A year ago, Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) crashed on stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes. She then worked throughout the off-season to transform herself from a sprinter who excelled in time trials to a classics rider, and the 2023 season was promising until she broke her collarbone in Strade Bianche and had to abandon her goal of a classics campaign It turned out to be. In the 2023 Tour de France Femme, she finally made her comeback, entering the breakaway with Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojska (Canyon-SRAM) and Sandra Alonso (Selatigit-WNT) as the chasing peloton closed in late in the race. When Alonso could no longer keep up with him in the last 5km, he and Skalniak-Sojska continued to break away. Norsgaard said in several interviews when he signed in that he entered the breakaway with the goal of winning the stage as a team tactic. "I meant it when I said I was going into the breakaway, but I didn't expect this. I just said, 'I want to win today,' and it's not every day that happens. It's kind of amazing when a plan works. I can't believe that a year after crashing in the Tour, I'm winning a stage: ...... I'm really, really happy and I can't thank my team enough for believing in me and supporting me." Her sporting directors, Jorge Sanz and Jurgen Laurantz, had come up with a plan to win a stage win overnight, but when the plan was presented to her on the morning of the stage after a tropical night in the south of France when the air conditioning in the team hotel failed, Norsgaard was not amused! . "I woke up this morning and thought, 'Oh, no, I can't do this today, I have to work today, I have to suffer today.' And I felt so bad. I had to drink three cups of coffee because no one would talk to me. And DS came up with a plan that I had to go in for the run. Before the stage I was like, 'Hey, come on,' but now I love him," Norsgaard said. While defending Annemiek van Grooten's victory in the 2022 Tour de France femme is undeniably the primary goal for the Movistar team, it is not the be-all and end-all. This was proven by the uphill sprint on stage 2, when Liane Lippert took full control and brought the German champion a stage win. And just one day before the queen stage with Col d'Espin and Col du Tourmalet, Norsgaard was sent on a breakaway mission that sounded impossible. "When Riane won, I was so moved that I cried. It was great for the team atmosphere to start with a stage 2 win. Besides, we are a very good team here, we are real friends and we enjoy our time together. That's what makes miracles happen," said Norsgaard of the Movistar team spirit. It is not often that just three breakers can beat the sprinters, but Norsgaard, Skalniak-Sojka, and Alonso were the trio that found the recipe for victory. 'It was a super strong break, and these girls pulled hard. I tried my best to encourage them in the last 10km. I don't know what to say. Only in the last 5 km, maybe I started to believe. But other than that, I just kept pulling like there was no tomorrow. I had no idea what was going on behind me, and I was listening to nothing but 'Vamos' on the radio," Norsgaard said of the breakaway, which perfectly embodied the all-or-nothing attitude necessary for a successful breakaway. Like Norsgaard, the Danish sprinter-turned-stage-hunter, the Movistar team will need to reinvent itself for 2024, as the team is set to retire after the 2023 season. 'This is the first time I've been in Movistar with Anne-Mike, so it's definitely going to be a big change. I need to enjoy my time with Anne-Mike and enjoy the time we have to win the Tour de France. Then we'll see what happens next year," said Norsgaard, who focused on the here and now rather than speculating about the future. In a message published on the team's Twitter account, Norsgaard thanked the team, her family, including her brother and fellow Movistar Team member Matthias Norsgaard, and especially her husband Mikkel Bjarg (UAE Team Emirates).