Tour de France Femmes 2025: stage five sets longest test into Massif Central – live | Tour de France Femmes
Key events
47km to go: The peloton speeds through the town of Saint-Germain-Beaupré. Any famous inhabitants? Not according to Wiki.
49km to go: A mere 10km to the intermediate sprint. After that the riders will almost immediately hit the first climb, the Côte de Chabannes.
52km to go: Still, it is Movistar Team driving the peloton. They are doing a good job too because the gap to the break has fallen to 3min. Liane Lippert will have designs on the stage win today.
Movistar have lost Marlen Reusser, who packed it in a couple of days ago, while Ana Magalhães was in the break yesterday, but still they are looking very strong.
54km to go: Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), one of the escapees, won Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2023. She also won a stage of the Vuelta España Femenina last season.
Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ), meanwhile, won the Race Torquay in 2020. Slightly less prestigious than Paris-Roubaix, but a win is a win.
56km to go: The gap is down to 3min 31 sec. Clearly, the likes of Movistar are not willing to let this gap get out of control.
59km to go: It seems certain that these five riders will mop up the major points at the intermediate sprint, with 39km remaining. The sixth rider over the line will win 11pts in the green jersey classification.
60km to go: Anneke Dijkstra does a turn on the front of the escape group, then drops back and lets someone else have a go. With 3min 50sec, do they have a chance of staying away until the end?
The peloton snakes through a sharp right-hander and then across a bridge over the Autoroute A20 L’Occitane.
61km to go: The gap between break and peloton has fallen to 3min 50sec. Movistar are working hard on the front.
64km to go: With 584km raced, the halfway point of the Tour de France Femmes has just been passed.
65km to go: The gap between break and peloton is 4min 21sec. Lylyk (Winspace Orange Seal) has given up on her attempt to get in the breakaway and is swallowed up by the peloton.
66km to go: Needless to say, seconds after the live pictures appeared, it was time for a commercial break. That meant we missed a crash back in the bunch. Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Elyne Roussel (St Michel – Preference Home – Auber93) both went down, but both are back on their bikes and riding.
70km to go: It’s 31km until the front of the race reaches the day’s intermediate sprint, at Dun-le-Palestel.
71km to go: It’s 4min 36sec for the break, and Lylyk is still trying to get across, but she’s 3min 16sec down. It’s a brave move but surely she is going to struggle trying to get across to these five up front.
75km to go: Kristen Faulkner (EF Education–Oatly) has abandoned following one of the earlier crashes. She also suffered a crash late yesterday. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility) has also packed it in. Sad for those riders and teams.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and (as mentioned earlier) Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) have also abandoned. Balsamo is a huge loss to the race.
76km to go: “There has been chaos in the peloton. Two big crashes,” says Iris Slappendel on the TNT Sports motorbike. “We’ve had some DNFs today and that is really sad. The roads have been very narrow … and tailwind … and a big fight to get in the break.
“It’s again a really nervous day in the peloton … the girls in the break are out of trouble and able to ride their own race.”
77km to go: Kiara Lylyk (Winspace Orange Seal) is trying to get across to the break. But she is 2min 35 behind.
78km to go: The advantage of the five up front has flown out to 3min 23sec. The closest rider in the break on GC is Barale, and she is 8min 24sec down, so it looks like the GC teams are happy for these five up front to contest the win?
86km to go: Why not send me an email? Merci.
82km to go: “Really looking forward to today,” said Kim Le Court (AG Insurance–Soudal) earlier. “If the legs are there we are going to try and grab yellow. For sure it’s going to be a fight.
“The yellow is in our minds, but it’s more important to take some seconds in GC. If we can finish in a small group, then for sure, we’ll go for the win.”
87km to go: Five riders up front now: Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ), Francesca Barale (Team Picnic PostNL), Catalina Anais Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels Cycling Team).
They have 1min 45sec on the peloton.
87km to go: Barale, Jackson, Dijkstra and Soto Campos are now up front together and they have 1min 35sec on the bunch. There are other riders trying to get across.
Now, in the UK, we have live coverage but still no live pictures. Is this good enough, on the part of race organisers, ASO? I don’t think so.
