The second stage of the Tour de France women was synonymous with chaos for Simone Boilard and Olivia Baril who both crashed on Monday on the 136 kilometer course leading to Provins.
Eighth on the Champs-Élysées the day before, Simone Boilard had great ambitions for this second outing in the competition, but clashes at the end of the race thwarted her plans. Despite the force of the impacts, the leader of the St Michel – Auber93 WE team was able to reach the finish in 80th place.
In the end, she fell 3 minutes and 22 seconds behind the leading trio made up of the winner, the Dutch Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), who sprinted ahead of the Italian Silvia Persico (Valcar – Travel & Service ) and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM racing).
“I’m very disappointed, that’s for sure. I was aiming for a good finish again today and I think the course suited me perfectly. Unfortunately I had two heavy falls in the last lap of the circuit and I hurt myself. I lost precious time for the general classification and my goal will simply be to recover well for the next stages”, commented Boilard at the end of the day.
Olivia Baril and her teammates at Valcar – Travel & Service also had their share of misadventures, when she and three other members of her team fell during the event. Shaken on the spot, the cyclist from Rouyn-Noranda was able to get back in the saddle quickly to conclude the race and congratulate Silvia Persico on her performance.
“For us, it’s a good bad day,” said Baril, 127th of the day (+8 minutes and 29 seconds). “Almost all of our girls fell, but Silvia still finished second, so it’s good for the team. Personally there is not too much harm and I will be ready for tomorrow. »
The only other representative of La Belle Province in action on French roads this week, Magdeleine Vallières-Mill was able to avoid damage, which was not the case for her teammates at EF Education-TIBCO-SVB.
The Sherbrooke resident thus eased off to lend a hand to the runners involved in incidents, before crossing the finish line at the 111th rung (+5 minutes and 13 seconds).
“My role was to stay close to my teammates and make sure they weren’t wasting energy for nothing. I pulled the girls up for the last circuit and then waited for the ones that got caught in the falls to bring them back. Fortunately, none of our girls are seriously injured,” said Vallières-Mill, highlighting the performance of her American teammate Veronica Ewers (26th, +34 seconds).
By virtue of her victory, the triple world champion Marianne Vos will undertake the third stage wearing the yellow jersey of leader, Tuesday. The participants will start in Reims, before stopping in Épernay, 134 kilometers further.
