Mavi Garcia, 41, lands stunning solo win on Stage 2 at Tour de France Femmes as Mauritius’ Kimberley Le Court grabs yellow

At 41 years old, Mavi Garcia defied time and a stacked chase group to seal a famous solo win on Stage 2 at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, while Kimberley Le Court made history for Mauritius by taking the yellow jersey.

Garcia (Liv AlUla Jayco) launched her move with 11km remaining and looked certain to be caught on the final climb, with both GC contenders and sprint stars hunting her down. But a moment of hesitation behind allowed the veteran Spaniard to cling on for the biggest win of her career.

Behind her, Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) sprinted to third – enough to dethrone Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) from the overall lead on countback.

It was Le Court’s second top-three finish in as many days, with Stage 1 seeing her push Vos to react after she threatened Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s solo lead, which meant the Mauritian finished second.

Multiple attacks were previously attempted by key names in Stage 2, including defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Ferrand-Prevot, but Garcia was the only rider to make her attack stick. 

Garcia became the first Spanish winner of a Tour de France Femmes stage and the oldest stage winner in the revamped version of the race.

Liv AlUla Jayco had a strong presence throughout the stage, with Silke Smulders making her mark in a breakaway, which included her gaining maximum Queen of the Mountains points on the first climb.

Vos will swap yellow for green in Stage 3, having retained her first place in the points classification ahead of Lorena Wiebes.

The polkadot jersey was hotly contested, but Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), who was involved in the breakaway with Smulders, showed her climbing strength as she reached the summit first on two out of four of the climbs of the day.