A breakaway and the white jersey for Jenaya Francis

Jul 4, 2025, 10:36 PM

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The Tour of Portugal is off to a strong start for Winspace Orange Seal. On Thursday’s Stage 2, Canadian rider Jenaya Francis joined a late breakaway and earned the white jersey as the best young rider.

Jenaya finished eighth on the stage and now sits ninth in the overall standings—an encouraging performance ahead of the final three, more challenging stages. Marie-Morgane Le Deunff also impressed with two consecutive top-10 finishes: she placed eighth on Wednesday’s opening stage and tenth on Thursday, taking second in the bunch sprint behind the breakaway.

Jenaya Francis : "Today was a super fast stage. We had multiple cards to play today with a very versatile team. The goal was to be at the front and make it hard in the final 20km. A group broke away, which I could sit in on as we had sprinters in the peloton. In the end the breakaway stayed away and we were rewarded with the youth jersey! It was a nice surprise, literally haha. Marie showed again her sprint power coming second in the bunch".

Marie-Morgane Le Deunff : “I’m really happy with the team’s mindset. We’re showing real strength, whether it’s setting up lead-outs for the sprints or having riders like Jenaya who can seize their chances in breakaways. Jenaya taking the white jersey is fantastic! We didn’t get many chances to show what we could do in sprints earlier this year, and we lacked coordination. But now, it’s all starting to come together. Today was incredible—I think we gave 100%. I was close to winning the bunch sprint, it came down to a tight margin, but it’s a really positive sign for what’s ahead. We’re excited to see how things unfold in the coming days.”