Mavi Garcia, 41, lands stunning solo win on Stage 2 at Tour de France Femmes as Mauritius' Kimberley Le Court grabs yellow
Updated 01/08/2025 at 18:05 GMT+1
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Fortune favours the age. At 41, and the oldest rider in the peloton, Mavi Garcia claimed the biggest win of her career with a stunning solo victory on Stage 2 at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Garcia attacked with 11km remaining and clung on as the pursuers left it too late. Meanwhile, Mauritius' Kimberley Le Court took the yellow jersey from Marianne Vos on a historic day for her nation.
Stage 2 highlights: Garcia makes history with stunning win, Le Court grabs yellow
Video credit: TNT Sports
At 41 years old, Mavi Garcia defied time and a stacked chase group to seal a famous solo win on Stage 2 at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, while Kimberley Le Court made history for Mauritius by taking the yellow jersey, the first African woman to do so.
Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) launched her move with 11km remaining and looked certain to be caught on the final climb, with both GC contenders and sprint stars hunting her down. But a moment of hesitation behind allowed the veteran Spaniard to cling on for the biggest win of her career.
Behind her, Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) sprinted to third - enough to dethrone Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) from the overall lead on countback.
It was Le Court’s second top-three finish in as many days, with Stage 1 seeing her push Vos to react after she threatened the Dutchwoman's team-mate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot's solo lead. That second place behind Vos proved pivotal as Le Court took over at the top of the general classification.
Multiple attacks were previously attempted by key names, including defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Ferrand-Prevot, but Garcia was the only rider to make hers stick.
Garcia became the first Spanish winner of a Tour de France Femmes stage and the oldest stage winner in the revamped version of the race.
Liv AlUla Jayco had a strong presence throughout the stage, with Silke Smulders making her mark in a breakaway, which included her gaining maximum Queen of the Mountains points on the first climb. Their first stage win at the Tour de France Femmes was a fitting end to an impressive day in the saddle from their riders.
Vos will swap yellow for green on Stage 3, having retained her first place in the points classification ahead of Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), who left her sprint too late on Sunday and could only finish second.
The polka dot jersey was hotly contested, but Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), who was involved in the breakaway with Smulders, showed her climbing strength as she reached the summit first on two out of four of the climbs.
The first breakaway of the stage was formed when Stage 1's most combative rider, Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL), and French rider Aude Biannic (Movistar), who gave birth to her son just eight months prior, escaped the peloton with just over 100km left of the stage.
The two reached the intermediate sprint point still ahead, Koch taking maximum points as the two crossed the line with very little competition as they went through the motions to try and keep their lead.
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41 and flying: Garcia rolls back the years with epic Tour de France Femmes win
Video credit: TNT Sports
While the top two places in the intermediate sprint went relatively uncontested, Dutch powerhouses Vos and Wiebes turned up the gas to sprint for the third and fourth places from the peloton.
Wiebes just pipped the yellow jersey wearer to the 17 points, and Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels) swept up the last 13 points from the bunch behind.
From that moment on, the intensity escalated as the first categorised climb approached, and the gap to the two leaders continued to drop. Smulders was the one to ignite the attack that closed the gap, and with her went Queen of the Mountains jersey wearer Chabbey as the Menez Querlerc’h incline increased.
Smulders charged on to reach the summit first, and looked strong on the Cat. 3 climb as she took maximum points ahead of Chabbey. The opening climb provided some fireworks, dividing the peloton into two as Smulders and Chabbey began to work up a lead.
Their lead grew - as did their numbers, as Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) was able to successfully bridge the gap to create a lead trio. Smulders and Chabbey were the protagonists again at the summit of the second climb, Cote de Locronan, but this time it was advantage Chabbey as the Swiss rider won the sprint to the top.
The second climb did some damage to the peloton again, who were splintered into multiple groups. Rijnbeek was also dropped by the leaders following their pursuit of the polka dot points.
Chabbey and Smulders were joined by French rider Maeva Squiban (UAE ADQ) on the first assault of Cote du Chemin de Troheir, but they managed to keep the peloton at bay to be able to contest the QoM points between each other.
In another sprint between the Swiss and Dutch riders, it was Chabbey who had the slight edge again, as she also did with the sprint to the bonus seconds which followed.
Niewiadoma-Phinney made a move with just over 20km remaining, and with her went Ferrand-Prevot, but they weren’t able to stay ahead of the peloton for long. The next attack, however, did have more of an impact, with Rejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) able to successfully bridge the gap to join the front three.
The catch of the front four was made by the peloton to deny a breakaway victory from that group with 12km remaining, but there was still time left for a race-winning move.
Garcia took her opportunity 10km from the finish as she smoothly made her way out of the bunch from the left-hand side.
The Liv AlUla Jayco rider managed to work up a lead of around 20 seconds during her 10km conquest, but as the kilometres ticked by, so reduced the gap to those behind.
Many riders tried but failed to reach Garcia, including 2023 winner Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and her former team-mate Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), who made somewhat of a surprise return to the front after she had dropped back on the ascent of the final climb.
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Highlights: Vos takes victory in Stage 1 of Tour de France Femmes
Video credit: TNT Sports
The five-time Spanish national champion crossed under the flamme rouge just 10 seconds to the good, but pushed herself hard to make it to the line with three seconds to spare before Wiebes closed in the sprint, followed by history-making Le Court.
She covered her face in elation as she crossed the line for an outstanding victory, the culmination of many a tenacious day on the bike in her 10-year career to date.
Movistar’s Liane Lippert finished fourth, followed by Vos and Niewiadoma-Phinney. Vollering and Ferrand-Prevot finished in seventh and eighth, respectively, before the top 10 was rounded off by Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx).
Monday’s Stage 3 is the first flat day of this year’s Tour de France Femmes, and the sprinters will no doubt be looking to make their mark on the 163.5 km stage from La Gacilly to Angers.
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