A flat stage, yes, but full of ups and downs, with three fourth-category climbs and one third-class climb, the Mutigny level —a leg-breaking ramp at 12.2%—, in the final section of the route.
Enough so that, at the debut of Marianne Vos as the leader of the race, the Danish champion, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, eternal smile, rose in Épernay as the strongest of the favorites.
The FDJ runner, cut off yesterday by the fans, prevailed in the last meters, diving upwards, over a small team with Vos, Niewiadoma and Moolman, meters ahead of the rest of the applicants, where Mavi García, with great sensations, she clenched her teeth to finish seventh, six seconds behind the winner.
Wiping his tears and with a broken voice, Ludwig dedicated the victory to his team, the FDJ, weighed down after the abandonment of Marta Cavalli, his great asset for the general classification, on Monday: “This is incredible.
To win like this, after the shitty day we had yesterday... I have no words”.
On the first day reserved for the big names, 134 kilometers between Reims and Épernay, the favorites set the pace and reduced the peloton to a dozen runners on the very tough Mutigny ramp.
There, in the group of the best, the Dutch Demi Vollering, one of the contenders for the final victory, crashed on the way to the finish line, but she was able to reconnect with the front end shortly after.
After the nerves, incessant in an electric Tour, the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini took three extra seconds for the general classification in the bonus slope located four kilometers from the finish line.
There, however, the news was different.
Annemiek Van Vleuten, eternal number one, relented and, twisting on the bike, always seated, certified her earthly condition before the rest of the favorites.
She managed, yes, to close the gap with her head before the last kilometer, but she did not spend her suffering in vain: she crossed the finish line 20 seconds behind Ludwig.
Result, according to her, of a stomach virus that prevents her from eating and drinking during the stage.
Ahead, Vos, Niewiadioma, Moolman, Persico and Longo Borghini came within two seconds of Ludwig, García six and Vollering, recovered from his fall, eight.
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Hard stage, the third of the Tour, accentuated even more by the scramble this Monday in Provins, where Marta Cavalli, Ludwig's partner, second in the Giro, had to say goodbye to the race after the violent run over by the Australian Nicole Frain.
The oceanic champion apologized on her Instagram account, while blocking the opinions of third parties.
“I am receiving a lot of unacceptable feedback,” she said in a statement.
After the crash, Cavalli got on the bike, not without wincing, but was stopped by her own team, the FDJ-Suez Futuroscope.
The first medical tests carried out after the blow determined that the Lombard runner suffered head and leg injuries, but no serious injuries.
After the scare, sources from the French squad have confirmed to EL PAÍS on Tuesday that the Italian is stable, supporting her teammates in the team car, and she will soon return to Italy to recover.
“We will fight for Marta”, the team stated yesterday.
Said and done.
After the rough start of the Tour, Ludwig has made up for the abandonment of his partner before Wednesday's main course, a 127-kilometre stage between Troyes and Bar-sur-Aube, with up to four sections on dirt roads, dust and stones in the French champagne countryside.
A day feared by the favorites.
"It gives me a little respect," Mavi García admits to EL PAÍS.
And she adds: “It will be a day in which luck will be needed to avoid punctures and falls”.
At the moment, the Dutch Marianne Vos maintains the lead of the race, 16 seconds ahead of Silvia Persico and Katarzyna Niewiadioma, who are equal in time.
After the first big day, Mavi García is sixth in the general classification, 55 seconds behind Vos.
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