Refresh
Squiban is absolutely flying down the descent but her gap hasn’t gone out any further with 1’04” between her and the peloton led by Chabbey.
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Mechanical
Chabbey leads the peloton for Vollering with 1’09” up to Squiban.
Smulders was in the group but left it too late to attack and was accidentally blocked by Malcotti.
QoM (Col du Chansert)
Julie Bego (Cofidis) and Nienke Vinke (Picnic-PostNL) have both been dropped together as they have their own little battle for the white jersey. Just 22″ split them with Bego leading.
30km to go
Gigante goes to the front of the peloton with Le Court on her wheel. Squiban now has 28″ on the peloton.
Attack
Bauernfeind goes to the front to set the tempo for Niewiadoma-Phinney.
Attack!
Attack
Dropped
Chabbey goes solo and has a gap of 10″ on the GC group.
Onto the Col du Chansert, 6.3km long with an average gradient of 5.5%. A category two climb.
Chabbey, Lippert and Paladin are just 10″ ahead of the group led by Kerbaol and Niewiadoma-Phinney with the peloton close behind.
Attack in peloton
Chapman and Coston have been caught by the peloton.
Paladin is pushing across the gap to join Chabbey and Lippert at the front of the race.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) comes to the front of the peloton to really test her opponents on the descent.
Attack!
Just 24″ between the break and the peloton.
Chabbey and Smulders kicked on after sprinting for the points but Chapman has closed them down again.
QoM (Col du Béal)
Belgian national champion, Ghekiere, comes back to the front of the peloton to work for Le Court and Gigante. They are 28″ off the back of the break.
Paladin makes it back into the break. Very impressive ride by her.
Chapman has now taken over the pacing in the breakaway.
Inside 2km from the top of the Col du Béal.
Paladin has been dropped by the break now as well.
Kraak also now caught. The gap dips under 30″ for the first time in a long time.
Hanson has been caught by the peloton.
Sixth place in the GC and former yellow jersey, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) has lost touch with the peloton.
However, the break led by Chabbey has dragged the gap out to 37″ again.
It really looks as though AG Insurance-Soudal are setting up an attack by either Le Court of Gigante with Julie van de Velde setting an infernal pace in the peloton.
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That move by Chabbey followed by Chapman dropped Hanson and Kraak with Paladin struggling to followw as well with 4km to the top of the climb.
Chabbey is now upping the pace in the break and is testing the rest of her breakaway companions.
Gerritse and Georgi caught by the peloton.
50km to go
Gerritse, Georgi and Hanson are getting dropped from the breakaway with the latter fighting to stay in contact.
The riders are 7km from the top of the Col du Béal with just 30″ gap between the break and peloton.
The gap continues to reduce with just 35″ between the break and the bunch. More riders dropped from peloton including Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime).
The pace has shot up in the peloton again and the gap up to the break is now just 42″. So many riders losing touch with the peloton.
More riders getting dropped from the peloton including Wiebes, who has been dropped twice already.
Fenix-Deceuninck rejoin AG Insurance-Soudal on the front of the peloton. It is an odd choice when they have Kastelijn in the break.
Attack in break
The pace in the peloton has now dramatically changed with AG Insurance-Soudal absolutely hammering the pace on the front of the bunch. This has brought to gap down to 54″.
Chabby is, by far, the best placed rider in the breakaway with just 1’19” of a gap from her to the yellow jersey of Le Court. This is one of the reasons why the peloton are not letting this go.
AG Insurance-Soudal coming to the front has really helped the bunch close the gap as they are now 1’13” behind the break.
Pace of the peloton has dropped as Wiebes is back in the bunch again after getting dropped. AG Insurance-Soudal join the other teams on the front to join in the chase.
60km to go
Kraak is setting a very strong place in the break and has extended the advantage of the break to 1’25” over the peloton led by SD Worx-Protime, VolkerWessels and Fenix-Deceuninck.
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Chapman gave her all in the break yesterday and won the most combative prize. She is now in the breakaway again and giving her all as she gets a carte blanche now her leaders are out of the race…
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Multiple riders are losing touch with the peloton including the green jersey of Wiebes as they are now on the Col du Béal climb. The gap is hovering around a minute between the break and the bunch.
The chasing group has been caught by the peloton with 12 riders leading by 55″ over the pack with 66km to go.
The peloton have now started setting a strong pace with EF Education-Oatly, Cofidis and SD Worx-Protime leading the way. Now a gap of 57″ between the break and the peloton.
The QoM fight seems to be becoming a three-woman fight as Chapman joins Chabbey and Smulders.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
70km to go
QoM (Côte d’Augerolles)
Several riders have been dropped out of the back of the peloton with over a minute and a half to the first group of 8 which includes Andersen after her crash.
Abandon
The leading group have 29″ over Williams, Zanetti, Bredewold and Norsgaard and 1’00” on the peloton. This looks like it could possibly go away and form the definite break of the day.
Justine Ghekiere doing a lot of early work on the front of the peloton for AG Insurance-Soudal and the yellow jersey, Le Court.
