Norway’s Sigrid Haugset won stage three of the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift with a remarkable solo breakaway.
Haugset of Uno X Mobility held off the challenge of Belgium’s two-time world champion Lotte Kopecky, with the SD Worx-Protime rider crossing the line one minute 24 seconds down after a gruelling 156.5km stage from Geneva in Switzerland, as the race headed into France from its Grand Depart in Lausanne.
Haugset, 27, now leads by two minute and two seconds overall from AG Insurance-Soudal’s Kim le Court of Mauritius, after previous yellow jersey wearer Lorena Wiebes was dropped, as expected, with the world’s best sprinter distanced over the early climbs.
On a hot day in the Jura mountains, on a stage which began with a steep category one ascent up the Col de la Faucille, the peloton soon began to shed riders.
Unfancied for the win and having only ever tasted victory at the Norwegian national championships in June, Haugset launched from an original breakaway group with 113km to go in-between the second climb and the category two Col de la Savine and established a healthy lead.
The far more decorated former world champion Kopecky went off in pursuit of Haugset as the stage parcours began to even out on its way to Poligny.
Kopecky, 30, made it to within about 15 seconds of Haugset, but as the crosswinds picked up across the harvested fields of Arbois, the three-time Tour of Flanders winner lost 30 seconds and eventually conceded.
In what has become a memorable summer for Norwegian sport after the football team reached the World Cup quarter-finals and Torstein Traeen wore the yellow jersey for two stages at the men’s Tour, Haugset said: “I never thought it was possible. It’s unreal.
“When I went I thought: ‘Yeah [Kopecky] will catch me – shall I drop down to her? Second is good.’
“But I kept on going and the [team service] car was amazing, pushing me on. I was thinking about all my team-mates and everyone cheering from home, and thought I had to give it all.
“I can’t believe she didn’t catch me. I was so dizzy at the end – I couldn’t lift my arms off the bike.”
Many of the favourites for the overall yellow jersey in Paris in six days’ time made it over the line two minutes 48 seconds after Kopecky in a reduced peloton which contained the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering, defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France and Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland.
Despite Haugset’s healthy lead in the general classification she is expected to fall away once the race hits the mountains, while the favourites sit within a few seconds of one another on the general classification.
