Ferrand-Prevot wins stage to take yellow jersey

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot claimed the leader’s yellow jersey on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France Femmes with a stunning victory on the spectacular Col de la Madeleine.

Ferrand-Prevot, carrying French hopes of a home champion, produced a devastating performance on this year’s queen stage to replace Kim le Court at the top of the general classification standings before Sunday’s finale.

The eighth day of racing featured more than 3,500m of climbing, including the third-highest summit finish in the race’s history at 2,000m above sea level.

Olympic mountain bike champion Ferrand-Prevot was motivated to return to road racing after seven seasons away to win the yellow jersey.

That goal is now within reach after she crossed the line one minute and 45 seconds clear of Sarah Gigante, who moved up to second overall – two minutes and 37 seconds behind Ferrand-Prevot.

The general classification competition was finely poised before Saturday’s dramatic action, with the top five riders separated by just 35 seconds.

Le Court, of team AG Insurance-Soudal, held a 26-second advantage over Visma-Lease a Bike’s Ferrand-Prevot, while defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering were both within 31 seconds of the lead.

Le Court suffered a crash on a descent and lost around one minute to the peloton earlier in the day, but managed to catch the main group with more than 45km to go.

Following that recovery, rather than riding to protect the yellow jersey she claimed in winning stage five on Wednesday, Le Court pushed the pace on the Col de la Madeleine to set up an attack by team-mate Sarah Gigante.

However, Ferrand-Prevot was able to follow Gigante and launched a counter-attack to make her way to the front of the race 7km from the summit.

Only Fisher-Black and Yara Kastelijn remained from the day’s breakaway and Ferrand-Prevot soon proved too strong as she powered clear to the finish.

On a gruelling final ascent of the hors categorie Col de la Madeleine, lasting 18.6km at an average gradient of 8.1%, the 33-year-old, who rode to victory solo at Paris-Roubaix in April, put herself in a dominant position with one day of racing left.