Juliette Labous overtakes Gladys Verhulst-Wild at the line to win French women's road race

Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) used a late kick to edge Gladys Verhults-Wilde (FDJ-SUEZ) at the line and won her first elite women’s road race national title Saturday.

The duo caught Jade Wiel (FDJ-SUEZ) with 10km to go after she had launched a solo effort and gapped a select group of riders by a full minute with a lap remaining on the finish circuit. Wiel would hold on for third place, 14 seconds back. 

A third FJD-SUEZ rider, Évita Muzic, led the chase group across the finish in fourth, 36 seconds back. 2023 champion Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) finished eighth.

“This title means a lot as I am not winning a lot of races, but I am really proud to wear this national jersey when racing with the team in the next races.”

The 125.8km road race was held for the first time in Manache with a start in Avranches that led to a six-lap circuit around Saint-Martin-de-Landelles. Labous launched her own attack with 25km to go, but was quickly reeled back and Wiel then countered and ran out of gas as she was passed and dropped on a final hill. 

In the final 800 metres Verhults-Wilde rode on Labous' wheel, but when she tried to come around in the spring, Labous countered and held her off by a few half a wheel. It was the fourth time for Verhults-Wilde to finish with the silver slot.

A three-time women’s junior national champion, winning both the road race and time trial in 2016, the 25-year-old added the road race title as an elite rider to go along with an elite time trial victory from 2021. 

“Today was the perfect race for me, I would say. In the first part, I didn’t feel so good, but I knew from my trainer that this could happen since I was not fully recovered from Suisse yet, but that I would feel better at the end, which was the case. I think Eglantine [Rayer] and I raced really well tactically, and she went all in to chase down a dangerous move,” Labous said about her Team dsm-firmenich PostNL teammate helping nullify early attacks.

“It came back together, and then it was all up to me. I bridged to Jade Wiel together with Gladys Verhulst-Wild. This was not an easy situation to handle, but I just kept believing until the end because I knew I could do it and went all out to the finish line."

Labous was named to the three-rider Paris Olympic Games women’s road squad for Fédération Français de Cyclisme last month, where she will do double duty in the individual time trial on July 27 and the road race on August 4. This is be her second Olympic Games, last competing in Tokly as the only woman representing France in road events, finishing ninth in the ITT and 30th in the road race.

Results

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