Norway's Sigrid Haugset seizes Women’s Tour de France yellow jersey with long solo breakaway

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POLIGNY, France (AP) — Sigrid Haugset set off on a long solo run and kept going to the finish to win the third stage of the Women’s Tour de France and claim the yellow jersey on Monday.

The Norwegian rider made her break with more than half of the tough 156.5-kilometer (97.2-mile) route between Geneva and Poligny to go.

The stage featured four categorized climbs and Haugset made her move with 85 kilometers left, at the foot of the category 2 Col de la Savine.

Haugset was also first across the last listed climb of the day, the category 4 Côte de Chaux-Champagny, followed by Lotte Kopecky about 30 seconds behind, and a 9-rider group more than two minutes adrift.

Previous yellow-jersey holder Lorena Wiebes – who won the first two stages – was 13 minutes behind with the main bunch at the time and must have known she would not be wearing it Tuesday. She ultimately finished more than 20 minutes adrift of Haugset and dropped to 67th in the general classification.

It was a battle between two riders going into the last 10 kilometers – Kopecky had cut Haugset’s lead to 15 seconds and the Belgian rider could just about see her rival ahead.

But Haugset, sensing the danger, stood on her pedals to stay ahead and managed to increase her lead again, finishing 1 minute 24 seconds ahead of Kopecky.

Haugset leads the general classification by 2 minutes, 2 seconds from Kimberley Le Court of Mauritius, with 2023 Tour champion Demi Vollering third, a further 4 seconds behind.

This edition of the race, the fifth of the Women’s Tour, covers 1,175 kilometers (730 miles) over nine days.

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