Spanish veteran Mavi Garcia won the second stage of the women’s Tour de France on Sunday, July 27, as Mauritius’s Kim Le Court finished the day in the race leader’s yellow jersey โ a first for an African rider. The 41-year-old Garcia, of the Liv-AlUla-Jayco team, attacked with 10 km to go, and it paid off as she crossed the line three seconds ahead of the chasing peloton.
Garcia is the oldest rider in the Tour peloton, and her victory beat the former age record for a stage winner set by Annemiek Van Vleuten (39 years, 9 months, 23 days) in 2022.
“I’ve been racing for a long time and I hadn’t been having my best year, but this win really gives me a massive boost of energy,” said Garcia. “I really didn’t believe I was going to win at the end. I’ve tried many times like that and it never worked out, so I just couldn’t believe it until I was five meters from the line and I turned around and saw they wouldn’t catch me. It was only then that I knew I’d really done it. It’s been a long, long time since I had any feeling this good in my career.”
Le Court took over atop the overall standings from Marianne Vos, who won Saturday’s opening stage. The duo is tied with the exact same time at the top of the general classifications, with the Mauritian earning the yellow jersey courtesy of her combined stage finish placings over the first two days of racing.
“My team said we can take yellow today, but I could not believe it, to be honest, I think I’m still a bit shocked,” said Le Court. “The ultimate goal of the team is to fight for GC toward the end of the Tour for the overall, but our goal was also to win a stage. I’ve come close twice, but now that I have the yellow jersey on my shoulders, it’s already a massive achievement for the team and for myself.”
Dutch sprinter Charlotte Kool, who won the opening two stages of last year’s Tour, was a late withdrawal from the peloton, which now counts 152 riders. The Picnic-PostNL rider, who finished 7:40 off Vos’s pace on Saturday, fell in competition last week, and after consulting her team’s medical staff, opted to withdraw. Kool’s withdrawal was the second of the Tour following that of Swiss rider Marlen Reusser (Movistar), who had been expected to push for the podium but who was sick.
Monday’s third stage is a flat 163.5 km ride from La Gacilly to Angers. The women’s Tour features nine stages, culminating in a mountain ascent for a summit finish in the ski resort of Chatel on August 3.
