La Course by Le Tour de France 2020 [FULL RACE]

August 29, 2020

La Course by Le Tour de France 2020 – Nice – Nice : 96 km

La Course by Le Tour de France is an elite women’s professional road bicycle race held in France, and has been part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour since 2016 as a one or two one-day races. Until 2015 it was rated by the UCI as a 1.1 race.

Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) has won La Course by Le Tour de France, beating Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) and Demi Vollering (Parkhotel Valkenburg) in the sprint of a group of six on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. World champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) initiated the winning move when she went hard from the bottom of the Côte de Rimiez with 44km to go, and only five riders were able to stay with Van Vleuten over the climb.

After a technical descent, this elite group worked together well until the last kilometres when both Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Van Vleuten tried to anticipate a sprint, but their attacks were closed down by Vos. In the sprint, Longo Borghini went long from the back of the group, Vos got on her wheel and looked like the winner, but Deignan could wind up her sprint in Vos’ slipstream and just beat the Dutchwoman with a bike throw on the finish line.

“I was just relieved that I won it,” Deignan said after the close finish. “What a performance from Trek-Segafredo today, Elisa and I just had to wait for the final. She did a perfect job there, forcing Marianne to sprint early, and I could take advantage of that.”

Deignan continued: “I also had the advantage of having two of the best sprinters in the world in the team car Ina-Yoko Teutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini have both beaten Vos in sprints, and their advice was patience. So I waited.”

La Course was Deignan’s second victory in the space of five days after she had already won the GP de Plouay on 25 August, and the Briton now takes the lead in the UCI Women’s WorldTour ranking.

“It is phenomenal,” Deignan concluded. “Sometimes you are training hard and things are not going your way, that is frustrating, but finally it feels like luck is on our side and I am peaking for the right time. It was a team victory, and wearing the Women’s WorldTour jersey is always an honour.”

How it unfolded

On the opening day of the men’s Tour de France, it was the women’s peloton who started proceedings with a 96-kilometre race around Nice, consisting of two laps of a circuit beginning with the 5.8km, 5.1% climb of the Côte de Rimiez, followed by an uncategorised ascent, a technical descent, and about 23km of flat roads towards the finish.

Despite a few early attacks, the peloton largely stayed together on the first climbs. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) used the descent to split the group and was joined by Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal), Anna Henderson (Team Sunweb), and Longo Borghini. Speeding along the Mediterranean coast next to a regional train, these six riders enjoyed an advantage of up to 45 seconds on a chase group of 25 riders. However, when an even larger group came back to the chase group from behind and joined in the chase, the gap quickly dwindled, and the breakaway was caught shortly before the peloton crossed the finish line with one lap to go.

Van Vleuten made the most of the Côte de Rimiez climb, accelerating right from the bottom and blowing the peloton to pieces. Although several riders could hold the world champion’s wheel, she never stopped setting a ferocious pace, and at the mountain sprint 39km from the finish, only Longo Borghini, Deignan, Vos, Vollering, and Niewiadoma were still with her. With Van Vleuten still pulling, their advantage to the next group on the road rose to 1:15 minutes just before the start of the descent.

Deignan attacked over the top and into the downhill, and the technical descent briefly led to splits in the group, but by the time they had reached the valley, all six riders were back together. Several teams tried to organise a chase in the group behind, but despite the best efforts by FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Valcar-Travel & Service, the gap grew further to 1:45 minutes with 18km to go and stayed like that to the finish.

In the front group, Niewiadoma was not taking turns, and it looked like she was preparing an attack. But the Pole had been tired by her efforts on the first lap, and the high pace that Vos and Longo Borghini in particular set in the final kilometres prevented any long-range attacks.

With her teammate Deignan watching Vos, Longo Borghini made her first move 2.5 kilometres from the line but was quickly brought back by Vos. Van Vleuten counterattacked, Vos was on the world champion’s wheel, and Longo Borghini took over pace-setting duties again. Van Vleuten made another attempt under the flamme rouge, with Niewiadoma on her wheel, but Vos was attentive again. When Longo Borghini launched her sprint from the back, Vos went after her, too.