Williams, Norsgaard, Bredewold and Zanetti have also all been dropped by the leaders as the group continues to whittle down with 12 riders now clear of the rest.
Molenaar and Eric are the next to lose touch with the leading group.
Onto the final of the two category three climbs, the 2.6km long Côte d’Augerolles which has an average gradient of 5.6%.
80km to go
Crash!
QoM (Côte de Courpière)
The peloton are now 45″ ahead of the peloton who have just caught Pluimers.
Pluimers has been dropped from the breakaway. The peloton have not let this go as there is still 40″ between the two groups.
Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto), Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) complete the list of riders in the break.
SIlker Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) is also in the breakaway. She is Chabbey’s closest rival in the battle for polka dots with just 5 points splitting them going into today.
Onto the first QoM of the day, the 1.7km long category 3 climb of the Côte de Courpière which has an average gradient of 6.8%.
20 riders in the leading group with a gap of 40″ over the peloton. There are some really big names involved in the move listed in the intermediate sprint results below.
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intermediate sprint (Sermentizon)
There is a new counter move behind the leaders as they roll through the intermediate sprint.
Chase group caught as the peloton closes the gap to 12″ up to the group including Chabbey and Zanetti.
There is another small group in the chase as well but the peloton are not far behind.
The chasing group join Zanetti and it includes the polka dot jersey of Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) who appears to be going for the mountain classification.
Just 5km to the intermediate sprint as another rider joins the counter move trying to join Zanetti out front.
Four riders are now 15″ behind Zanetti with the peloton at 20″.
The rider who has gone clear for Uno-X Mobility is Linda Zanetti. The sprinter could take some good points at the intermediate sprint as she extends her lead to 15″ over the peloton.
100km to go
Coston caught and it is all back together yet again.
Coston’s gap back down to 5″ as it appears she will be caught before the intermediate sprint.
Around 10km until the intermediate sprint in Sermentizon. Coston’s gap goes back up to 10″ again.
The gap is coming back down again to the French rider as she, once again, has 10″ which then reduces to just 5″ in very short order.
There was a brief counter attack by a Ceratizit rider but she was swiftly brought back. Coston now has a gap of 15″ over the peloton.
Morgane Coston (Roland-Le Devoluy) is the rider who has pushed on solo out of the peloton and has a gap of 10″ over the bunch.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
A new move comes and it is just one rider going clear. Maybe this one can stick.
That group is brought back into the bunch once again. The fight for the early breakaway has been fierce with the peloton not keen to let anyone go up the road as of yet.
Ten riders go clear of the peloton. Again, they only have a tiny gap on the chasing peloton.
Wiebes and co have been dragged back and everything is together once again.
Attack
(Image credit: Getty Images)
That group is brought back but multiple moves keep trying to get away including the green jersey of Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime). However, nothing is allowed to go clear as of yet.
A new move of 5 riders get a small gap but the peloton are flying along in these early stages.
All together once again. It is very cagey start to stage 6 as there is a lot to race for today with a likely change in the mountain standings as well as the GC fight and battle for the stage win.
A small group have a gap of 10″ on the peloton.
New attacks begin in the peloton led by Ceratizit.
Just 133 riders start today after a huge number left yesterday, overnight and this morning with Mie Bjorndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) being the latest rider to leave.
Attack!
123.7km to go
Yesterday’s stage gave us a flavour of what to expect in the GC fight today and in the remaining days in the mountains…
(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
The official race start is expected in about 10 minutes but a few riders have ad mechanicals which could delay things.
Huge crowds saw the riders roll out of Clermont-Ferrand today…
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Unfortunately, Valentina Cavallar and Marjolein van ‘t Geloof of Arkea-B&B Hotels have had to leave the race with illness.
Neutral start
Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) is still in the top 10 of GC (10th at 1’16”) but is unhappy with her performance and it motivated to gain time back on her rivals today…
Just 3 riders left for Uno-X Mobility after a very difficult day yesterday where they lost two riders after losing one on stage 4 as well.
Just 10 minutes until the neutral start.
At the very last moment of yesterday’s stage, Le Court lookd round as she eased up to celebrate and saw and rapidly closing Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez).
(Image credit: Getty Images)
To take a more in-depth dive into today’s stage, take a look at our stage 6 preview for all the info you need…
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With the stage being so short and a likely lively start to potentially form a breakaway, riders are on the rollers to warm up. Including the yellow jersey of Le Court. Also, with the temperatures up to 26°c in Clermont-Ferrand, the ice vests are out.
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Riders are heading to sign on in Clermont-Ferrand. The city hosted the Grand Depart for the race two years ago with two stages starting there and one finish as well, so it will be very familiar to the riders.
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Coming into today the jerseys are all very close on time and points. Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) has a 18″ lead over her closest rival Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike).
GC after stage five
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Today’s stage starts in the city of Clermont-Ferrand and takes on four categorised climbs as well as an intermediate sprint and bonus sprint on the 123.7km long route to Ambert.
Bonjour and welcome to our live updates on stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025.