Kim Le Court is out for redemption on the Lloyds Tour of Britain and her solo assault up The Great Orme certainly looked like a sacrifice worthy of a divine saviour.
As the Mauritian national champion lay prostrate on the tarmac, there was no energy left to spare to celebrate the 26-second advantage she had just accrued in the general classification on her way to victory on stage three.
Le Court, who crashed out in last year’s edition of the race, knows all too well that celebration will have to wait until the very end – and dedicated her triumph to roommate Gladys Verhulst-Wild, who has been forced to withdraw with injury in consecutive years.
“I will not think of redemption yet. I will only think of it when the Tour is over,” said the 30-year-old AG Insurance-Soudal rider.
“I’ve really missed [Gladys] since she withdrew with a broken collarbone. I rode for her and this victory is for her.
“We both came back to this Tour not really wanting to come back, but we decided to come back together, to redeem ourselves from last year when we both crashed out.
“Her not being here now gives me more motivation to ride for her.”
With another stage suited to the climbers today as the race wends its way back across Wales to Hay-on-Wye, Le Court’s task will now be staying in green for the duration.
“I’m going to try and stay as positive as possible, keep my head on my shoulders and not be too confident because we know that last year after getting that jersey, everything went wrong the next day,” added the Tour de France Femmes (TdFF) stage winner.
“Anything is still possible. We just have to ride as a team like we have for the past few days and if we do that, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
British rider Lauren Dickson won the other two Queen of the Mountains climbs to take the blue jersey at the end of the day.
The 26-year-old from Edinburgh returned from injury for the first time since June this week following a breakthrough season with FDJ United-Suez in which she has largely operated as a primary domestique for TdFF winner Demi Vollering.
“It’s a home race and it’s special to take Queen of the Mountains. I consider myself a climber, so to have the category is something I really like to fight for,” said Dickson.
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