It has become a familiar sight to see Justine Ghekiere off the front of the peloton at this year’s Tour de France Femmes. In her trademark attacking style, the AG Insurance-Soudal rider has been the definition of an animator in the race, grabbing any opportunity she has been offered to go for stage wins or scoop up points for the mountains classification. Wearing the polka dot jersey was the first reward for the Belgian rider’s valiant efforts so far – a well-deserved one at that – but the penultimate stage was when Ghekiere truly, unequivocally, got what she was owed.
It all started with a plan to get more points. The stage win was meant to go to a general classification rider like Kasia Niewiadoma or Demi Vollering who were expected to duke it out on Le Grand Bornand. Ghekiere was not supposed to ride away solo in the way she did, but the 28-year-old was prepared to risk it all in order to win.
In a stark contrast to the stalemate between the yellow jersey wearer and her rivals who played poker behind her, Ghekiere made her winning attack on the Col de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt from the remnants of the breakaway with 13.5km to go. She’d already done enough to establish a solid lead in the mountains classification by that stage – largely thanks to her teammate Julie van de Velde who rode hard in the six-rider break with her all day – but for Ghekiere, a born winner, that was not enough. It’s a testament to the AG Insurance-Soudal rider’s mental strength that she made that crucial, instinctive decision to try and go solo as she sensed her companions faltering.
“It wasn’t the plan to go for the win,” Ghekiere gushed after the stage, her eyes glazed over with shock and emotion. “First, the plan was to defend the jersey by going in the break and team did a really good job. I want to thank Julie especially, she was amazing in the break and did great work to keep the break away and give us a time gap of almost five minutes, then it was my job to finish it off on the climbs and take all the points.”
It was at the instruction of her sports director – and former professional cyclist – Jolien D'hoore, that Ghekiere made her solo bid for the finish line atop Le Grand-Bornand.
“On the second last climb, I had a time gap of two-and-a-half-minutes and Jolien said just do your own pace and we will see,” Ghekiere smiled. “When I heard the gap was staying almost the same on the whole climb, I thought it looked good in the last kilometre and I was thinking, okay, maybe I can win this stage. I just went full and gave everything I had because I was dying so much.”
For the 28-year-old, this stage victory comes after a unique entry to the sport. After working as a personal trainer, Ghekiere only entered the professional cycling sphere in 2020 after competing on Zwift. She took part in a challenge to ride the most distance in one week where the prize was a fitness test with a coach in her native Belgium. The coach was so impressed with her numbers that he contacted potential teams for Ghekiere to race with, and she ended up competing for the Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire team on the road the following year. Her results caught the attention of AG Insurance-Soudal – a team renowned for their talent spotting abilities. Four years later and the Belgian team will undoubtedly be grateful that they took the risk on the talented climber. For Ghekiere, she can barely believe it’s real.
“A stage win in this beautiful polka dot jersey is really amazing, first I wasn’t supposed to race here this week so doing this is fantastic,” Ghekiere smiled as she spoke, surrounded by media on the summit of Le Grand-Bornand.
If there’s one thing that Ghekiere proved with her monumental victory on stage seven of the Tour de France Femmes it is that self-belief and determination in abundance can go a long way in helping achieve success. She might not have been the pre-race favourite, she might not have had a traditional route into cycling, she might not have even been meant to race this at all, but she had her opportunity and took it.
“I think I’m dreaming,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s crazy.”
