Tour de France Femmes 2022: Brilliant Marianne Vos storms to impressive Stage 2 win and takes yellow jersey

Updated 25/07/2022 at 20:44 GMT

As many may have predicted ahead of the race, Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) is into yellow having picked up an impressive Stage 2 win at the Tour de France Femmes. Having finished second 24 hours earlier, Vos was back on top of the podium after sprinting to victory, taking the jersey from Lorena Wiebes (DSM) in the process. Meanwhile, pre-face favourite Annemiek van Vleuten was off the pace.

Tour de France Femmes - Stage 2 highlights as Vos sprints to victory

Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) took her 241st career victory on Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, claiming the maillot jaune in the process.

On a savage stage blighted by crosswinds and memorable as much for the numerous crashes as for the racing action, the Dutch rider was the strongest on the punchy climb up to the finish line in Provins.

Vos followed an attack from world champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek–Segafredo) which she launched immediately after the intermediate sprint in Provins. The two were able to get away with four other riders, including Balsamo’s team-mate Elisa Longo Borghini, and they opened up a gap to the peloton who were unable to work together well enough to bring them back.

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Balsamo elected to lead out Longo Borghini, dropping her off at the foot of the final climb, and while Maike van der Duin (Le Col-Wahoo), Silvia Persico (Valcar-Travel & Service) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) fought hard, they were unable to rein in the power of the veteran Dutch woman.

The contrast between the beginning of the day and the end could not have been more stark. A breakaway of four riders went up the road early on, and accounted for all available points on the only categorised climb of the day, Femke Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenburg) taking the maximum points to tie the Queen of the Mountains before the stage, her team-mate Femke Markus, on points.

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The peloton gave the breakaway short shrift however, closing them down with just under 80km still to ride on the stage, and the threat of crosswinds discouraged further attacks as the bunch navigated their way through various small towns on their way through the rural landscape of Seine-et-Marne.

Things remained neutral for a while, but as the bunch began to close in on Provins ahead of the finishing circuit of the town, a series of several incidents within the space of just a few kilometres rocked the peloton with a number of casualties.

The first crash, just inside 30km to go, took out riders from AG-Insurance-NXTG and UAE-Team-ADQ, and just a few kilometres later another big spill saw Amanda Spratt (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) come down along with a couple of others, but it was Marta Cavalli (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) who was worst affected. She came crashing to the ground, blind-sided as Parkhotel Valkenburg’s Australian champion Nicole Frain came in at speed and took her wheels out from under her. Cavalli later withdrew from the race after riding dazed and injured to the finish line.

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In between these incidents, Van der Duin launched a solo attack, which she maintained into Provins, on the first passage of the finish line before a final circuit of 20km would decide the overall victor.

She took the maximum points available, with yellow jersey Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) winning from the bunch behind. It was here though that Balsamo chose to launch an attack, and she took her team-mate Longo Borghini with her, along with Vos, Niewiadoma and Persico.

This group linked up with Van der Duin and combined perfectly to stay away from the pursuing bunch and contest the victory. Vos grabbed victory and the yellow jersey while Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma gained valuable seconds over their GC rivals, in a day which saw FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope lose a valuable rider in Cavalli, and a significant amount of time on GC for Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig who was caught up in yet another incident in the closing stages.