Tour de France Femmes stage 7: Maëva Squiban repeats solo victory with dramatic back-to-back long-range attacks

A day after her first-ever Women's WorldTour victory, Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) doubled up on stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes, attacking from the breakaway to win her second consecutive stage. She finished 51 seconds ahead of Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health).

Squiban had been part of a break of 17 riders that was up to five minutes ahead, and she emerged as the strongest on the Col du Granier, leaving everyone else behind and descending into Chambéry to win.

Yellow jersey Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) lost contact with the group of GC favourites on the Col du Granier, but the Mauritian closed the gap with a furious descent to defend the GC lead.

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“I said as a joke yesterday that I would attack from kilometre zero. My sport director didn’t like that I said that, but I think she is proud of me now," said Squiban after her victory.

"I was feeling good all day, both mentally and physically. And then on the last climb, I just gave it everything. In the last 15km, I could not hear anything on the radio, so I did not know how much of a gap I had. In the end, it worked out.”

"Yes, it's incredible," Squiban said on both French and English to broadcast cameras at the finish about a second win in as many days. "Yes, it was just an amazing day."

How it unfolded

The first 100km of the 159.7km stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry were relatively flat before the Côte de Saint-France, Côte de Berland, and Col du Granier would test the peloton’s climbing abilities.

A large breakaway formed about 25km into the stage when Squiban, Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez), Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), Mareille Meijering (Movistar), Lucinda Brand, Shirin van Anrooij (both Lidl-Trek), Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal), Megan Jastrab (Picnic-PostNL), Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Mobility), Célia Le Mouel (Ceratizit), Edwards, Alicia González (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), and the VolkerWessels duo of Eline Jansen and Maud Rijnbeek went away.

In the peloton, Fenix-Deceuninck, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Liv AlUla Jayco led the chase, and Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had to abandon after a crash. At the intermediate sprint with 86.5km to go, the break was 3:33 minutes ahead. This increased to over five minutes after the Côte de Saint-Franc where Mangan and Brand were dropped while Jansen, Rijnbeek, Arzuffi, and Jastrab returned to the front after the descent.

As Fenix-Deceuninck took up the chase for real, the gap was reduced to 3:40 minutes atop the Côte de Berland, and on the shallow climb after the mountain sprint, Rijnbeek went solo from the breakaway with 32km to go.

Rijnbeek started the 8.9km Col du Granier about 30 seconds ahead of her former companions while the peloton was 2:13 minutes behind. As the chase group fell apart on the climb, Edwards and Meijering quickly bridged to Rijnbeek, then left her behind while Squiban rode away from Van Anrooij and Dygert and came back to the front.

Van Anrooij and Dygert also returned to the front group halfway up the climb, but Squiban attacked soon after, and only Meijering could follow her. At the 20km mark, Squiban put in another acceleration that left Meijering behind, and she was 47 seconds ahead of the Dutchwoman at the top of the climb, 17.2km from the finish.

In the peloton, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) set the pace for much of the climb, dropping a.o. Le Court-Pienaar and white jersey Julie Bego. Only Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), Demi Vollering, Juliette Labous (both FDJ-Suez), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) could stay with Rooijakkers, making Ferrand-Prévot the virtual leader.

Vollering came to the front on the last kilometres of the climb and led the group across the pass 1:30 minutes behind Squiban. Edwards and Van Anrooij were still in between, eventually passing Meijering on the descent. Le Court-Pienaar was 33 seconds behind the group of GC favourites at the top.

Le Court-Pienaar and Kerbaol threw themselves into the descent to get back to the other GC contenders while Ghekiere, having been in the breakaway all day, waited for Gigante at the top to guide the minuscule Australian climber down the descent.

Squiban was far ahead and could celebrate another stage victory while Kerbaol and Le Court-Pienaar returned to the group of favourites and Gigante managed to stay in touch. On the last four kilometres, Kerbaol went all-in, managed to bridge to Edwards and Van Anrooij, and outsprinted Edwards to take second place, gaining nine seconds plus six bonus seconds on the other GC contenders.

Gigante and Rooijakkers lost 11 seconds in the final kilometres but are among the top favourites to win stage 8 to the Col de la Madeleine. Nienke Vinke (Picnic PostNL), 20th overall, took the white jersey from Bego.

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