Another mountain stage at the Tour de France Femmes, another Maëva Squiban victory. It was an outcome few would have predicted at the start of the race, let alone her UAE Team ADQ team.
On the outskirts of Chambéry after stage 7, team Directeur Sportif Cherie Pridham was lost for words as the car drove past Cyclingnews. At the team bus, there was a similar sense of disbelief. The same joy that had been present 24 hours earlier remained, but also a full team in a daze at what the 23-year-old Breton had done. Again.
As the team’s GC hope, Polish racer Dominika Włodarczyk rolled to the bus having led the GC group across the finish to move to 11th overall, her thoughts were entirely on her teammate’s success rather than her own day on the bike.
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Włodarczyk was as amazed as anyone at UAE, holding her hands over her mouth in shock and jubilation. When she finally spoke, she asked, “What is going on? Is it April 1 or August 1?”
Later, after Włodarczyk had warmed down, she said she had been in the dark about Squiban’s progress over the Granier, unable to understand the French-language race radio.
“To be honest, I didn’t hear anything in the last 30km because they started to speak in French, and I had no idea,” she told Cyclingnews. “I only heard ‘solo’, so I was like ‘OK, I hope she is solo’.
“Two riders in the top five, and we started with four. It’s impressive. If this is cycling, I like this cycling,” she laughed.
“To be honest, you’re all super, super tired. Maybe except Maëva. She’s a bit shy, but always smiling, always helpful, always present and always good vibes. She’s a really, really good teammate.”
A few moments later, when Pridham spoke to Cyclingnews and Velo, she revealed that on Thursday night, Squiban had joked about attacking from kilometre zero. It may have been said in jest, but, come Friday afternoon, she made it happen on the 160km race from Bourg-en-Bresse over the Col du Granier.
“Maëva was confident this morning. She said, ‘I want to go from kilometre zero’. And we were like, ‘OK, but you know, kilometre zero is a long way’, and then she was there,” Pridham said. “We held her back a little bit, and then the group was forming.
“We spoke this morning about the select group, and we knew when she was on the climb that we could let her fly, but it was just about keeping her under control, keeping her rhythm and letting her do it. We knew on the steep part, she was just a pure climber, but what a sensation, you know, absolute sensation.
“Now she’s Maëva Squiban, one of the best climbers in the world. Absolutely stunning.”
Pridham, Squiban, and the rest of UAE Team ADQ could barely have dreamed of this result following the illness and withdrawal of their leader, Elisa Longo Borghini, after two days of the Tour. The team resolved to continue attacking, even as illness struck other riders and left them with just four heading into stage 7.
Their determination and aggressiveness have certainly paid off, with Squiban picking up two stage victories and three combativity awards, to go with a fourth won by teammate Brodie Chapman.
Squiban, who said on Thursday that the team’s motto was “We say ‘Why not?’ We have nothing to lose,” also now lies second in the mountain classification, though at 12 points off Elise Chabbey, she insists she’s not targeting it.
‘I like to attack, to have fun on my bike. I don’t really like to be focussed only on GC’
Squiban celebrates with her stage victory in Chambéry with the flag of her native Brittany (Image credit: Getty Images)
The question asked around Chambéry on Friday afternoon, however, was much bigger than the polka dot jersey. France has waited for a home winner of their race since 1985, if you don’t include the women’s races run under other names since then.
“For sure, it can be said that the next Bernard Hinault will certainly be a woman,” Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse told Cycling Weekly at the start of the race.
Squiban’s time might not come this summer, given she lies over seven minutes down in 16th place, but she has announced herself as a name for future Tour de France Femmes contender lists.
“Never say never, eh?” Pridham said. “We know she’s pretty good at time trialling, but of course we know what we’re capable of doing with Maëva and we need to go back to the drawing board and have a look at how we’re going to progress, but one day at a time.”
The coach of the French national team, Paul Brousse, has already joined the chorus of those hailing Squiban’s future GC potential, telling Le Télégramme she “will be able to compete in a Grand Tour general classification fairly quickly”.
Squiban herself was less bullish, instead enthusing about attacking and racing in the breakaway rather than playing tactical games in the bunch, as many of the yellow jersey contenders at this Tour have done in the lead-up to Saturday’s decisive ascent of the Col de la Madeleine.
“Like many people, I don’t have much confidence in myself, but it’s getting better and better. For now, I don’t know what will change. I’m still in the grip of emotion. I’m going to need time at home to process it,” she said after the stage.
“I like to attack, to have fun on my bike. I don’t really like to be focussed only on GC. I had two exceptional days yesterday and today, but if I were here for the GC, I’d have to stay in the bunch and wait. I really like to go out and be in the front.
“Maybe one day I will try to fight for the GC, but actually I just want to have fun on my bike and to try and do something.”
Regardless of her ambitions, Squiban, a “pocket rocket” who drives the team crazy listening to French rap, according to Pridham, looks to be going places.
No doubt the French rap will have been blasting at the UAE Team ADQ hotel on Friday night, when the scale of Squiban’s achievements might finally have sunk in.
“To be honest, today, I really am still afraid that it’s a dream,” Włodarczyk said. “I feel like it’s a dream, and I feel like we are living in a dream. So I think I still need some time for it to sink in to accept what happened. Wow. It’s unbelievable.”
Another day, another win, another national TV interview for Squiban (Image credit: Getty Images)
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