16/08/2024

History at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes! Cedrine Kerbaol gives France first ever stage winner on stage 6

In a thrilling finale to stage 6 at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, history was made as Cedrine Kerbaol secured the first ever French stage winner in the premier women's stage race.

After the much-discussed conclusion to stage 5, Team SD Worx - Protime were proactive relatively early on stage 6. With the day all about a 2nd and 3rd category climb in the final 30km, the team sent both Niamh Fisher-Black and Christine Majerus in the breakaway.

Lance Armstrong blasts SD Worx: "To see a yellow jersey riding alone is totally unacceptable"

In total, 11 riders got themselves into the day's break, including more notable names such as Fem van Empel, Marianne Vos, Soraya Paladin, Sheyla Gutierrez, Grace Brown, Ellen van Dijk and Audrey Cordon-Ragot among others.

With the peloton just over a minute behind, the attacks began in earnest in the breakaway on the penultimate climb, with Brown and Fisher-Black proving the strongest of the lead group and summiting the first of the two climbs together at the front of the race.

Despite the efforts of the leaders however, the pace of the Maillot Jaune group was relentless and with just under 16km to go, things were all back together again. As the attacks then started again, the duo of Cedrine Kerbaol and Pauliena Roojakkers moved clear over the top of the 3rd category climb and begun the 13km descent with a narrow advantage over the peloton.

On the technical and tricky descent however, Kerbaol began to pull away from Roojakkers, making the fans dream of a first ever French stage winner at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Into the final 5km, Kerbaol had stretched her lead to over 30 seconds from the chasing bunch.

More than just the stage win though, the potential Maillot Jaune was on the line, with Kerbaol starting the day just 47 seconds behind Katarzyna Niewiadoma. With a final little kicker up to the line however, it wasn't a done deal yet. As the Frenchwoman started the last rise, her lead was still over 30 seconds though and that proved more than enough as Vos took second ahead of Liane Lippert around 23 seconds down.