Wiebes wins to claim first yellow jersey at Tour de France Femmes
· Yahoo Sports
Lorena Wiebes came from behind in a small leader group to win the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday and fellow Dutch top favourite Demi Vollering also made the podium in third.
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Former Milan-Sanremo winner Wiebes had enough strength at the end of a short climb in the Swiss city of Lausanne to take the yellow jersey from a group of 10 riders, after Vollering's attack with some 600m left had fizzled out.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar of Mauritius was second and Vollering was third. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of France was also in the leader group, coming eighth, behind the 2024 champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland.
A leader group of four was caught with around six kilometres left and there were also a number of crashes, including last year's fourth-place finisher Dominika Wlodarczyk of Poland in the closing stages.
The opening stage covered 137 kilometres in and around Lausanne at the start of the nine-day race which ends on August 9 in Nice. Highlights are a time trial on Tuesday and Friday's first ever finish for the women atop the iconic Mt Ventoux in the Provence.