Tour de France Femmes Stage 6: Le Court Overpowers Breakaway Following Determined Pursuit

Kim Le Court clocked up the second Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage win of her career in fine style on Thursday.

The Mauritian champion recovered from a mechanical, bridged across to a strong six woman breakaway inside the final 10km, then leaped clear solo inside 5km to go.

While she was hauled back by Elisa Longo Borghini and then had to burn up important energy to catch Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) inside the final kilometer, Le Court (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) was the strongest in the sprint and seized the win.

The result put a smile back on her face after a disappointing time trial on Tuesday saw her plummet from second to 15th overall.

“I think the team needed it. I have been really struggling since the TT day,” she said.

“I think this really makes our Tour… Of course we have GC ambitions but winning a stage in the Tour de France is very special. People don’t really remember top ten, top five riders in the Tour but they do remember stage winners.

Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education – Oatly) took second ahead of Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Sarah Van Dam (Visma – Lease a Bike).

Longo Borghini was seventh over the finish line and moved up two places to fourth overall.

Overnight leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team), Demi Vollering (FDJ United – Suez) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) raced in 28 seconds back and remain first, second and third in the overall standings prior to a harrowing summit finish atop Mont Ventoux on Friday.

That promises to be perhaps the most decisive day in this Tour de France Femmes and is one where Longo Borghini will hope to keep progressing.

For now, though, she has a lot of work to do if she wants to finish on the podium. Reusser is 12 seconds clear of Vollering, with Niewiadoma at 1:17. They are clearly the front runners, with Longo Borghini and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) at 2:28 and 2:40 respectively.

A daring six-woman move hunts for victory

Stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes brought the riders closer to Friday’s showdown on Mont Ventoux, and so was always going to be an intriguing one in terms of saving versus spending energy.

Loes Adegeest (Lidl – Trek), Nikola Nosková (Cofidis Women Team) and Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) rolling the dice early on with an attack almost 130km away from the finish in Tournon-sur-Rhône.

The pressure behind saw strong riders such as Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Évita Muzic (FDJ United – Suez) and Urška Žigart (AG Insurance – Soudal) dropped with 80km to go. The break was finally recaptured on the Col de Lalouvesc with 54km to go.

Le Court, who took a stage and led overall last year, was delayed as a result of an unexpected problem.

“The race was crazy,” she said. “I had a mechanical on the downhill before the last climb and I had to change bikes. I was really far [back] but my team was amazing. They brought me back slowly but surely to the bunch and I got back on top of the last climb, which was a really big effort.

“I just tried to stay patient, tried to recover from this big effort.”

French champion Célia Gery (FDJ United – Suez) was riding well and went clear on the descent. She was then joined by Piederse, Kerbaol, Longo Borghini, Sarah van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) with 31km to go.

This group had 40 seconds’ advantage with 15km remaining, prompting Le Court and Markus to leap clear of the peloton. They joined the leaders with 9.7km remaining.

“Riejanne Markus and I bridged to the breakaway and we got to the front,” Le Court later said.

“They were not really cooperating, which is obvious, but I was happy to still try.”

‘I was on the limit’

Things got a lot more cagey then, with Le Court’s well known fast finish shifting the balance in the break. With attacks all but inevitable, she moved to the front to keep the pace high. She picked up the six second time bonus with just under 10km remaining and then leaped clear with about 4.5km to go.

That might have worked had Longo Borghini not completely committed and dragged her back two kilometres later. Markus tried once and while Longo Borghini got her back too, she went again with 1km to go.

And while Le Court burned up important energy in chasing her down, she still had enough left in the tank to take the sprint, fending off Pieterse, who was in turn pupped by Kerbaol for second.

“I got a gap in the last few kilometers,” Le Court said. “Elisa closed me down but then Riejanne made an attack from the back. I knew it was going to happen because that is the only way she can win a race like this. I had to close the gap myself. I was really, really dead, I was on the limit.

“I can’t believe I still had the legs to sprint. It was really hard, it was really this close before I could give up. But I would never give up after this big effort my team did.”

Her persistence paid off and with the pressure now gone, she is likely to try again in the three remaining stages of the race.