Tour de France: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wins stage 8 and takes the yellow jersey

The Frenchwoman, Olympic mountain bike champion a year ago at the Paris Games, took a major chance of winning the overall victory by relegating Australian Sarah Gigante to more than two and a half minutes in the overall standings. Dutchwoman Demi Vollering completes the provisional podium, more than three minutes behind, on the eve of Sunday's final stage in Châtel.

Second in the general classification at the start of the stage behind the Mauritian Kim Le Court, who was quickly dropped, "PFP", 33, was imperial in the ascent of the Madeleine, the roof of the Tour, an 18.6 km hors catégorie pass with an average gradient of 8.1% where she put on a show by taking the lead alone five kilometers from the line to open up huge gaps.

At the finish, the leader of the Visma-Lease a Bike team was 1 minute 45 seconds ahead of the Australian Sarah Gigante and the New Zealander Niamh Fisher-Black, who was 2 minutes 15 behind.

The Tour favorite at the start of Vannes last weekend, Vollering finished fourth, more than three minutes behind, while the outgoing winner, Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma, had to settle for 8th place, 3 minutes 26 behind.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is now in a good position to become the first French woman to win the Tour 36 years after Jeannie Longo's victory.

"We'll have to finish the work tomorrow (Sunday). It would be a little girl's dream. I'm going to cry because it means a lot to me," she told France TV after her triumph.