The SD Worx-Protime team set the tone for the curtain raiser of the women’s Tour de France on Sunday, while the Belgian Lotte Kopecky made the difference in the main difficulty of the day to win solo with a lead of forty seconds over the group of favorites.
Clara Emond (Arkéa) was the best ranked of the five Quebecers registered when she was the 35th to reach the finish in Clermont-Ferrand.
The 26-year-old cyclist has gone through the full gamut of emotions over the past few days. First retained in the team to take part in the Tour, she was excluded from it to then be reinstated on the eve of the race, replacing her teammate Megan Armitage who suffered a concussion in training.
“I’m still happy with my day and it’s been a pretty emotional week. I wasn’t too ready mentally, but in the end, maybe that’s a good thing, because I arrived without pressure. It took me a little while to get into the race, but once it started rolling, it unlocked,” Emond explained, in an interview with Sportcom, after this initial 124 kilometer stage.
The cyclist was unable to jump on the right train when the Belgian champion went solo after her teammates forced the pace.
“The peloton was already falling apart a little before and unfortunately, when Kopecky gave his big shot, I was badly positioned behind. […] Everyone was waiting for this one bump in the race and it happened at that moment. »
Olivia Baril’s UAE Team ADQ team was also trapped in the Côte de Durtol, 1.7 kilometers long at an average gradient of 7.2%.
“We had a really bad race. We got there too late to get into position and then it was too difficult to get back up once the group had left. We had Erica [Magnaldi] in the first peloton, but her role would have been to wait for Silvia [Persoco] for example. It’s a very bad race,” dropped the Abitibienne, 48th (2 minutes) on Sunday.
Simone Boilard (St-Michel–Mavic–Auber93), 44th, finished in this same group. Magdeleine Vallières-Mill (EF Education–TIBCO-SVB) and Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin (Cofidis) finished 112th (7 minutes 17 seconds) and 136th (11 minutes 37 seconds).
Clara Emond will be alert at Monday’s stage where she believes she could land a good result.
“It will be really interesting with repeat bumps and that will be good for me. There is the long stage on day 4 which climbs a lot and above all, that of the Tourmalet [Saturday], which will be the stage that I will aim for the most. »