Tour de France Femmes Stage 2: Wiebes Rewards SD Worx in Geneva

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES 2026 · STAGE 2 · AIGLE–GENEVA, 147.9KM

It was billed as a flat, straightforward stage, yet it turned into an entertaining one. The lumpy roads around Lake Geneva nearly upended the sprinters’ teams, with Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) coming within 500 metres of stealing the day from the bunch — and from SD Worx-Protime in particular, fully committed to forcing a gallop for Lorena Wiebes. The Dutch sprinter was up to the task, claiming her seventh career stage win at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, her first ever in the Yellow Jersey, ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike).

Wiebes remains the overall leader, 14 seconds clear of Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) and 16 seconds up on Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez). On Monday, the peloton leaves Switzerland, host of this Grand Départ, and crosses into France over the Jura mountains on a 156.5-kilometre stage from Geneva to Poligny.

The Break Takes 54 Kilometres to Form

A field of 143 rolled out of Aigle at 14:29 CEST, missing Brodie Chapman (UAE Team L’Imad, ill) and Christina Schweinberger (Alpecin-Premier Tech, a broken wrist from the opening-stage crash). Ahead lay 147.9 kilometres and nearly 1,800 metres of climbing, though the bulk of it came early enough that a bunch sprint was still the expected finish.

The first 50 kilometres were fraught, with attacks flying until Uno-X Mobility set a hard pace up the Côte de Chexbres (Cat. 3, km 31.7), where Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-EasyPost) crested first and several riders were shelled out the back. Marion Bunel (Visma | Lease a Bike) led the bunch over the Côte de Savigny (Cat. 4, km 43.3) shortly after. It took until kilometre 54 for a move to finally stick, when Eline Jansen (Volkerwessels), Yuliia Biriukova (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Carlota Cipressi (Human Powered Health) escaped, quickly joined by Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) and Ema Comte (Cofidis). Comte led the five over the Côte de Cossonay (Cat. 4, km 73.3) with a 2’05” cushion. Three Lotto Intermarché Ladies riders — Elisabeth Ebras, Sterre Vervloet and the crash-affected Marieke Meert — abandoned in this stretch, along with Volkerwessels’ Laura Molenaar.

Markus Goes It Alone

The break’s lead swelled to 3’05” approaching the intermediate sprint in Lavigny (km 88.9), where Biriukova took the points. Movistar Team drove the peloton’s pace over the Côte de Bougy-Villars (Cat. 3, km 94.7), where Koster crossed first — as she did again on the day’s final rated climb, the Côte de Mont-sur-Rolle (Cat. 3, km 100.5), though she fell one point short of prising the polka-dot jersey from Océane Mahé. By this point SD Worx-Protime had reduced the bunch to roughly 40 riders and taken control at the front.

A counter-move of Sarah Van Dam (Visma | Lease a Bike), Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez), Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Sara Casasola (Fenix-Premier Tech) bridged to the front with 44 kilometres left, only to be swallowed up soon after. Comte tried to hold on but was overtaken by Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), who rode away solo and stretched her advantage to 1’15” with 27 kilometres remaining.

SD Worx Forces the Sprint

SD Worx-Protime kept Markus on a tight leash, determined to bring the race back together for their sprinter. The Dutchwoman gave them a real fight, only caught with 500 metres to go after even Lotte Kopecky had spent herself in the chase. Around the final right-hand bend, 310 metres from the line, Lorena Wiebes finished the job her SD Worx-Protime teammates had set up, holding off Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) by a comfortable margin to secure another day in yellow. Markus took the Combativity award as consolation.

In Their Words

Wiebes made clear how much the win owed to her team. “It’s special to win in the Yellow Jersey, but also because my team, SD Worx-Protime, worked really hard for this,” she said. “The girls were chasing full gas in the final to bring back Riejanne Markus. That makes it even more beautiful to finish it off.” With Markus holding on stubbornly, the team even called on Lotte Kopecky to help in the chase: “we had to put Lotte Kopecky in the chase because we needed everyone to bring her back.” That left Wiebes to finish the job herself. “It was up to me to find my own way in the final kilometre and claim the win. Luckily, I found some good wheels and could come out with 250 metres to go and launch my sprint.” She was more cautious about what comes next: “It will be hard to keep the Yellow Jersey — but we will do our best.”

Océane Mahé held onto the polka-dot jersey despite a tougher day in the legs. “It was absolutely mad. My legs weren’t responding today quite as well as they did yesterday, but the crowd was even more incredible,” she said. “I hadn’t necessarily recovered from yesterday, so it was tricky to score points, but I’m happy to keep the jersey.” She was already looking ahead to the Col de la Faucille, worth ten points the following day: “We’ll fight, as usual, and do our best. I’ll be able to count on my teammates to try and keep the jersey.” The sudden attention has caught her off guard, too. “I’ve never given so many interviews, never received so many messages on my social media,” she said. “People I haven’t heard from in years have texted me because they’ve seen me on TV.”

Paula Blasi, still in white, admitted the jersey still feels unfamiliar. “It is so nice and so bizarre to see myself in the white jersey — I’m used to looking down on my shoulders and seeing them blue, so it’s strange to see they are white now,” she said. The day tested her more than expected: “They told me there were no easy days in the Tour, and it’s true: even a sprint day is hard. From start to finish, there hasn’t been any moment to rest. The heat has been much worse today than it was yesterday.” She welcomed the prospect of harder racing ahead: “I like it when the race gets hard and shaken up, and we start attacking on the climbs.”

Riejanne Markus, denied by 500 metres, was left with mixed feelings after her Combativity ride. “I came pretty close to the win, and I didn’t expect it,” she said. “We wanted to be part of the game and we knew the sprinters really wanted this one to come down to a sprint, because this was the stage better suited for that in the whole Tour.” She hadn’t been racing for the win in the closing kilometres: “I just wanted to make it to the finish as quickly as possible. One kilometre from the finish, I realized I hadn’t been caught and wondered when and if it would happen.” The catch, when it came, stung. “A few metres later, though, they brought me back and I was disappointed — but I feel proud of what I did, anyway.”

By the Numbers

Wiebes now has seven career stage wins at the Tour de France Femmes, five of them in SD Worx-Protime colours; she has won at least once in four of the race’s five editions, with only 2024 eluding her. It is also her second back-to-back double in the race’s history — she is the first rider to pull off the feat twice since the 2022 revival, having already strung together stages 3 and 4 last year. Only four others have won consecutive stages: Annemiek van Vleuten (2022), Charlotte Kool (2024), Maëva Squiban and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (both 2025). The win also brings Wiebes her third career Yellow Jersey and keeps the Netherlands well clear at the top of the nations’ table, with 19 stage wins and 19 Yellow Jerseys to date — France is next-best on stage wins with five, while Belgium leads the Yellow Jersey count among the chasing nations with six. Geneva’s podium of Wiebes, Balsamo and Vos exactly mirrored stage 5 of 2022 in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, only the second time the race has repeated a podium trio outright; Wiebes and Balsamo have now finished first and second together 36 times in their careers, 30 of them Wiebes wins. And with her third-place finish, Marianne Vos drew level with Demi Vollering on 12 career podiums, the most in the race’s history.

Stage 2 Results

Stage Ranking

General Classification