Ladies Thalita de Jong sprints to top 10 spot again in Tour de France Femmes

Stage 6 from Remiremont to Morteau served five climbs to the riders. 18 riders made it into the breakaway of the day. Towards the Côte des Fins the break had been thinned out already, Niamh Fisher-Black, Grace Brown and Justine Ghekiere  were the last ones standing. But the pace in the bunch was too high for the break to make it to the finish, on the Côte des Fins the race could start all over again.

Cédrine Kerbaol (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling Team) chose the attack in a moment of hesitation, Pauliena Rooijakkers followed her but in the descent of the Côte des Fins the Dutch rider got dropped. Kerbaol managed to take the win, after a solo. Thalita de Jong sprinted to an 8th spot in the chasing elite group.

“I’m a bit disappointed of the sprint, as I had to break to pass Juliette Labous. I thought she would still go, but that wasn’t the case and the rest was gone of course. But I’m really proud of course with another top 10 spot. I was focused to stay with the GC riders on the climbs, and that worked well. It was nice to have a good feeling on the longer climbs, towards the last two stages. I am confident, but still I take it day by day for the GC.”

De Jong rode a very successful season so far. “Everything started this winter, where I could finish a very good preparation. Then I rode a nice classics part and also the Vuelta went really well. After that I chose some races and the Baloise Ladies Tour was good to see where I still had some work. Then I had a good individual training camp in the Vosges. It feels great that everything is going so well now.”

Mieke Docx was the last rider to finish today’s stage, luckily within time limit. Sports Director Grace Verbeke spoke about this other side of the story: “Mieke had a tough day, but she made it. She had the support of the second race car behind her, that’s super important when some riders drop to still have bottles and someone keeping you informed about the time limit. This is also an experience, not every rider gets the chance to ride on this level and it makes you stronger. Now it’s fighting and not giving up to become stronger.”

Picture: Brecht Steenhouwer