1 hour ago
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Key events
78km to go: It’s not so hot today, but still hot enough: officially 27.5C, but hotter than that on the road.
79km to go: At the sprint point, Aalerud took 25pts, Adegeest 20, Noskova 17. Then, in the bunch behind, Noemi Rüegg took fourth place (15pts) and the green-jersey incumbent, Lorena Wiebes, was fifth for 13pts.
80km to go: It’s a gap of 1min 27sec now.
“Today will be really interesting again,” said Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease A Bike) earlier, interviewed by TNT Sports. “It could be a day for the break. I’m not sure if they’ll let me go.
“Pauline and I now share the leadership, we’ll both go for the GC.
“Today the climbs are not as steep, but still technical descents, and it’s an opportunity to try something.”
“We think we can do something nice on the Ventoux [tomorrow] … Maybe people will be a bit calm today because of what’s coming tomorrow.”
83km to go: Noskova is harvesting some handy QOM points. She takes two more on the Côte de Praneuf. Adegeest takes a point.
84km to go: I just accidentally typed “Marlene” instead of “Marlen” Reusser, and decided we needed an Only Fools and Horses pic to keep us going, before the proper live coverage begins.
85km to go: The gap between break and peloton has fallen to 2min. The bunch is about to crest the Côte de Praneuf.
“It would be nice to win the stage,” Pieterse told TNT Sports earlier. “I hope to score some points along the way.
“Every day is another opportunity now we’re in the hills.”
Have you reconned the stage? “No.”
Stephen Delcourt, the FDJ United-Suez DS, had a chat with TNT Sports earlier about yesterday’s win for Demi Vollering:
“Always special to win a stage … the last one was in 2022, so it was too long … I’m really happy about how we did it as a team.
“Yesterday the goal was to race as a Classic. It was the same as Liège-Bastogne-Liège
“When we take a plan to the riders, they always say: it’s not Playstation cycling. [I think he is referring to the fact that their plan worked perfectly yesterday, so it kind of was Playstation cycling in that case.]
“Today’s another day. We don’t have yellow, the pressure is on the shoulders of Movistar.
“Demi is really relaxed. She wants to be aggressive. It’s her style, her DNA. Today can be another opportunity. But we have no big pressure. We will see during the race what we can do.
“We had a celebration, but it was only one glass, because we want to celebrate on Sunday night.”
94km to go: It’s 2min 20sec for the break now. We’ve got three more categorised climbs to go, and the bonification point comes after that, with 9.2km remaining.
The climbs to come are as follows:
Côte de Praneuf (Cat 4, 1.2km, 6.5%, 85.5km remaining)
Col de Lalouvesc (Cat 2, 8.6km, 5%, 47.8km remaining)
Côte de Boucieu-le-Roi (Cat 3, 3.8km, 5.7%, 15.9km remaining)
99km to go: It’s now 2min for the break. Initially, it seemed the teams behind were keeping this on a tight leash. But it seems they are content to let them go.
102km to go: Noskova took 3 QOM points atop the Côte d’Aurec. Adegeest two, Aalerud one.
Noskova is second to Pieterse in the QOM standings: I think Pieterse is still a very healthy 23pts ahead, having won the earlier climb.
104km to go: Aalerud is the closest on GC among the three breakaway riders. She’s 8min 38sec down and perhaps a bit too close to be let off the leash. In contrast Adegeest (+35min 06) and Noskova (+36min 07sec) are well out of it.
Mont Ventoux tomorrow is sure to be a massive battle in the GC. Reusser and her rivals probably wouldn’t mind letting this break go and chilling out, relatively speaking, for the day … the gap has now grown to 1min.
106km to go: Adegeest is a former speed skater, and won the UCI ESports World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
There’s a group of 11 dropped riders now, two minutes down on the front of the race. A long day in store.
107km to go: The breakaway riders are nearing the summit of the Côte d’Aurec. They have a 50sec advantage and will hoover up all the QOM points on offer.
CORRECTION: Despite the fact that the official Tour de France Femmes website lists Adegeest’s birthday as 6 August, it appears it’s actually 7 August.
108km to go: Hang on … it’s Loes Adegeest’s 30th birthday today! She’s in the breakaway, and obviously fancies a stage win as a birthday present. Or at the very least, a bit of time in the limelight. And why not?
110km to go: Eleonora Ciabocco (Picnic-PostNL) has abandoned. All three riders to abandon today are Italian.
113km to go: The Côte d’Aurec is up next. It’s 3.3km long, with a 6.1% average gradient.
The advantage of the three leaders has fallen to 40sec.
118km to go: The leading trio have 55sec.
The dropped riders are 30sec behind the bunch.
122km to go: Not only was Noskova in the bunch, she’s attacked with two others: Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek) and Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility).
128km to go: Nine riders have been dropped and are 25sec down: Koster, Ciabocco, Eraso Lasa, Vigilia, Coston, Rijnbeek, Kool, Clay, and Griffin.
