Emma Norsgaard Bjerg (formerly Norsgaard Jörgensen) secured victory on Friday (07/28/2023) on the bumpy 6th stage of the Tour de France Femmes over 122.1 kilometers from Albi to Blagnac. A good kilometer from the finish, the peloton fell. A penalty against co-favorite Demi Vollering caused a stir.
“It was a really difficult start to this year,” said the tearful winner at the finish line, “that’s my greatest success.” It was the second day’s success for the Movistar team, for which the German Liane Lippert had already won a stage.
The Pole Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka broke away early on the overall turbulent stage over four mountains of the fourth category. Later Norsgaard Bjerg (Movistar) and Sandra Alonso Dominguez (Ceratizit-WNT) caught up. The three shared the mountain points, none of this had any effect on the mountain jersey. Yara Kastelijn remains the leader in the polka dot jersey.
Kopecky remains the best in the sprint
In the only sprint classification, the overall leader collected more points: Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) prevailed against Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-Quick-Step), who is wearing the green jersey of the best sprinter in her place. Kopecky thus extended her lead in the overall standings and goes into the probably decisive section on the Pyrenean giant Col du Tourmalet with a 53 second lead over Ashleigh Moolman (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step) from South Africa.
As the best German, Lippert crossed the finish line at the same time as Kopecky in 17th place. In the overall classification, the winner of the second stage remained in eighth place, 1:29 minutes behind Kopecky. Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon SRAM) finished 50th (+0:35 seconds behind) after her surprise success the day before and defended her ninth place (+1:42) in the ranking.
Fall slows down the pursuers
In the last ten kilometers, the peloton, with overall leader Kopecky, put pressure on the three breakaways. Alonso had to give up four kilometers before the stage finish, Skalniak-Sojka and Norsgaard Bjerg were still dreaming of the day’s success. But the field prepared for the final sprint. But the tracking work was hampered by a fall in the peloton about one and a half kilometers from the finish.
The fall played into Norsgaard Bjerg’s hands – she shook off the Pole and prevailed just ahead of the top sprinters Charlotte Kool (DSM) and Kopecky.
Penalties against fellow favorite Vollering and her team
Before the sixth stage, the World Cycling Federation had excluded the Dutch sports director Danny Stam from the Tour de France Femmes because of dangerous driving with the team car. In addition, the UCI imposed a fine of 500 Swiss francs on the 51-year-old, who works for Team SD Worx, and a time penalty of 20 seconds on Vollering.
According to the umbrella organization, available TV recordings during the 5th stage on Thursday showed “the particular danger of overtaking other cars and drivers by Mr. Stam,” according to a statement published on Friday. He was also noticed by “inappropriate comments”. He and his top driver were upset by a 20-second time penalty, which they had to endure because they had driven back into the field after a defect in the slipstream of the team vehicle.
Stage 7: King’s stage on the Col du Tourmalet
On Saturday, the king’s stage takes the riders over 90 km from Lannemezan to the Col du Tourmalet at an altitude of 2,110 m.
The second edition of the women’s tour, which was launched again last year, ends after eight stages with an individual time trial on Sunday in Pau.