Crowds of people chanting, 'Allez Juliette' reached a crescendo when Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) attacked at the bottom of Côte des Fins in pursuit of the day's victory near the end of stage 6 at the Tour de France Femmes.
The French Champion had little opportunity to take in her dedicated fanfare when she reached the final 15km, but she heard their cheers and saw glimpses of their faces as she raced into the base of the climb.
Her former club team, Le Vélo Club Morteau Montbenoit (VCMM), positioned themselves on the final climb waving dedicated signs, her face on a giant billboard and bikes decorated with flowers standing along the course. Labous became the first female rider to have a bend dedicated in her name on the Côte des Fins.
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"It was amazing; there were so many signs, and so many people were saying, 'Allez Juliette' It was really great. They named a corner after me, which was amazing and special," Labous told Cyclingnews at the finish line in Morteau.
Labous' compatriot Thibaut Pinot was honoured with a bend named after him at the 2023 Tour de France and Il Lombardia, while Romain Bardet and Julien Bernard received recognition at the 2024 Tour de France.
Labous formed part of a selection on the Côte des Fins, a result of her attack at the base of the climb. Many general classification contenders were in the group, including race leader Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and defending champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime).
"It was not so hard until then, so I thought, if I want to try something, it's there or nowhere. There were a lot of people cheering for me, so I'm going to use this to try to attack. It was not selective enough this time, and it didn't work, but I tried, and it was a nice atmosphere," she said.
In the end, her compatriot Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) stole away over the top of the ascent with 14.5km to go and held off the small chase group to take the win. Her victory marked the first for French riders at the Tour de France Femmes in its first three editions.
"I'm really happy for Cédrine. She's a good rider. She is sometimes crazy strong, so I'm happy for her," Labous said.
Labous has placed in the top 10 overall in the last two editions and is currently sitting in fifth at 56 seconds behind Niewiadoma. She is one of the contenders to win on the final stage and poised to finish on the podium when the race finishes atop Alpe d'Huez on Sunday.
"I'm looking forward to the mountains. We will see who has the best legs. I have already done Le Grand-Bornand when it was part of La Course by Le Tour a few years ago, so I know part of it. I also went again to do recon in June to get a bit more inspired from it," Labous said.
“I know Alpe d’Huez well. I've ridden it five times. Not recently but the last time was in 2018 when I did a training camp with my boyfriend before some races. When I was a junior, we used to go train there and rode it a lot."
Labous said the finale stage 8's 149.9km race will be challenging, with the peloton climbing Col de Glandon and the Alpe d'Huez in the second half of the race.
"It will be a very hard stage with almost 4,000 metres of elevation. It will be one of the hardest, next to the Blockhaus stage at the Giro, it is quite similar to this," she said.
"It is a famous climb and an honour to be able to finish there. There will be a lot of people who will cheer for us there. It is an honour to race there, and we should enjoy it."
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