Franziska Koch in the break, Juliette Labous attacks on home roads at Tour de France Femmes

The Tour de France Femmes continued its journey southwards on Friday, travelling through Juliette Labous’ home region with a hilly 160 kilometres from Remiremont to Morteau on the menu. There was a sense in the bunch that it could have been a good day for the breakaway to potentially go on to the fight for the stage win so as a result the attacks flew from the flag drop and continued for almost 70 kilometres. Eventually the elastic snapped and a group of 18 forged clear with Franziska Koch riding strongly to make the move for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.

Those out front worked well together but the peloton kept them on a tight leash, only allowing the gap to grow to a maximum of two minutes, and coming onto the main climbs in the final 30 kilometres the gap was under one minute. Attacks in the peloton and the break followed, with Koch eventually returning to the bunch and trio remaining out front from the original break. However, on the final climb they were reeled back in when Labous put in multiple attacks herself but she was unable to break free from the shackles of the GC group. The stage winning move from Kerbaol went just over the top of the climb and on the start of the descent, where she built up enough of an advantage to hold on. Back in the GC group, Labous fought as hard as she could to the line, taking tenth place on the day and holding onto fifth overall on GC for the team as the race heads into the final weekend.

Labous said: “It was a special day with a lot of people there already from before the start. Then close to the final there were really a lot of fans, but the whole day there were a lot of people on the side of the road with signs and cheering me one which was special. Tactic wise we had Franzi in the break which was really good and she could support me in the final. The bunch was still pretty big so my attack wasn’t really successful but I had to try. It also gives me confidence for the next days because I felt quite good and looking back there were some girls suffering when I attacked, which was nice to see. In the end we didn’t ride for the win but we did quite good and I am looking forward to the weekend.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Kelvin Dekker continued: “We had a good situation with Franziska out front but then sadly Vos jumped across to the break and we weren’t sharp enough at the moment to close it down, and then from there it was out of our hands in the battle for green, especially with Vos getting second at the finish today. From a GC perspective, I think it was really nice to have Franzi there out front to help later, and the rest of the team looked after Juliette and kept her in position before the climbs in the final. She was really motivated on her home roads to go for it so we attacked on the bottom of the last climb, in the hope of making something happen and getting a group clear or causing some splits. She also made the attack past her own corner with her fan club there so that was really motivating and a nice moment for her. It was promising but in the end there were no real time gaps behind Kerbaol who finished ahead. Juliette felt really good so we are really positive as we head into the weekend and the battle for the podium and with us no longer holding onto the green jersey, we will give our full focus to that GC for the coming days.”