Just weeks earlier than netting the largest win of her profession on stage 7, Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) wasn’t even meant to be on the Tour de France Femmes. But after being known as up as a reserve, she grabbed the chance with each arms in gorgeous solo vogue no much less, on the primary actual mountain day and, fittingly, as the present Queen of the Mountains.
The feelings burst out on the end line for Ghekiere in Chinaillon after what was beforehand a dream materialised into actuality after 4 hours and 26 minutes of all-out racing within the day’s breakaway, Ghekiere falling to the bottom and the tears flooding out as she embraced her soigneur.
Just a number of hundred metres away from Ghekiere’s triumphant journey coming to a detailed, the feelings on the AG-Insurance Soudal bus rang true all the identical – hugs throughout and cheers bellowing out. It was a win on the Tour de France Femmes, a win in one of many Tour’s most iconic symbols – the maillot à pois and a win for the underdogs.
“Winning a stage on this stunning polka jersey is actually superb and It’s only a dream. First I wasn’t purported to race right here this week and now 3 times on the rostrum is actually superb and I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine I did this,” stated Ghekiere in her post-race press convention with an enormous smile pinned ear to ear throughout her face.
“When I went within the final kilometre, then I used to be considering perhaps I can win this stage, I simply went full and gave the whole lot I had left as a result of I used to be dying a lot and successful a stage within the Tour is known as a dream.”
AG Insurance-Soudal additionally got here into the Tour with out their chief Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, however they didn’t fret, and within the face of the larger groups like SD Worx-Protime and Canyon-SRAM, they punched nicely above their weight.
“I actually assume she deserves it and she or he was really known as up late to the race so she was solely right here as a reserve and I’m so glad she got here as a result of what a day for the group. Everyone was superb,” Sarah Gigante advised Cyclingnews and Velo as she warmed down.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, critiques and knowledgeable shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
“She’s very nice and in addition very decided and a hard-working particular person, I don’t assume anybody deserves this greater than her.”
AG Insurance-Soudal are one of many newer groups within the girls’s professional peloton, working with a smaller funds and solely competing at their first 12 months within the Women’s WorldTour in 2024, nevertheless, this didn’t maintain them again.
“I all the time root for the underdogs and it’s cool as a result of we’re underdogs right here in opposition to some actually large groups and we’re really lacking our chief Ashleigh Moolman Pasio.
“So we nonetheless got here right here in fact formidable and we needed outcomes and a stage win however I imply it’s all the time going to be arduous once you’re lining up in opposition to folks like Demi Vollering. So it’s simply unbelievable.”
Ghekiere bought into the important thing transfer with simply over 80km to go, hoping merely to get factors within the Queen of the Mountains classification to defend her jersey all through the longest stage of the race – 166.4km – with 5 categorized climbs on provide.
But she wasn’t alone, as Julie Van de Velde had additionally managed to make the soar and her companies had been invaluable, incomes her excessive reward all through the group for serving to Ghekiere each prolong her lead within the QOM classification to 16 factors from Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and take the win.
“I actually wish to thank Julie [Van de Velde] particularly as a result of she was actually superb within the breakaway. She did such nice work to maintain us away and provides us a time hole of just about 5 minutes then it was my job to make it off on the climbs to take all of the factors,” stated Ghekiere.
“To have Julie van de Velde, perhaps the strongest rider in the entire peloton, completely superb teammate, within the breakaway I knew it was going to be an superior day however yeah to hold onto the stage win and win by fairly a bit is actually fairly unbelievable.”
Ghekiere and Gigante each confirmed that the plan was solely to get factors within the breakaway, anticipating the stage to presumably be taken by the GC group up the primary summit end of the 2024 race. But the Aussie additionally revealed there was some additional motivation.
“In the bus, our DS advised us, ‘in case you hold onto it until tomorrow, then we’ll get you a polka-dot bike’, in order that was positively the primary objective,” laughed Gigante earlier than pointing to the Specialized field holding the polka-dot bike prepared for Ghekiere on tomorrow’s last stage.
She’ll don the total polka-dot setup within the last queen stage to Alpe d’Huez, an honour in itself, and after shifting as much as tenth general, she has an important probability to take the QOM jersey and an important GC consequence. But it may very well be the terrain for Gigante to shine after working nicely to mark strikes and end within the GC group on stage 7.
After struggling on the flat and using off the again within the Rotterdam Grand Départ, Gigante admitted she was “Like a billion occasions happier” to be within the mountains.
“It’s no secret that I don’t really feel probably the most snug within the bunch, particularly on the flat roads. I discover it arduous to maneuver up so I really feel actually robust although and I’m glad that I may very well be a part of the race at the moment. And I’m positive tomorrow will probably be even higher, the hills are more durable.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each stage because it occurs and extra. Find out extra.