Belgian Kopecky, first yellow jersey of the women’s tour

Everything in Clermont-Ferrand revolves around the Puy de Dôme, like a road that opens up Women’s tour On a sunny Sunday. Even the local newspaper called the mountainThe first stage exited its doors after the live televised countdown. In the pages of the local newspaper you can read an interview with former cyclist Marion Ross, test director, in which she says she hopes the race will be a hundred years old, something you will never see except for a genetic miracle.

Although who knows what could happen in a century. You can’t even guess what will happen in half an hour. Overwhelmed by her own conviction and with a master’s degree in molecular biology, happy, excited to belong to the club of privileged women competing in a great race, Mireya Benito told TV she’d fulfill a dream when she made it past the match, but then it was shattered and she gave that dream a try. muffled her. The Catalan runner became the first casualty of the Tour and had to be taken to hospital with a cervical collar on her neck, although she was conscious, according to her team.

Like Ross, like Benito, Lotte Kopecky, in her elegant Belgian champion shirt, also spoke before the stage, like many others, but discreetly what she had in mind. “I will not reveal our strategy.” State secret, although the plan is usually faster than others, has stronger legs.

and after a stage dominated by the peloton, with minimal attempts at rebellion, without any hope of advancing; With Mireya Benito in hospital and Marion Ross in red Skoda No. 1, attention to every detail, Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche winner Kopecky took advantage of the final meters of the first stage’s lone climb ten kilometers from the finish and, having bounced her team back, advanced to the left of the peloton, surprising no one with a sharp attack. There was Mavi Garcia, who did a trick but didn’t come up with anything. The Belgian, several times world champion, took advantage of the opportunity, not understanding anyone behind him and wearing yellow. His partner Lorena Wipes, the first to arrive on the set, raised her arms, but she wasn’t wrong. He only celebrated Kopecky’s success in front of a group in which the favorites made it to the final victory, including Demi Volleroing and Annemick Van Vleuten, who ran throughout the stage, well protected by his Movistar teammates. Spaniard Santisteban and Garcia also featured in the header.

The second stage, between Clermont-Ferrand and Mauriac, which has a distance of 151.7 kilometers, will have a more solid layout with six record climbs, the last of which, in Trebiac, of the third category, the finish line is fixed.

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