With Wednesday’s fifth stage of the Tour de France Femmes, this year’s race has barely ventured into the foothills of the Massif Central, and yet the battle for the general classification already seems clearly defined.
The peloton battled through just over 5,000 metres of climbing during the opening four days, tackling the hills of Brittany and the flatlands of the Loire and Vienne heading east. To date, however, the 2,070 metres of elevation gain on the road to Guéret – mostly concentrated into the stage’s trio of late hills – provoked the biggest shake-up in the race yet for the yellow jersey.
Along the way, favourites have fallen by the wayside, with Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) both leaving the race due to illness and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) not at full strength following her Giro d’Italia back injury.
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Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) had a scare, too, avoiding a concussion or any other race-ending injury after she was caught in a crash late on stage 3. But she was up there on the final hill of stage 5, Le Maupuy, along with six other racers – the cream of the crop on the toughest stage of the Tour to date.
The Dutchwoman, the standout pre-race favourite, looks back to full strength following her fall, having sprinted to second place in Guéret. She’s not the punchiest rider in the peloton, as she admitted herself earlier this week, and so missed on the sprint for six bonus seconds 1.5km from the top of the climb, but she made them back on the line.
At 24 seconds off new race leader Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), she’s still very much in the mix and, if she races on unaffected by that stage 3 spill – “I hope I will only get better from today but let’s see” were her thoughts after stage 5 – still the number one favourite as the Alps loom.
Le Court-Pienaar, who two years ago didn’t have a pro contract, is the wildcard among the favourites. The 29-year-old Mauritian champion has enjoyed a rapid rise to the top of the sport after joining her team last year, winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia Women and then battling with the best in the hills of the Tour before taking a famous win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège this spring.
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She hit the hills of Brittany with relish, finishing second and third on the opening two stages, in the process becoming the first African Tour de France Femmes leader.
Her 10 bonus seconds there, plus another 16 on stage 5, give her a comfortable 18-second cushion over second place, though every day from now on will be a new test with tougher climbs piling up and some stages likely to be decided by minutes, rather than seconds.
Le Court-Pienaar’s teammate Sarah Gigante played a vital role in helping her reclaim yellow and win the stage. The Australian leapt 11 places to eighth overall, 1:04 down, as a result of her ride.
Some may be tempted to cast Gigante into a leadership role following her stunning Giro performance. She insists she’s here to work for her team leader, however.
“I knew I was coming here with Kim as the GC leader, and she’s doing so well. It’s a pleasure to work for her,” Gigante said on Wednesday.
Behind Le Court-Pienaar lies Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), another rider who came out firing during the opening weekend. The multi-disciplinary star is France’s great hope at this Tour, and she hasn’t failed any of the tests the race has posed to date.
Her third place in Plumelec was followed by eighth in Quimper, while she had no trouble sticking in the lead group to finish fifth in Guéret. The coming mountains represent a voyage into the unknown for her, too, with Ferrand-Prévot currently riding her first road campaign since 2018.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto) can also be pleased with her first half of the race. The reigning champion lies fourth overall, 24 seconds down on Le Court-Pienaar.
She grabbed two bonus seconds atop Le Maupuy to close within a second of Vollering but was left with regrets after the closing sprint. Nonetheless, she’ll look ahead to the coming days with optimism and perhaps less stress than some of the other contenders for yellow, as she said after the stage.
“Mentally, maybe I feel like I’m in a good position knowing that I have already won this race, so I feel like there’s less of a despair inside me,” she said.
“I feel like the goal is to repeat the success again because it’s been an amazing journey. But also, I have a sense of calmness that I have the yellow jersey at home hanging on the wall, which is great.”
Behind her lies SD Worx-Protime’s GC hope, race debutant Anna van der Breggen. The Dutch team insisted before the race that stage wins were on their minds, rather than any GC bid. We’ll see how that plays out, but Van der Breggen was very active on Wednesday, whether it was for the stage or for time.
In any case, she’s the once-dominant squad’s only hope of a top GC placing now, lying as she does 27 seconds off the lead. Van der Breggen slotted back into the peloton seamlessly after her three-year retirement, even if she hasn’t yet proven to be the force she once was.
As we’ve seen at Strade Bianche, the Vuelta, the Giro and here, she’s still near the top when it comes to the hills, but again, the high mountains will shine a light on whether she’s already shown her limit or whether there remain new heights to hit as her comeback progresses.
Pauliena Rooijakkers (left) of Fenix-Deceuninck competes during stage 5 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Another Dutchwoman who made the cut among the ‘magnificent seven’ in Guéret was Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck). Last year’s podium finisher lies 45 seconds off the lead and is a real threat to repeat her result again this July.
She’s up against ‘bigger’ names in the likes of Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney and Van der Breggen, but her Grand Tour record speaks for itself, with her Tour podium sitting atop her palmarès alongside a pair of Giro fourth places.
Rooijakkers’ younger teammate Puck Pieterse finished among the second group and so slips to ninth at 1:04 down, perhaps showing the first signs of an emerging hierarchy within the Belgian squad.
Rooijakkers’ reputation, after all, has been built on the longer climbs rather than the punchy tests of the Tour’s first half, and in her own words, her performance so far “hopefully bodes well for what’s to come”.
“I was actually quite surprised after the first stage; I was able to hold my own on this finish as well,” she told WielerFlits. “I’ve done everything I can so far. I’m in a good position, but long climbs are a different story altogether. We’ll have to wait and see.”
Beyond the 32-year-old, a host of other names are still positioned in the mix, but slipping a little further away, such as Breton racer Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), and half of Vollering’s support squad.
The grouping – which includes Juliette Labous, Elise Chabbey, and Evita Muzic – finished with Pieterse in the chase group. A bad day or a sign of things to come as the GC race further stratifies?
Phrases such as ‘wait and see’ and ‘take it day-by-day’ were well-worn on Wednesday afternoon. They’re true, of course, as the Tour only increases in difficulty from here. Stage 5 may well have given us our first look at who exactly we’ll be watching on those even more taxing days to come, however.
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