Tour de France Femmes stage 5 LIVE – Multiple abandons in crash marred stage

Movistar leading the peloton en masse. It could be an ideal day for their rider Liane Lippert.

Williams tried but is already caught again. The peloton now over 4 minutes down on the leaders.

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Lily Williams (Human Powered Health)

The American rider is trying to, firstly, join Lylyk and then try with the Canadian to join the leaders.

Lylyk’s gap appears to be going out as she struggles to get across to the leaders.

The race has finally settled down with a gap between the five leaders and the peloton now at 3’17” with Lylyk in the gap at 2’05” from the leaders.

The counter attack is by Kiara Lylyk (Winspace-Orange-Seal). The Canadian rider has a big gap to bridge with 2’04” between her and the leaders and the peloton now at 2’37”.

The riders have made it over the halfway mark in the stage. And there is a new counter attack by a rider from Winspace-Orange-Seal.

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly)
Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility)

Completely understandable that Faulkner leaves the race. She has had a torrid time of things in these opening 5 days. Confalonieri was caught in a crash and becomes the 3rd Uno-X Mobility riders to leave the race and 2nd today.

With all the crashes today and in this race as a whole, you can completely understand why Ellen van Dijk has decided to step away from the sport with fears for her safety…

>>> ‘The peloton is not my place any more’ – Ellen van Dijk retires due to fear of crashes and further injury

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Chapman has bridged to the leading quad of riders to make it a quintet. Markus has been caught with the peloton now a minute behind.

Split in the peloton with 10 riders going clear of the main bunch.

The leading four riders have 14″ on Chapman, 1’00” on Markus and 1’15” to the peloton.

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Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek)

This is causing a big reaction from Visma-Lease a Bike in the peloton as that is one too many dangerous riders going clear.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)

Two big names forced to leave the race. Both came down in crashes today but Balsamo has suffered since the crash on stage three. A real blow to both teams.

Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ)

The former Australian national champion goes clear to try and bridge to the four leaders and is just a handful of seconds ahead of the peloton who are 55″ behind the leaders.

Eugenia Bujak (Cofidis)

The Slovenian national champion has had to leave the race after crashing.

The gap has been reduced further to just one minute between the peloton and the breakaway.

Martin dragged back by the peloton again. They are only allowed a relatively small gap to the four leaders.

Jackson and Soto have bridged to Dijkstra and Barale with a new chaser in the gap, Sara Martine (Movistar). She is 1’10” down on the leaders with the peloton 1’22” down.

It was “a big relief to feel good” for Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) after her crash on stage three. All the uncertainty around whether she would be able to start yesterday or not will have been a lot for her to deal with.

Today will be the first real test since the accident and will see whether she does actually have the legs or not when it comes to the key moments.

>>> ‘A big relief to feel good’ – Neck pain improves through Tour de France Femmes stage 4 as Demi Vollering now takes it day by day

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The leading duo of Dijkstra and Barale have 12″ on Soto and Jackson and did have 1’44” on the peloton but it has been reduced down to 1’20”.

The peloton has finally let a gap go over a minute to the breakaway. Barale and Dijkstra have 1’15” on the bunch with Jackson and Soto still 25″ down in the chase.

Dijkstra has bridged to Barale as Jackson and Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) are trying to join them. They are 25″ from the leaders and 25″ from the peloton.

Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) trying to bridge to Barale. She is 20″ off the leader. The peloton are back up to 40″.

Arkea-B&B Hotels and Fenix-Deceuninck riders involved including Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck).

The gap is starting to fall again as Barale has 30″ and the counter move has been dragged back.

The gap between Barale and the peloton is now out to 40″ with a counter attack now forming.

There are some big plans in place for Kim Le Court and her AG Insurance-Soudal team as they try to take the stage and reclaim yellow from Vos.

Barale extends her advantage to 24″. She may have timed this perfectly just as every team is going back to get bottles, gels, bars etc.

Francesca Barale (Picnic-PostNL)

The young Italian has 18″ on the peloton.

Multiple riders are going back to the car for feeding as the race appears to have calmed down for the first time today.

The average speed in the first hour has been a rapid 46.5kph.

The race is about to head into the perfect terrain for double Giro d’Italia Women stage winner, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) with her sitting 19th in GC at just 51″ from yellow.

With no time trial on the route she can really challenge the top riders at this race if she brings the form she had at the Giro.

>>> ‘The Giro was just like a hard training week’ – Sarah Gigante well-placed as she heads towards her favoured mountain territory at Tour de France Femmes

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And it is all back together yet again.

More attacks as a group of four riders get a 13″ gap ahead of the Visma-Lease a Bike led peloton.

