Team Picnic PostNL and Nienke Vinke win Tour de France Femmes white jersey

After nine days of challenging action over a variety of terrain at the Tour de France Femmes, Team Picnic PostNL can proudly leave the race having won their first ever distinctive jersey at the event with their Women’s program; securing the white jersey with Nienke Vinke.

Navigating the tricky and treacherous opening stages Team Picnic PostNL put in some good performances, making trips to the podium twice with Franziska Koch as the most combative rider, while also taking top tens on different stages with Megan Jastrab, Pfeiffer Georgi and Rachele Barbieri.

Biding their time in the battle for the white jersey, Nienke Vinke headed into stage seven 22 seconds behind the current jersey wearer. After a strong performance from Vinke and the rest of the squad, that time gap was almost mirrored come the end of the stage as the Team Picnic PostNL rider took to the podium. The following day saw the queen stage of the race and a brutal summit finish atop the famous Col de la Madeleine. Despite a few challenging moments, true teamwork triumphed as after a swift change onto Jastrab’s bike, Vinke returned to the peloton with the help of Francesca Barale. Dropping her nearest white-jersey contender, Vinke was then paced by Koch all the way to the top of the Col de la Madeleine to secure her place in white even more.

Navigating a tough final stage that included the challenging Col de Joux-Plane, Vinke crossed the line in Châtel Les Portes du Soleil resplendent in the white jersey as the best young rider of the race, after being brilliantly supported by her teammates. Taking to the podium and raising her arms aloft with a broad smile across her face, Vinke and Team Picnic PostNL could celebrate an historic moment for their Women’s program.

After the finish Vinke expressed: “It was a really hard day and I was completely empty. Already on the first climb they went full-gas and I dropped, but luckily I had Franzi with me the whole day. Pfeiffer and Francesca then came back too and going onto the Joux Plane I was in the yellow jersey group. There the tempo went up again but Franzi stayed with me and paced, and really helped me a lot – she was super strong today. All the other young riders were behind so it was mostly just about making it to the finish line in a good way and that’s what we did. It’s really special to win a jersey in a Grand Tour, especially in the Tour de France as it’s one of the biggest races on the calendar. A lot of really big talents and riders have won this jersey in the past so hopefully that is a good sign for me too. With the team we already have the ambitions to continue to develop me more as a GC rider. The level in this Tour has been really high, so I know that I need to keep making steps in the next years. At the moment now I’m pretty tired so I’m happy the Tour is finished, it has been such a hard nine days.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Albert Timmer added: “In general when we look to the Tour and our team, we set the goal to race aggressively. I think that’s basically what we did. We tried every opportunity to get in the break and to go for results. We maybe didn’t get the first place on the stage that we had hoped for, but we had some top tens and the most combative rider prize a few times, and then we achieved an important goal which was the best young rider jersey with Nienke. Of course it is also Nienke’s individual qualities but I think it was also a whole team effort. The team did their best to look after Nienke and today Franzi was with Nienke the whole stage and protected her until the line. I think in general we can be happy and satisfied with this week.”