The yellow jersey favourites may regret not dropping Sarah Gigante

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Four seconds. The 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift came down to four seconds. Going into that final stage in August, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney led the general classification by 27 seconds over Puck Pieterse, with her biggest rival, and the rider she took the jersey from on stage 5, Demi Vollering, 1:15 behind.

After a gruelling day in the saddle that included 3,015 vertical meters, Niewiadoma-Phinney lost one minute and 11 seconds to Vollering. She won the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by four seconds.

The outcome of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes is one of the reasons that Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) has been actively hunting bonus seconds along the course. In doing so, she’s built up a lead of 26 seconds to second-placed Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of Visma-Lease a Bike going into the queen stage on Saturday. But what good will that do? Niewiadoma-Phinney said herself that after the Col de la Madeleine minutes will separate the favourites.

Throughout the first six stages, Le Court-Pienaar took every opportunity she could to gain the minor advantage she has now. Some call it ridiculous, and perhaps it is. Le Court-Pienaar paid for her minor accelerations on the seventh stage when she was distanced from the other favourites on the Col du Granier, a Cat 2 ascent that is nothing compared to the climbs awaiting her on Saturday.

The real missed opportunity, and one that may return to haunt the big names come Saturday evening, was not distancing Le Court-Pienaar’s teammate Sarah Gigante on the final descent into Chambéry.

“I think they’ve missed a couple of opportunities,” Gigante joked after the seventh stage. “They could have got rid of me yesterday, maybe Kim today. We’ll see what happens, but from our point of view, hopefully they live to regret it.”

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Tour de France Femmes
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women’s cycling
Sarah Gigante