Two Top-10 Finishes Ahead of the Tour

Mayenne Monbana My Pie wrapped up its final weekend of racing before the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, competing on Saturday and Sunday at Périgord Ladies and La Picto en Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The French UCI ProTeam delivered another encouraging performance, securing a top-10 finish in both races. A promising sign ahead of the race for the yellow jersey, which will take place from 1 to 9 August.

On Saturday at Périgord Ladies, Natalie Quinn made the decisive breakaway and finished 9th. The following day, Justine Gegu was one of the day's most active riders, claiming victory in the intermediate sprints classification before sprinting to 7th place at La Picto en Nouvelle-Aquitaine, with teammate Fiona Mangan crossing the line three places behind in 10th. These performances provide an extra boost of confidence for the Mayenne Monbana My Pie squad ahead of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The team's selection for the race will be announced at a later date.

Justine Gegu, 7th of La Picto en Nouvelle-Aquitaine. "The day didn't start particularly well because Natalie and I crashed shortly after the neutral start. We quickly refocused, and I won the intermediate sprints classification, so it was nice to step onto the podium and show off the jersey. In the final sprint we finished 7th and 10th, and I think there was room to do even better. We still have some work to do, and we're missing a few automatisms in bunch sprints like this, but that will come. Overall, it's still a positive result."

Natalie Quinn, 9th of La Périgord Ladies. "For Perigord, it was very special to be in such a strong breakaway. I gave it my everything and was happy to finish with my first top 10 of the season. For Picto, it was a very hectic race but we stayed together as a team well and gave it our all for a technical sprint finish. We gave it our all this weekend and I think we can go into the Tour feeling confident."

Jean-Christophe Barbotin, team manager. "The race got off to a bad start as our riders were caught up in a crash in the convoy, which led to a few bike changes and some disruption. After that, though, there wasn't much action. Around 60 riders came to the finish to contest the win, so naturally we wanted to go for victory, and we had a real chance in the sprint. The team did a good job over the final two kilometres, but Justine and Fiona lost each other in the closing hectometres. They finished 7th and 10th, so there's a slight feeling of unfinished business because we probably could have done better. It's happened before: when we're sprinting for the win, we sometimes don't quite get it right in the final moments. That said, it's still been a strong weekend. We finished in the Top 10 on both days and came away with a valuable haul of UCI points".

Results - La Périgord Ladies :

9 - Natalie Quinn

14 - Fiona Mangan

48 - Léa Rondel

53 - Allison Mrugal

55 - Justine Gegu

Results - La Picto en Nouvelle-Aquitaine :

7 - Justine Gegu

10 - Fiona Mangan

33 - Allison Mrugal

71 - Natalie Quinn

Photo credit : Rodrigo & José Rodrigues / FPC