"They should abolish those jerseys" - Visma manager finds Tour classifications rudimentary

The seventh stage of Tour de France Femmes was a strange rollercoaster. For a moment, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was virtually in a yellow jersey when provisional leader Kim Le Court was dropped. But then the pace in leading group died out in the descent and the Mauritian returned to the other GC favourites. Thus yellow stays with Le Court, much to satisfaction of Visma | Lease a Bike.

"As far as I'm concerned, they should abolish those jerseys in cycling," enraged team manager Jos van Emden told De Telegraaf. "I really don't care about them."

"I want to qualify what I just said," Van Emden continued. "Those jerseys don't matter. It's about the overall victory. As far as I'm concerned, the mountain jersey and the young rider's jersey can go in a Grand Tour. Because that means absolutely nothing. Okay, it would be nice to have the yellow jersey now, but we've already had it as a team this week (three days in yellow for Marianne Vos, ed.). So we've had our share, we've taken that extra pressure off. Thus it doesn't really bother me that much."

"The yellow jersey was a side issue today; I really wasn't thinking about it. For me, it's only about one thing: that Pauline is as good as she can be on Sunday evening when we take stock. I'm still not dreaming out loud. I'm still a realist. Tomorrow and the day after are going to be incredibly tough. I even told Marion (Bunel) in preparation: if you're fifteen or twenty minutes ahead before the weekend starts, you can still win the white jersey. There will be some really big differences. Just to clarify that jersey."

Regarding the yellow jersey, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot completely agreed with her Dutch team leader: "It would only create extra pressure. Then I would have been busy all Friday evening giving interviews and press conferences. So this is better."

Apparently, the seventh stage didn't really put her through a real test yet. "That's my poker face," said Ferrand-Prévot.

Race remains open before the intimidating Madeleine - 19 kilometers at 8%. "That's where the classification will be decided," knows the Visma leader. "I know the climb well, I've scouted it thoroughly. I've been there several times. Today I felt good, in any case."