Tour de France Femmes: Annemiek van Vleuten wins stage seven to take lead on penultimate day

Annemiek van Vleuten took the lead in the inaugural Tour de France Femmes with a dominant ride on stage seven.

Movistar rider Van Vleuten, who was eighth heading into the penultimate stage, went clear to beat Demi Vollering by three minutes 26 seconds, with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig third.

That means the Dutch rider will take a lead of three minutes 14 seconds over Vollering into Sunday’s final stage.

Previous leader Marianne Vos finished more than 24 minutes after Van Vleuten.

Lorena Wiebes, who won stages one and five, abandoned early on.

The Dutch rider had been cleared to start the stage despite injuries sustained in a crash during stage six but left the race along with Italian Letizia Borghesi.

Van Vleuten and Vollering made a break with about 85km to go in the mountainous stage to Le Markstein Fellering, and the former made her decisive move with 62km left.

Van Vleuten had been unable to eat for two days earlier this week because of illness – and said that had made the victory even sweeter.

“It has been such a rollercoaster after being sick,” the 39-year-old told Eurosport. “So to win like this is unbelievable.

“I had to try because I had lost some time. My style is always attacking, not to wait. I wanted to make the big time gaps which meant going on the first climb.”

The race concludes with Sunday’s 123.5km route from Lure to La Super Planche des Belles Filles.