Lorena Wiebes won her second consecutive stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, sprinting to victory on stage 2 in Geneva to tighten her grip on the race leader's yellow jersey. The SD Worx-Protime sprinter beat Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the Quai du Mont-Blanc, adding to her opening-stage success in Lausanne a day earlier. It was her seventh career stage win at the race, the most by any rider since the Tour de France Femmes joined the WorldTour calendar in 2022, and her first in the yellow jersey.
The 147.9km stage from Aigle, home of cycling's world governing body UCI, to the Swiss lakeside city featured five classified climbs but was always expected to finish in a bunch sprint. Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) counterattacked with 40km to go after the day's early break had been caught, building a lead of up to 1:12. SD Worx-Protime were left to chase on their own and had to commit their entire team to closing the gap. Markus still held a 25-second advantage with 5km remaining and was 12 seconds clear when Lotte Kopecky swung off at the 2km mark, leaving Wiebes to surf the trains of the other teams as they took over the chase. The solo leader was caught 450 metres from the finish, and after Liv AlUla Jayco led the peloton onto the 300m finishing straight, Wiebes launched a long sprint to win by several bike lengths.
“Winning in yellow makes it special, for sure, but also because, again, our team SD Worx-Protime worked really hard for it. The girls were chasing full, full gas in the final to bring back Riejanne Markus. Then it’s even more beautiful to finish it off in the yellow,” Wiebes said. “Riejanne stayed ahead a long time, and at one point we decided to also put Lotte in the chase because we needed everyone. Then I knew that it was up to me to find my own way. I found some good wheels, I could come out with around 200 metres to go, and then I just launched my sprint,” she added. “I think every sprint is exciting. If you make a small mistake, the sprint is over, and you cannot finish it off for the team. For me, it’s exciting every time and a bit nervous sometimes to sprint,”