French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt wins women's Tour de France at her first attempt

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CHATEL, France (AP) — French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt won the women's Tour de France at her first attempt on Sunday, launching an attack to clinch the final stage and increase her overnight lead.

It gave Ferrand-Prévôt a resounding victory. She finished 3 minutes, 42 seconds ahead of 2023 champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands and 4:09 clear of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland.

"After my Olympic title, I said I would try to win the Tour de France in the next three years,” said the 33-year-old Ferrand-Prévôt, an Olympic champion in mountain biking at last year's Paris Games. “So here I am, the first (time).”

There was little of the drama of last year's final day, which produced a four-second winning margin for the narrowest victory in the history of the women’s and men’s races.

“My teammates worked super hard for me all week long. I just want to say thank you and congrats to them,” said Ferrand-Prévôt, who rides for the Visma–Lease a Bike team. “I love you so much girls, and thank you for everything.”

Ferrand-Prévôt had put herself largely in control by winning Saturday's eighth and penultimate stage with an audacious solo breakaway on the last climb. That gave her an overnight lead of 2:37 seconds over Australian rider Sarah Gigante and 3:18 over Vollering.

Sunday's ninth stage from Praz-sur-Arly to Châtel was a 124-kilometer (77-mile) trek featuring three big mountain climbs.

But Ferrand-Prévôt did not face any big attacks and instead launched one of her own with 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) left.

The crowds cheered her all the way to the finish line and, moments later, the tears flowed as she lay on her back, exhausted but elated.

Vollering was 20 seconds behind in second place and Niewiadoma followed in third place as they sprinted to the line.

Earlier, Ferrand-Prévôt was with Gigante and a few others when they tackled the mammoth climb up Col de Joux Plane — an 11.6-kilometer grind with a gradient of 8.5%.

Gigante is known to have trouble descending at speed and was dropped on the long downhill. She could not make the time up, especially with no teammates to help her, and lost her podium spot, finishing sixth overall.

Having won Olympic gold and conquered the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix classic, Ferrand-Prévôt added another line to her glittering resumé with a Tour victory, 11 years after winning the world road race title.

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