Women's Tour de France: Squiban's perfect attack earns home favourite stage six win
Squiban, riding for UAE Team ADQ, attacked alone, three kilometres from the top of the Col du Chansert, and maintained her lead on the fast descent, through the bonus sprint and into the finishing straight on the Boulevard Henri IV.
'When they told me I had a minute and a half [lead] I couldn't believe it,' she said. 'I mainly wanted to get a head start before the climb to the bonus sprint. Then I was hoping to be part of a small group from the bonus sprint to the finish.'
Behind her, Kim Le Court was as good as her word at the bonus sprints and made every second count. The Mauritian took another four seconds, just ahead of the defending champion, Kasia Niewiadoma, to extend her overall lead.
'The goal was to control the race, and then see if the legs were there,' she said. 'After that, it was to take the remaining bonus seconds, as there was already a rider up ahead.
'We tried to close the gap to Squiban to try and get the stage, but it wasn't going to happen so tried to get a bit more time at the finish. I couldn't wish for it to be better, apart from maybe winning the stage.'
The 29-year-old leads by 26 seconds from Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and by 30 seconds from Niewiadoma, who leap-frogged the pre-race favourite, Demi Vollering, into third place.
The first mountain stage included 2,475m of altitude gain over four categorised climbs, including the first category Col du Beal, and provoked significant time gaps. Marianne Vos tumbled down the yellow jersey rankings, dropping from sixth to 29th.
Although the rest of the favourites stayed together over the top of the 10km climb, Cédrine Kerbaol and Niewiadoma tried their hand on the descent, but were recaptured at the foot of the Col du Chansert, the platform for Squiban's solo attack.
Vollering's FDJ-Suez team-mate Juliette Labous set off in pursuit in the closing kilometres, but it was not enough to draw out any initiatives from the main challengers.
Ferrand-Prévot, gold medallist in Olympic mountain biking, has been a discreet presencesince showing an explosive acceleration on stage one. Her stealthy performance is fuelling French hopes that she may break the nation's 40-year Tour de France drought.
The apparent anxieties from the FDJ-Suez team manager, Stephen Delcourt, over Vollering's chances may be heightened by the prospect of a French rider being guided to overall victory by his nemesis, Visma–Lease a Bike's Jos Van Emden, although the pair now appear to have ended their public feud.
Friday's stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry has less altitude gain, but is expected to inflict yet more pain as it crosses the summit of the 1,134m Col du Granier, 17km from the finish. With three mountain stages still to come, 132 of 154 starters remain in the race.
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