Watch: Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage 2 highlights

With over 2,600m of climbing on the menu, stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift looked like it could be a day for the GC riders if they wanted to make it hard, but it turned out to be another chance for the puncheurs.

After a series of crashes marred the first part of the stage, there were nerves in the peloton and the bunch seemed happy to let riders go up the road. Georgia Williams (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) and Hannah Ludwig (Uno-X) were away in the middle part of the stage, before the trio of Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Anouska Koster (Uno-X) and Eva van Agt (Jumbo-Visma) went away in the final 40km.

In the final hour of racing, the rain started to fall and the cold temperatures and slick roads somewhat neutralised the racing, with a heavy crash for Van Agt putting an early end to the breakaway, and the peloton taking it easier to stay safe.

Coming towards the finish in Mauriac, all was together in a big group that included a mix of GC riders and puncheurs, though the pure sprinters had been dropped over the hilly course. A perfect lead-out from Demi Vollering (SD Worx) looked like a good set-up for yellow jersey Lotte Kopecky, but it was a long, brave sprint from Liane Lippert (Movistar) that won the stage, whilst Kopecky finished second with a flat tyre.