Kim Le Court Leads Tour de France Femmes After Strategic Bonus Second Grabs
AG Insurance-soudal’s Kim Le Court currently holds the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift,with her 34-second led entirely accumulated through bonus seconds. As the race enters its challenging Alpine stages,the mauritian rider’s strategy of aggressively pursuing these small time gains contrasts with the approach of her main rivals.
Defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) and 2023 winner Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) are positioned third and fourth 30 and 31 seconds behind Le Court, respectively. Both riders have collected a modest number of bonus seconds, four and six, choosing to conserve energy for the upcoming mountain stages where larger time gaps are expected.
Vollering expressed her perspective after stage 6, won by Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), where the general classification favorites finished together. “It’s not so easy to make differences on these climbs that aren’t that long,” Vollering stated. “Everyone looks good uphill and I’m looking forward to the coming days to see what we can achieve on these sorts of finishes.” she added that while she tries to grab available bonus seconds, she couldn’t match Le Court’s explosiveness and prioritized not depleting her energy reserves for the longer race ahead. “Every time you go all out for these bonus seconds you can really feel it towards the end,” she commented.
Vollering’s cautious approach is underscored by the fact that she lost last year’s Tour by a mere four seconds to Niewiadoma. A sprint victory on stage 4 of the current race, wich she did not win, could have yielded an additional four seconds, potentially altering the outcome based on countback.
Le Court, however, remains confident in her tactics. “I no the micro-accelerations can add up, but seconds at the bonus seconds can also add up,” she said. “I’d rather the seconds added up than the micro-accelerations did. I felt good today and it didn’t feel like those sprints were adding fatigue to my legs.” Le Court emphasized the importance of accumulating as many seconds as possible, acknowledging uncertainty about her performance in the high mountain stages. “For me it’s important to gain as many seconds as possible, because I don’t know how I’ll do in the big mountain stages,” she concluded.
The effectiveness of these contrasting strategies will become clear as the Tour de France Femmes progresses through its decisive mountain stages.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Poland and Team CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France and Team Visma | Lease a Bike prior to the 4th