Vos claims first stage of womens Tour de France

• AP, PLUMELEC, France

Cycling great Marianne Vos won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de France with a brilliant late attack on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Dutchwoman overtook her Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot approaching the line, and then held off Mauritian rider Kim Le Court in the closing meters of a grueling uphill finish.

Ferrand-Prevot looked set to win the stage, but the Frenchwoman attacked too early from 600m and could not withstand the late surge from Vos, who punched the air with her left fist as she crossed the line.

Moments later, Vos hugged an exhausted-looking Ferrand-Prevot, the Paris-Roubaix winner.

“I didn’t know if Pauline was still hanging in the finish, but in the end I sprinted a bit with Kim,” Vos said, praising her teammate’s effort. “I’m really grateful to the team and to Pauline.”

The hilly 78.8km route from Vannes to Plumelec in Brittany, France, featured two small climbs and was completed in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 3 seconds by Vos — a multiple world champion, a former Olympic road race champion and a silver medalist at last year’s Paris Games.

Former Olympic time-trial silver medalist Marlen Reusser was one of 10 riders to crash some 30km from the end. She continued for a while, but was clearly struggling and had to abandon the stage.

The second stage from the port city of Brest to Quimper yesterday stayed in Brittany and was to be slightly more hilly and longer at 110.4km.

The nine-stage race, which ends on Sunday, began a day before the end of the men’s Tour, set to be won for a fourth time by Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar by a comfortable margin.

The women’s race could be far closer.

Last year provided the smallest winning margin in the history of the women’s and men’s races, with Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma beating 2023 champion Demi Vollering by four seconds, and Pauliena Rooijakkers only 10 seconds off the pace in third place.