate in the breakaways on the Women’s Tour de France. Friday July 28, for the third time in three days, it was one of those who got out of the peloton early who raised her arms at the finish of the 6th stage, run between Albi and Blagnac (Haute-Garonne ). Dane Emma Norsgaard took advantage of the new procrastination within the peloton to win. The Movistar team rider finished ahead of Dutch sprinter Charlotte Kool (DSM) by one second. Belgian Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx), wearing the yellow jersey, took 3? place, ahead of Marianne Vos (Netherlands, Jumbo-Visma).
Emma Norsgaard (24) thus becomes the third youngest winner of the Tour de France Women, in its modern version organized by ASO. She also offers a second success in this 2023 edition to her team, after that obtained by the German Liane Lippert, in Mauriac (Cantal), during the 2? stage.
On arrival, Norsgaard was very moved, because, apart from a success in the time trial of the Danish Championships, success has been fleeing her for almost a year. “I don’t have the words,” she said at the microphone of France Télévisions, her eyes filled with tears. I would like to thank everyone who believed in me. This is the biggest victory of my career. »
A still wait-and-see peloton
Present in a breakaway made up of three riders – in the company of the Polish Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka and the Spaniard Sandra Alonso – Emma Norsgaard especially benefited from a peloton still too wait-and-see this Friday. Announced as the favorite in the absence of her rival Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx), winner of the 3? stage in Montignac-Lascaux (Dordogne) and forced to retire due to stomach ailments, Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) first was left behind 60 kilometers from the finish, on the Clos Pourtié coast (2.8 km at 4.8%).
Expected by her teammates, the American chaser Megan Jastrab and the Dutch Esmée Peperkamp, ??the sprinter managed to make the connection 50 kilometers from the finish, at the cost of a significant effort. What followed was a slowdown at the front of the peloton, which was up to two minutes behind the leading trio.
A few riders from FDJ-Suez, like Australian Grace Brown (time trial specialist and highly anticipated on Sunday in Pau), then started a race of movements to try to catch up with the breakaway. In vain. As a reminder, the tricolor team had no interest in seeing a massive sprint finish since the house specialist, the Frenchwoman Clara Copponi, is spared for the Glasgow Worlds (from August 3 to 13).
A crash on the last bend
The last twenty kilometers, over wide portions, then allowed the teams of sprinters to work as they pleased. Thanks to the UAE training first – for Chiara Consonni, winner of the last stage of the Tour of Italy -, the Jumbo-Visma (Marianne Vos was among the favorites) and the DSM (for Charlotte Kool). Then, the lead of the breakaways was reduced to a trickle. From one minute with 15 kilometers to go, the gap fell to 8 seconds under the red flame.
It was without counting on a fall at the front of the peloton in the last chicane of the stage. Even spared during this race incident, the best sprinters reacted too late. To the delight of Emma Norsgaard, who finally let go of her breakaway partner Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka in the last few hundred meters with a decisive acceleration.
Lotte Kopecky, 3? of the stage, keeps her yellow jersey for at least one more day. Saturday, the penultimate stage of this Tour, between Lannemezan and Tourmalet, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, is cut out for climbers, in particular Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering. The two Dutchmen are separated by only 12 seconds following the 20-second penalty imposed on Vollering – who took shelter too long behind his car after a puncture during the 5? stage. A penalty to which was added the exclusion of its sporting director, Danny Stam, author of a dangerous overtaking and offensive remarks towards the jury of the commissioners. As we approach Pau, where the finish of the Tour de France Women will be judged on Sunday, the tension is palpable.