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A good dessert and champagne —”but not too much!”— is what awaits the French rider Cédrine Kerbaol at the Ceratizit-WNT team hotel this evening.
The 23-year-old delivered France its first-ever stage win in the Tour de France Femmes on Friday, August 16, after a well-timed attack and a daring descent into Morteau on stage 6.
With half the Tour already finished, Stage 6 was the first race completely held on French soil. It was also the last stage before the Tour’s big mountain stages. A breakaway was likely, and many looked to the French riders for the win, bolstered by the hoards of fans that came out to cheer on their local heroes.
“I hope the French are as happy as I am. I hope it will give them something to smile about, too,” Kerbaol said post-race.
Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich) and Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) were favourites to take the stage win but it was last year’s white jersey winner who made her mark. The rider from Brittany timed her attack perfectly, attacking over the top of the final climb and setting a blistering pace down the long and fast descent.
“I took full advantage of the descent,” she commented with a smile. And that she did. So much so that at one point, Kerbaol managed to extend her lead to 40 seconds, thereby putting even the Kasia Niewiadmoa’s yellow jersey in danger.
The chasing group of favourites did manage to decrease the gap, but Kerbaol still came into the finishing straight solo to a deafening banging on the boards by the French fans. She also had plenty of time to sit up and celebrate the biggest win of her career in style, making a heart symbol with her hands as she crossed the finish line.
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“It’s an incredible day for me, and I think for a lot of other people — people who have supported me in recent years, my team, and my teammates. I think a lot of people are happy this afternoon,” Kerbaol said.
Indeed they were. When 12 minutes later, her Ceratizit-WNT teammates crossed the line, they celebrated like champions, cheering and punching the air.
“It’s super big because it’s a f*cking stage in the Tour de France,” NIna Berton exclaimed. “It’s one of the biggest things you can win. And to win it with Cédrine is super special because she’s French, and she really worked super hard for this.”
Berton shared that the team had known Kerbaol had been feeling good all week and entrusted her to “just go by her guts and attack in the end.”
“She’s a super strong downhill rider, so we knew if she feels good, she can try, and it worked out. It’s the best thing that we could have imagined, I think.”
Rather than heading to the bus to start the cooldown and recovery process, the whole Ceratizit-WNT team rolled to the podium to witness and cheer for Kerbaol as she received her medal and some time in the spotlight. A party would follow at the team hotel, Berton promised.
“I think we get a good dessert. And maybe some champagne, but not too much. It will be a big party, I think,” she said, smiling.
Half a glass of champagne and some dessert is what counts as a “big party” on the Tour de France because the racing is far from done. Up ahead are two monster mountain stages requiring every last bit of the riders’ strength and concentration. Especially now that Kerbaol has ridden himself into second place in the General Classification, just 16 seconds down from yellow-jersey wearer Niewiadoma.
But when asked if Kerbaol aspires to go after the yellow, she was coy, stating: ” The tour is already a success for me, but of course, I want to fight to the end to get the best possible result.”
“I arrived on the Tour this year saying that I didn’t want to set any result-oriented objectives for myself. That remains the case. For me, it represents a form of oppression that I don’t necessarily like. I prefer to take the moments as they come.”
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