Elizabeth Uttrup Marianne Vos finished second and kept the yellow jersey while Ludwig won the third stage of the first Tour de France Femmes.
Ludwig, a 26-year-old from Denmark, finished two seconds ahead of the Dutch racer.
After a 133.6 km race from Reims to Eperney, Ludwig was able to get away from a breakaway of six riders.
“I just kept fighting – this is for my team, they kept believing in me,” said Ludwig.
“It feels like such a good comeback – I just love how the team kept the fighting spirit.
“If I had the legs, I could try and do the win – but to actually do it and be a Tour de France stage winner, in this jersey [the Danish national jersey] – it doesn’t get better. What a victory man,” Ludwig added.
After teammate Marta Cavalli, one of the front-runners for the championship, withdrew from the race on Monday after being involved in a crash, FDJ Suez Futuroscope had a terrible stage two.
Stages one and two of the Tour were very flat, so when the peloton encountered its first significant hills, Team Jumbo-Vos Visma’s came in second, barely ahead of Ashleigh Moolman of South Africa, Silvia Persico and Elisa Lono Borghini of Italy, and Katarzyna Niewiakoma of Poland.