Noskova was there, but has rejoined the main bunch. Good effort.
130km to go: Pieterse was present and correct on the first climb, and took the maximum two QOM points. Sara Casasola, also of Fenix-Premier Tech, took the other point. Even better! (From Pieterse’s perspective.)
And here’s the points classification top 10:
1) Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) 131pts
2) Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) 68pts
3) Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) 65pts
4) Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) 62pts
5) Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) 55pts
6) Marlen Reusser (Movistar) 52pts
7) Kim Le Court (AG Insurance–Soudal) 52pts
8) Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health) 42pts
9) Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike) 42pts
10) Dominika Wlodarcyzk (UAE Team L’Imad) 40pts
133km to go: The bunch is nearly atop the Côte de Périgneux.
The Côte de la Prunerie, another category-four, follows almost immediately: 2.9km long, average gradient 4.9%.
Here are the QOM standings after Pieterse’s impressive all-out assault on stage five, when she nabbed 19pts:
1) Puck Pieterse (Fenix Premier-Tech) 37pts
2) Nikola Noskova (Cofidis) 14pts
3) Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) 11pts
4) Maëva Squiban (UAE Team L’Imad) 9pts
5) Oceané Mahe (Ma Petite Entreprise] 8pts
6) Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) 7pts
7) Liane Lippert (Movistar) 7pts
8) Ema Comte (Cofidis) 6pts
9) Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) 5pts
10) Idoia Eraso Lasa (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) 5pts
Here’s the top 10 in the general classification:
1) Reusser (Movistar) 15hr 41min 18sec (Bonus: 12sec)
2) Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) +12sec (Bonus: 18sec)
3) Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM) +1min 17sec (Bonus: 4sec)
4) Niedermaier (Canyon/SRAM) +2min 40sec
5) Wlodarczyk (UAE L’Imad) +2min 54sec (Bonus: 2sec)
6) Longo Borghini (UAE L’Imad) +2min 58sec
7) Holmgren (Lidl Trek) +3min 05sec
8) De Vries (Visma-Lease A Bike) +3min 11sec
9) Kerbaol (EF Education Oatly) +3min 41sec
10) Blaisi Cairol (UAE L’Imad) +3min 51sec
137km to go: Will Puck Pieterse be on the warpath for QOM points again? I very much expect so. On which note, let’s take a look at the classifications as they stood after stage five.
137.5km to go: The group of dropped riders has swelled to six.
138km to go: Nelson is caught. But two of her teammates – Eleonora Ciabocco and Lene Robyn Clay – have been dropped. Mia Griffin, also of Picnic-PostNL, has been dropped too! Did they neglect to have their Weetabix this morning, or did Nelson steal it all at the Picnic-PostNL team hotel?
139km to go: Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) – who hails from Lichfield in Staffordshire – has attacked solo approaching the first climb.
141km to go: The bunch is all together.
ICYMI (a vintage internet acronym for you there) here is Jeremy Whittle’s piece about alleged use of chest padding for aerodynamic benefit in the time trial on Tuesday:
143km to go: The official feed on the TdF Femmes website says 134 riders started. But on the live tracker, it says 133 in the bunch, and there are no dropped riders that I can see. It’s certainly in the ball park of 130, anyway.
144km to go: If you are somewhere on the race route, waiting to cheer on the riders, send me an email and a photo.
If you are not somewhere on the race route, waiting to cheer on the riders, send me an email.
145km to go: Today’s first climb is the Côte de Périgneux, a cheeky little 1.4km affair, category-four, average gradient 6.2%.
Note: It’s obviously not cheeky in any way.
Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) and Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-Alula-Jayco) are withdrawals as of stage six. Meaning 134 riders started today.
The official withdrawals page can be found here.
Racing on stage six
Neutralised rollout complete, flag waved, and they’re off.
Sadly there is AFL on my telly (nothing against AFL) – but live coverage on TNT Sports begins at 2.30pm UK time, AKA BST.
Stage five was a doozy. Don’t miss Jeremy Whittle’s report:
Preamble
Mont Ventoux looms ever closer – one of the hardest climbs in cycling will be tackled by the peloton on Friday – but today’s 153km trip from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhône is much more than a transitional stage en route to the Giant of Provence.
Six categorised climbs await – 2,600m of vertical ascent – as the race winds its way through some stunning (if parched and wildfire-threatened) French countryside, finishing on the banks of the Rhône river in the Ardéche department.
Yesterday’s stage, when the trio of Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Kasia Niewiadoma struck out together to fight for victory, was a draining, enthralling affair and especially challenging straight after Tuesday’s individual time trial. It would be little surprise if a suitably-constituted breakaway is allowed up the road today, allowing the GC riders a bit of respite before the gruelling test of tomorrow.
This being the Tour de France Femmes, though, confident predictions are a fool’s game. Whatever happens it will be fun.
Neutralised start: 13.35 CET/12.35 BST