Coming out of the Italian’s slipstream, the CCC-Liv rider was far ahead of Deignan, but the Briton closed this gap on the final metres and threw her bike across the finish line to beat Vos by a narrow margin. Emilia Fahlin (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) won the bunch sprint for seventh place.

Results :
1 Elizabeth Deignan (Gbr) Trek-Segafredo 2:22:51
2 Marianne Vos (Ned) CCC-Liv
3 Demi Vollerging (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg
4 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram Racing
5 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:07
7 Emilia Fahlin (Swe) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:01:50
8 Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service
9 Soraya Paladin (Ita) CCC-Liv
10 Liane Lippert (Ger) Team Sunweb
11 Lotte Kopecky (Bel) Lotto Soudal Ladies
12 Mikayla Harvey (NZl) Equipe Paule Ka
13 Eugenia Bujak (Slo) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
14 Katia Ragusa (Ita) Astana Women’s Team
15 Hannah Barnes (GBr) Canyon // Sram Racing
16 Aude Biannic (Fra) Movistar Team Women
17 Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) CCC – Liv
18 Lauren Stephens (USA) Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank
19 Hanna Nilsson (Swe) Parkhotel Valkenburg
20 Ane Santesteban Gonzalez (Spa) Ceratizit – WNT Pro Cycling Team
21 Sandra Levenez (Fra) Team Arkea
22 Omer Shapira (Isr) Canyon // Sram Racing
23 Leah Kirchmann (Can) Team Sunweb
24 Marta Cavalli (Ita) Valcar – Travel & Service
25 Chantal Van Den Broek-Blaak (Ned) Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam
26 Evita Muzic (Fra) Fdj Nouvelle – Aquitaine Futuroscope
27 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) Ceratizit – Wnt Pro Cycling Team
28 Ilaria Sanguineti (Ita) Valcar – Travel & Service
29 Elizabeth Banks (GBr) Equipe Paule Ka 0:01:55
30 Alena Amialiusik (Blr) Canyon-Sram Racing 0:01:58
31 Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ Nouvelle – Aquitaine Futuroscope
32 Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Equipe Paule Ka 0:02:08
33 Stine Borgli (Nor) FDJ Nouvelle – Aquitaine Futuroscope 0:05:50
34 Rasa Leleivyte (Lit) Aromitalia – Basso Bikes – Vaiano
35 Danielle Christmas (GBr) Lotto Soudal Ladies
36 Laura Asencio (Fra) Ceratizit – WNT Pro Cycling Team
37 Nancy Van Der Burg (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg
38 Riejanne Markus (Ned) CCC – Liv
39 Teuntje Beekhuis (Ned) Lotto Soudal Ladies
40 Grace Brown (Aus) Mitchelton Scott
41 Greta Richioud (Fra) Hitec Products – Birk Sport
42 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
43 Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg
44 Alice Arzuffi (Ita) Bizkaia – Durango
45 Juliette Labous (Fra) Team Sunweb
46 Leah Thomas (USA) Equipe Paule Ka
47 Paula Patiño (Col) Movistar Team Women
48 Leigh Ann Ganzar (USA) Rally Cycling
49 Urška Žigart (Slo) Ale’ BTC Ljubljana
50 Ruth Winder (USA) Trek – Segafredo
51 Jip Van Den Bos (Ned) Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam
52 Vita Heine (Nor) Hitec Products – Birk Sport
53 Amalie Lutro (Nor) Hitec Products – Birk Sport 0:05:55
54 Sara Poidevin (Can) Rally Cycling 0:09:15
55 Leah Dixon (GBr) Team Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank
56 Chloe Hosking (Aus) Rally Cycling
57 Heidi Franz (USA) Rally Cycling 0:10:12
58 Alison Jackson (Can) Team Sunweb 0:10:17
59 Anna Henderson (GBr) Team Sunweb
60 Christine Majerus (Lux) Boels Dolmans Cyclingteam
61 Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar – Travel & Service
62 Sofia Bertizzolo (Ita) CCC – Liv