The emotion was clear for Mavi García after she crossed the line to claim a win at the Tour de France Femmes: The season hadn’t been kind to her, despite how hard she had been training, but one well-placed solo flyer just changed all that.
At 41, the Spanish rider had been wondering whether it might be time to retire, but the victory gave her the biggest energy boost possible, not only making her season but delivering a triumph for her team in their first Tour de France Femmes stage victory.
The race did not start well for García: a crash on stage 1 pretty much ended her hopes of a strong GC result after she shed 4:51, but today's result turned everything around.
“Yesterday was like the shit is really like this, because the last races I always crash, and it's frustrating for me, because I was training really good this year, but then in the races I don't see this,” said García at the winner's media conference in Quimper. “Today, I don't know, but I thought, ‘OK, I need to fight again’."
That fight came in the form of a solo attack in the final stages of the 110.4km stage from Brest to Quimper with a powerful attack after the break was caught on the approach to the ten-kilometre-to-go mark.
“In one minute, I took 25 seconds and I thought, OK, I’ll go and we'll see what happens,” said García, adding that she kept pushing but was very aware that it was still a long way to go as she worked her way over the hilly terrain to the finish line. There was no shortage of chasers and attackers that tried to make it to the front, becoming increasingly fiery as the line drew closer, but Garcia kept holding on.
“I saw one kilometre to go and I thought, ‘OK, all out and we'll see’ but I don't expect to arrive, because at one moment I heard 10 seconds,” said García, who added that she only believed in the victory when she had five or ten metres left.
García took a good look back at that point to make sure she was really clear of the unfolding sprint behind, sat up and covered her eyes in disbelief as she crossed the line to the roar of the appreciative crowd in Quimper, who had just witnessed a suspense-filled finale.
She crossed the line three seconds ahead of the first group, which was led over by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) and Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), to tears of happiness and shouts of joy from her teammates as she took both her and her team's first win of the season and the biggest of her career.
“Yesterday was really sad, the crash, because it was not a really good start, but now I think everybody will be really happy,” said García.
"I think sometimes you need to feel the moment, and today, I feel that now is my moment.”
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