Pauline Ferrand-Prévot claimed a historic Tour de France Femme overall victory with a win that marks a monumental day for French cycling.
Ferrand-Prévot rode in sensational fashion to take her second stage win in a row and become the first French overall Tour de France winner since 1989.
The 33-year-old Frenchwoman, who had only returned from mountain biking to road racing at the start of the season, finished stage 9 20 seconds ahead of FDJ-Suez’s Demi Vollering, who was closely followed by Canyon–SRAM zondacrypto’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney.
Ferrand-Prévot said: “It may have looked easy, but it was the result of a lot of work.
“I think I have really set the bar this year on how to prepare for the Tour. I have made a lot of sacrifices.
“I thought about that yesterday, and I talked about it this morning with my teammates.
“This victory shows that it was worth it.”
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The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was welcomed across the finish line in Châtel by a crowd brimming with national pride, and in a poignant moment was greeted by three-time Tour de France féminin victor and previous national Tour winner Jeannie Longo.
The Frenchwoman crossed the line solo after making a well-timed attack with 5km to go and left Vollering unable to respond.
Ferrand-Prévot rode alone to take back-to-back mountain stage wins, an aim the mountain biking Olympic Champion has aimed for from the outset.
Ferrand-Prévot said: “This morning, I told my DS, ‘I want to try to win in yellow’. It wasn’t easy, quite a tactical race, and at the end, I told myself, ‘let’s see how I feel on the last climb’.
“I attacked, and I didn’t think that I could win that way.”
And yet, her victory on Sunday felt almost inevitably perfect as she rode the stage with the legendary number 51 on her back.
It means Ferrand-Prévot took her debut Tour de France Femme victory in the same number as the legends of Eddy Merckx, Luis Ocaña, Bernard Thévenet and Bernard Hinault before her.
While the legend may just be a myth, it’s a symbolic and poignant win as the first woman to do so, and what’s more, in a manner which has gripped her nation.
But make no mistake, Ferrand-Prévot’s victory was down to hard work and sheer determination.
She said: “I really gave it my all until the last metres, so I didn’t have time to savour it all, but I’m so happy to be able to win this stage and the general classification.”
From the first kilometre, the race was a battle with a steep 7km descent, causing immediate splinters to form in the peloton.
Ferrand-Prévot was a victim of the pace and found herself gapped.
She said: “I made a mistake at the start of the race. Someone left a gap on the first descent, and suddenly, I was dropped.
“My teammates did a massive effort to bring me back. I felt the pressure of wearing the yellow jersey a little, but it served as a good lesson for me.
“After that, I said, ‘OK, now I have to stay in front’.”
She did just that, after the chasing yellow jersey group managed to catch Anna van der Breggen, who led the race from the start, Ferrand-Prévot worked with her five fellow GC contenders to see off the remaining two climbs.
Then, when the tension for all spectators was at fever-pitch, Ferrand-Prévot dropped the hammer and launched her attack to win in yellow.