The Visma-Lease a Bike plan sounds simple on paper…

Lorena Wiebes’ group is now back in the peloton again after a frantic chase.

Mavi Garcia (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)

The small group of attackers have been brought back by the peloton but Wiebes’ group are yet to rejoin.

The race split into four. Wiebes and co have, in fact, not made it back on and are 33″ off the back of the peloton. There is another group over two minutes down.

Thankfully, everyone involved in the last crash are back riding again.

Wiebes, with help from SD Worx-Protim teammate Blanka Vas, is back in the peloton again. A scary moment that the green jersey and second overall could’ve done without.

The five riders attacking have been caught. There is a small group off the back of the peloton after the crash.

Five riders clear of the peloton in all the carnage. Several riders went down in the crash.

Another crash! Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) caught in the spill as well as several other riders from multiple teams.

It has been a very difficult race so far for American national champion and Olympic road race champion, Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly).

She has crashed multiple times in this race and has been caught out in multiple splits and even crashed in this morning’s neutral zone.

>>> No luck for Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner after second crash at Tour de France Femmes

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Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility)

The Norwegian rider is unable to continue after crashing.

The peloton is all back together. Including the riders involved in the earlier crash such as Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility).

Many riders have tried to form a break today including the likes of Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Mobility), Alice Maria Arzuffi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) and many others besides, but it is Jackson, Beekhuis and Molenaar who have got the gap for now.

The three leaders are Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) and Teuntje Beekhuis (Uno-X Mobility) and they have a gap of 22″ on the peloton.

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Cecchini is caught but new moves start up again immediately with Uno-X Mobility involved in a three rider group.

The peloton are riding at very high speed and splits are starting to form under the pressure.

There’s been a fall involving riders from Uno-X Mobility and AG Insurance-Soudal.

Elena Cecchini (SD Worx-Protime) launches an attack at the front of the bunch at the same time. She has a gap of 33″.

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Around 100km until the intermediate sprint in Dun-le-Palestel.

It is all back together again after various attempts to form the break almost stuck. Another fast start at the Tour.

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Berteau swiftly dragged back with just two riders leading the way.

The leading three have 20″ on the peloton with Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) 12″ down on the leaders.

Saying that, the gap expands to 18″.

The three riders have just 10″ on the peloton. This doesn’t appear to be sticking.

Three riders go clear and get a small gap on the peloton.

Into the final 100 miles of the race and the moves are coming thick and fast with Lidl-Trek trying to join the action but it comes to nothing and it is all back together again.

Two riders go clear with, surprise surprise, Franziska Koch (Picnic-PostNL) being the first to launch with a rider from Ceratizit joining.

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143 riders start today’s stage.

No moves coming early on with a long wait until the action points of the day and, indeed, television coverage.

The fifth stage of the Tour de France Femmes has begun.

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly)

You couldn’t make it up. If Faulkner didn’t have bad luck she’s have no luck at all at this race.

The riders have started the neutralised zone for stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025. They have 7.5km of neutral before racing begins.

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This morning sees Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) join Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) as the 10th and 11th riders to abandon the race.

Yesterday saw Ana Vitoria Magalhães (Movistar) take the first mountains points by a Brazilian rider in Tour de France history!

The riders are all getting ready for the stage with sign on almost complete.

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The deciding factor will likely be on the final climb of Le Maupuy. It is 2.8km long with an average gradient of 5.4%. However, this tells just part of the story. The category 3 climb is also where the bonus sprint is placed.

The bonus sprint comes moments before a 16% kicker. The riders wanting to attack will have to make a key tactical decision here. Attack for the 6″, 4″ and 2″ bonuses or make the move afterwards and potentially gain more from it. The top of the climb comes about 500 metres after the bonus sprint and then it is downhill into the finish.

The main focus today is on what sort of stage it will be. Will it be a breakaway success with some GC snipes behind? Perhaps a GC rider will come out on top and claim yellow? Or will it be yet another day for the likes of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) to go head-to-head again?

The riders are due to set off for the neutral start in around 20 minutes from now.

The race may be a slow burner today as there isn’t any sprint of any kind until 40km to go. That means 126km of flat or gently rolling terrain for the peloton to get very nervous on.

Today’s stage is the longest of the race with the riders set to tackle 165.8km of racing between Chasseneuil du Poitou Futuroscope to Guéret.

There are three categorised climbs towards the end of the stage as well as the usual intermediate sprint which is in Dun-le-Palestel and a return of the bonus sprint, which comes shortly before the summit of the final climb.

Bonjour and welcome to our live updates on stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025.