Cecilie finishes 3rd at the finish line of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France Women with Zwift
A particularly tough Alsatian stage of 127.1 kilometres awaited the Tour de France Women peloton today, between Sélestat and Le Markstein.
It was more than 80 kilometres from the finish and at the foot of the first difficulty of the day, the Petit Ballon, that Annemiek van Vleuten placed the decisive attack of the day, accompanied by Demi Vollering. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Evita Muzic and Grace Brown then chased this leading group, as well as Elisa Longo Borghini, 4th in the general classification before the start, who had taken her place.
The great collective work done by our riders throughout this stage, and more specifically on the most difficult slopes of the Col du Platzerwasel and the Grand Ballon, is rewarded by a collective progression in the general classification. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who finished in 3rd place in the stage after having settled the sprint of her group, finished 5th overall and gained 4 places. Evita Muzic, also to her advantage today, came in 9th position at the Markstein and joined the Top 10 overall.
The efforts of Grace Brown, Vittoria Guazzini and Marie Le Net are also to be commended and allow the FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope team to place themselves in 2nd position in the team ranking.
Evita on today’s stage: “I was going full throttle from start to finish. It went full throttle until the first boulder for the breakaway to go, and everyone wanted to be in it so we had to position ourselves. As soon as it climbed, Annemiek went all the way, so it was very, very hard. But behind we were well represented, we were 3 of the team, we tried to ride with Grace to maintain the We tried our best, but we were taking up time. After there was the second climb and then in the valley, we all got along well, we gave our maximum. I gave my last relay at the foot of the pass, I knew I was going all the way and then I was going to let go. Cecilie then finished the job. I think we had a good team race, in any case, we didn’t have anything to regret, there is still one stage left tomorrow to give the maximum.”