Best French luck on the Tour de France, Juliette Labous had a very difficult first day around Clermont-Ferrand.
Fourth in the Tour de France last year, second this year in the Giro, Juliette Labous is one of the candidates for a place on the podium of the Tour de France Women, behind the two immense favorites, Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering.
Unfortunately for the Frenchwoman, the race started badly for her. On Sunday, during the 1st stage, she “exploded” in the Côte de Durtol (1.7 km at 7.1%), the main difficulty of the day. As a result, she conceded 43 seconds to her main opponents. It’s a gap that can be made up for by the finish in the Pyrenees next Sunday, but the signal sent is quite bad. The proof, the Franc-Comtois burst into tears after crossing the finish line in Clermont-Ferrand.
Juliette Labous in tears at the finish of the first stage in Clermont-Ferrand. The French loses 1’26 “on the winner of the day. She is consoled by her teammates #TDFF2023 pic.twitter.com/UQe4wwqt2D
– France Blue Country of Auvergne (@FBAuvergne) July 23, 2023
According to DirectVelo, the leader of Team dsm-firmenich confided that she had undoubtedly had a “heat stroke” on the Auvergne roads, above all before mentioning “huge disappointment”. However, she still has seven days of racing to move up the general classification (she is currently 38th), or why not aim for a stage victory. The only Frenchwoman to have accompanied the group of favorites on Sunday is Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez).