It's not every day one gets a leadout from the defending champion of the Tour de France Femmes.
However, Marianne Vos revealed that she relied on her Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to bring her into position to sprint against Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) on stage 2 into Geneva on Sunday.
In the end, she was no match for her compatriot, finishing third behind Wiebes, who secured a commanding second consecutive victory, and runner-up Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
Latest Videos FromCyclingnews
"Pauline brought me to the front, and I was trying to surf wheels because it was a bit chaotic, but that's sprinting, I guess," Vos said in a post-race interview at the finish line.
"Wiebes, when she finds her way out, she is the fastest. A strong win."
Vos also praised late-race breakaway rider Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), who held off a determined SD Worx-Protime squad in the final kilometres of the race, only getting caught a few hundred metres from the line.
"It was an impressive ride by Riejanne because we were really, really going fast," Vos said.
While she gave credit to Visma-Lease a Bike for a job well done, too, she said SD Worx-Protime's performance to bring Wiebes a second victory showed strong teamwork in reeling in an early breakaway which included Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels), Yuliia Biriukova (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health), Eva Comte (Cofidis) and Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility).
And then, again, as they burned the entire team to bring back Markus just before the final straight in support of the yellow jersey.
"Our team did a great job today, but also their team was really good, chasing the breakaway and then, in the end, Riejanne," Vos said.
Asked if she believes Wiebes could win a third consecutive stage on Monday's stage 3, a 156.5km hilly race from Geneva to Poligny, Vos said, "We will see."
"I think we saw yesterday how strong Wiebes is on the climbs. We will see; tomorrow is tough, with the longer climbs from the start, so we will see what happens."
Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.
