Lorena Wiebes won stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday, powering to victory at the top of the Côte Saint-François in Lausanne to claim the first yellow jersey of the 2026 race.
The SD Worx-Protime sprinter came from behind in a reduced, crash-marred bunch sprint, with Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) taking second and Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) third after the peloton split on the 2.6km finishing climb.
The 138km stage, which started and finished in Lausanne, featured three third-category climbs and an uphill finale that the puncheurs and overall contenders hoped would shake off the fastest sprinter in the world. They never managed it.
A four-rider breakaway — Maud Rijnbeek, Idoia Eraso, Nikola Nosková and Océane Mahé — went clear after 9km and built a lead of more than four minutes, with Mahé taking maximum points on the climbs to move into the polka-dot jersey. Nosková pushed on solo with around 40km remaining, but Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) bridged across to the chasers, and the move was finally shut down on the outskirts of Lausanne with 6km to go.
Le Court-Pienaar accelerated on the steepest section of the Côte Saint-François, and Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) then whittled the group down to nine. Vollering attacked with 750m to go, with only Le Court-Pienaar and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L'IMAD) able to follow. Wiebes rode around Cédrine Kerbaol to reach the front trio, then timed her jump perfectly: with 400m to go Kerbaol began the lead-out for teammate Noemi Rüegg, and at the 200m mark Wiebes accelerated down the left-hand side of the road to open a decisive gap.
"I almost cannot believe it. The team, SD Worx-Protime, they worked super hard today. Anna [van der Breggen] still came to the front with 1km to go, and then Demi attacked. I was like, 'I need to follow'. It was a long sprint, but I'm super happy with this," Wiebes said.
The stage was not without drama. A crash with 80km to go brought down three riders each from Picnic PostNL and Fenix-Premier Tech, while Laura Tomasi (Uno-X Mobility) went through a concussion protocol but later abandoned. Overall contender Marlen Reusser was also caught up in the chaos when Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) overshot a corner and Reusser somersaulted over her; the Swiss rider recovered and finished 10th on the stage.
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