17/08/2024

Inspired by the polka-dots Belgian Justine Ghekiere takes stage 7 summit win at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes

On the stage 7 mountain top finish at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, it was quite aptly the Queen of the Mountains Justine Ghekiere who prevailed with a brilliant stage win.

The penultimate stage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, six riders got themselves up the road and into the day's breakaway. Among them, both the Green Jersey Marianne Vos and the Queen of the Mountains Justine Ghekiere. Heading into the final 30km, they still held an advantage of over four minutes from the peloton as well.

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With the stage finishing atop Grand Bornand - Montée de Chinaillon and being all uphill for the last 20km however, the breakaway were by no means certain of fighting it out amongst themselves for the stage win. With Marianne Vos having started the day just 1:53 down though, and the break still 3:50 clear in the final 17km, was the legendary Dutchwoman beginning to dream of the Maillot Jaune?

As the climbing began, Ghekiere quickly proved herself the strongest of the breakaway, building both an advantage on the road and extending her lead in the Queen of the Mountains classification. As she summitted the first of the two climbs towards the line, Ghekiere was a minute clear of Vos and Sara Martin, with the peloton still 2:30 down the road.

With 7km left for the leader however, Demi Vollering launched the first testing move from the GC group, although, the Dutchwoman couldn't distance Katarzyna Niewiadoma and soon pulled back her efforts as a result. The stop start nature of the racing behind was helping the lone leader though, and as Ghekiere entered the final 5km, she was still 2:13 clear of the Maillot Jaune.

With 2.5km to go Vos and Martin were swept up, with Niewiadoma leading the dwindling GC group herself, as Vollering and Puck Pieterse glued themselves to the back wheel of the Maillot Jaune. Ghekiere was still looking strong though, 1:30 clear into the final 2km and there was no catching her for the stage win as Niewiadoma and Vollering cancelled each other out.