France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot powered to victory on the mountainous stage eight of the Tour de France Femmes, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider dropping her rivals before the Col de la Madeleine summit to claim the yellow jersey on the eve of the finale.
The 33-year-old attacked seven kilometres from the summit to overtake Lidl-Trek’s Niamh Fisher-Black and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix–Deceuninck) before riding clear.
She crossed the line one minute 45 seconds ahead of Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance–Soudal), with Fisher-Black in third two minutes 15 seconds behind.
Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) was best of the Irish on Saturday, home in 64th, just over 31 minutes behind the stage winner, with Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) 113th and Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal) 125th. The trio now sit 94th, 100th and 114th in the general classification standings respectively.
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It was the third straight stage victory for France which capped an aggressive display from Ferrand-Prevot, who started the day 26 seconds off the GC leader Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal).
Her win put her in the overall lead, with Gigante (two minutes 37 seconds adrift) the only GC favourite still able to challenge her on the final 124.1km mountain ride from Praz-sur-Arly to Chatel.
Le Court crashed on the descent from the Col du Frene with 63km remaining, briefly trailing the peloton by about a minute before resuming her chase.
She rejoined but the effort and the relentless climbing cost her dearly in the yellow jersey race.
Ferrand-Prevot, Olympic gold medallist in cross-country mountain biking in Paris, will take her commanding lead into Sunday’s final stage, aiming to become the first Frenchwoman to win the Tour de France Femmes.
