Since the women's race reclaimed the Tour de France name in 2014, first as La Course by Le TDF and now as Tour de France Famous, it has been the Dutch who have performed the best. Whether it was Vos, Van der Breggen, Van Breuten, or now Vollering, the home country has never responded to the strength of the Dutch.

But today, following the Dutch Grand Depart, Sedrine Kerbol turned the tide with the first French stage win in the revived Tour de France Femme, following in the footsteps of the great but controversial Jeannie Longo. The 65-year-old was the last home winner in the women's race in 1989, before former director Jean-Marie Leblanc decided to scrap the event.

For Longo, a 24-time stage winner, her last victory came in Aix-les-Bains, but for Kervaor, it was in the small commune of Morceau, where she won her first.

“It's kind of crazy,” she said. It's super cool to be the first French winner of the Tour de France,” Kerbaol said at the post-race press conference. I think a lot about the next generation of riders and I hope it gives them great motivation.”

“I've never won a race like this, it's legendary. It's a legendary race. I've never been this close to the best rider.

Kerbaul won the white jersey for best young rider in last year's race, the only tangible success the Frenchman has had in the first and second editions.

On Friday's sixth stage of the Tour de France, Femmes rode alone 14.6km from the final Côte des Fans climb, with GC favorites Kasia Nievesiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Demi Vollering (SD Works-Protime) marking each other (SD Works-Protime) marked each other.

Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) caught up to her, but could not keep pace as Kerbol raced downhill at breakneck speed. She was soon alone, and the former French national time trial champion used all her power to build a 21-second lead on the chasing pack.

While the large crowd gathered to cheer on local heroes Juliette Labouse (DSM-Firmenich-Post NL) and Evita Mujic (FDJ-Suez), Brittany's Kervaor was there to make history as she finished strong and received all kinds of praise from the crowd.

“The plan was to attack at some point, but not there specifically. The goal was to feel the race and do something. For example, there were a couple of attacks by Juliette [Lovace], and I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to hold back.'

“I knew there was a downhill and I attacked, got to two and asked [Roy Jackers] to turn.

“I didn't think about the fact that (Rooijakkers) was with me. I had a lot of fun on the downhill and I loved it.

With the win in sight, Kervaor did not allow himself to think about what he was trying to accomplish, but just focused on turning the pedals and making watts. It was bold, calculated, and perfect.

“I didn't think about the chase from behind, just focused on putting out as many watts as I could,” the 23-year-old laughed. [I wasn't thinking about winning until 100 meters before the finish line. Of course I was thinking about winning, but I wasn't saying to myself, 'I'm going to win.

It will be some time before she properly realizes how important this French victory is to the race and to Kerbaert, but she is now focused on the overall fight.

“I don't want to put pressure on the result. I just live every moment as best I can,” Kervaor said. Of course, the team and I want to be strategically clever. But I'm not thinking about going for the yellow jersey or trying to hold on to this position.