Kim Le Court sprints to victory on Tour Femmes stage five and takes yellow from Marianne Vos

Kim Le Court won stage five of the Tour de France Femmes in Guéret after a tough final 30 kilometres that decimated the bunch.

The AG Insurance-Soudal rider was the first rider home from an elite lead group that formed over the final climbs and included Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) among others.

The stage also saw yellow jersey Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) dropped over the final climb and consequently losing her yellow jersey.

The stage was also marked by numerous crashes, with eight riders including Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) forced to retire.

Afterwards Le Court described the team's three-part plan for the stage.

"We had a very clear plan to stay safe in the early part of the race because it was very flat and there were a lot of big crashes," she said.

"The big goal was to take the bonus sprint, which I managed to do, and then if we finished in a small group then try and take the stage victory."

She described being slightly out of position in the finishing sprint as the line came sooner than she expected, but added: "Luckily I had the fastest kick in the group."

She also paid tribute to team-mate Sarah Gigante, who did a lot of work for Le Court in the final few kilometres.

"That helped a lot," she said. "I think if I didn't have Sarah with me then maybe the [Vos] group behind would have come back – because some girls weren't keen to pace. I think it was only me Demi, and Kasia that were keen to do the work.

"Once Sarah got back on after the downhill I was really really lucky to have her because she committed fully to the line. It shows that teamwork is what you need in the sport."

With Le Court celebrating despite a fast-approaching Vollering, who looked like she might almost pip the Mauritian rider on the line, she admitted: "Maybe I gave a fright to people watching at home," but explained that she was never in doubt about the result.

"[On the bike] when you turn around you can see that you have the speed and you will cross the line first," she said.

With Vos finishing 33 seconds in arrears on a number of her GC rivals, she now sits in sixth place at 37sec. Le Court leads Ferrand-Prévot by 18sec and Vollering by 23sec.

How it happened

Today's stage saw the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift reach central France, with the longest stage of the race taking the riders from Chasseneuil du Poitou to Guéret. For context, the 165.8km distance was very nearly as long as April's women's Tour of Flanders, and nearly 20km longer than the Paris-Roubaix.

The profile described an almost imperceptible uphill line over the first two-thirds of the stage, before hitting a trio of classified climbs, the first coming after around 130km.

Francesca Barale (Picnic PostNL) was one of the first riders to get a significant gap, and she was joined, as she no doubt hoped she would be, by four others – Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels), Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi), and later joined by Brodie Chapman (UAE ADQ).

After at first appearing unsure, the peloton seemed to deem this breakaway one that could be allowed a long leash, and the five riders drwe out a gap of four-and-a-half minutes.

However, it seemed inevitable that the climbs at the end of the stage could trip the attackers up, and so it played out.

With the gap already having been significantly reduced by the peloton, the break began to fragment.

Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) attacked on the Côte du Peyroux with around 25km to go, dropping Jackson and Barale.

Stage win hopeful and green jersey Lorena Wiebes, who won yesterday, was dropped on the climb as the peloton fought to close on Chapman, but was shepherded by Lotte Kopecky, who gave her a wheel to follow.

Aussie time trial champion Chapman was nearly caught on the early part of the descent with the gap closing to within a handful of seconds. However, against the odds, she managed to draw it out again on the flatter terrain.

With around 17km to go, just before the final climb of the day to Le Maupuy, Chapman was joined by more riders – Maeva Squiban, Shirin van Anrooij, Silke Smulders and Dilyxine Miermont, forming a very strong quintet.

The GC riders, including Vos, Sarah Gigante were active on the front of the peloton, pegging the five escapees at close range – 12-13 seconds – as they reached the foot of the Maupuy climb.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto drove the reduced peloton up the lower slopes of the climb as Squiban attacked and Chapman and Miermont fell back to the bunch. But Squiban's efforts came to nothing, with the bunch finally bearing down on her with 9km to go. Nieuwiadoma and Vollering up at the front, with Gigante driving it hard, but Kim Le Court is first over first

Vos was distanced over the top to the tune of 20 seconds, with Kasia Nieuwiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) pushing hard down the hill with Gigante, Vollering and Le Court all in tow.

Try as she might, Vos was unable to make inroads into the gap to the leaders, and she watched her GC lead slip away as the elite group slowly opened the gap further. With Gigante working hard on the front and Le Court conserving as much energy as possible, the stage was set for the Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner to take her first Tour Femmes win.

Results

Tour de France Femmes 2025, stage five: Chasseneuil du Poitou > Guéret (165.8km)

1. Kim Le Court (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, in 3:54:07
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez
3. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
4. Kasia Nieuwiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
5. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
6. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal
7. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, all at same time
8. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +33s
9. Évita Musik (Fra) FDJ-Suez
10. Elise Chabbey (Swi) FDJ-Suez, both at same time

General Classification after stage five

1. Kim Le Court (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, in 15:07:14
2. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, +18s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ, + 25s
4. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, +24s.
5. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +27s
6. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +37s
7. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +45s
8. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +55s
9. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:04
10. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly, +1:16