“For sure, it will be a fast race again, because the wind is quite strong and we have a tailwind,” Ferrand-Prévot of Visma-Lease A Bike said this morning.
“It will be important to be in a good position, and to start the last climb in the top positions.
“We want to win the stage with Marianne, and keep me in good position in GC … we want to be good, but also to save some energy for the last days … the last three days will be hard enough to make the difference. We have to find the balance.”
93km to go: “I recovered good,” Vollering said before today’s stage. “I already feel better today than yesterday. It was a relief to be able to ride, because my neck was so stiff [after the crash on Monday] … today is a really nice day, super-close to our service course – there will be a lot of people cheering, and I am looking forward to our “home” race.
“We focus every day as a team, on what we can do. Yeah, step by step.”
97km to go: According to TNT Sports, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) has abandoned following an earlier crash that involved about 15 riders.
There are two more withdrawals on the official page, that have appeared in the last hour or so, but Balsamo is not among them.
Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-Alula-Jayco) and Katrine Aalerud (UnoX-Mobility) are the latest withdrawals listed.
More to follow.
99km to go: The Côte de Chabannes (1.4km, 5.2%) is the first climb of the day. It’s a category four.
Then the Cote du Peyroux (3.3km, 4.3%), another cat-four, then the category-three Le Maupay to finish (2.8km, 5.4%).
All those climbs come in the last 40km or so.
102km to go: Dijkstra and Barale are now working together up front and they have 1min 27sec on the chasing bunch.
Two chasers are in between the peloton and the leaders: Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly) and Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi). They are 20sec behind.
107km to go: Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) is trying to bridge across to the solo attacker, Barale.
109km to go: Francesa Barale (Picnic PostNL) has attacked and has 40sec on the peloton.
Picnic PostNL are certainly trying to animate the race. The average speed has gone up to 46.7km/h.
111km to go: “Today we’re going to try to do something special, why not take back the yellow jersey?”
Not my words, the words of Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), currently third in GC, before today’s stage.
112km to go: Wiebes, in fact, crashed earlier and that is the reason she was off the back of the bunch. Sounds like there is no serious harm done, however, and she is back and riding in the peloton.
115km to go: I take it back about things being calm in the peloton. This was in fact the fastest first hour of the race so far.
118km to go: Anna Van der Breggen also dropped back to help Wiebes back into the peloton. Meanwhile, Visma-Lease A Bike are controlling on the front of the bunch.
128km to go: I wonder how Vollering is feeling after her crash two days ago. It’s entirely possible that the injuries are more painful today.
Yesterday, Jos van Emden, the Visma-Lease a Bike DS, claimed that FDJ-Suez want Vollering in “a gilded cage”, after Vollering and her team complained about a lack of respect in the peloton.
“What he’s saying is ridiculous,” Jos van Emden, the team director at Visma-Lease a bike, told Dutch media after an outburst by his counterpart Stephen Delcourt. “Apparently he wants a peloton of eight riders, with Demi in it, to ride in a gilded cage. He’s simply been influenced by Demi, by Demi’s posturing.”
129km to go: Wiebes, in the green jersey, is 13sec behind the peloton with a teammate, Blanka Vas. Probably a mechanical and no harm done, presuming they catch up with the bunch without too much trouble.
132km to go: “The strategy is to go for victory with Marianne without losing time overall for me,” said Ferrand-Prevot earlier, of the Visma-Lease A Bike drill for today’s stage.
134km to go: Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility) is the latest to give it a crack. She is caught.
141km to go: Now Elena Cecchini (SD Worx-ProTime) has clipped off the front, solo, and has 33sec on the peloton. Even so, the average speed of the overall race has dropped further, to 43.7km/h.
144km to go: Elena Hartmann (Ceratzit) and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) did launch a cheeky little attack, but they’ve now been caught.
145km to go: I don’t currently have the luxury of live pictures, but the average speed – 44.6km/h – would suggest things are relatively calm in the peloton. Relatively being the operative word.
150km to go: Vos’s ability, combined with the time she’s spent at the top of the sport, is nothing short of astonishing. I’m old enough to remember her beating Lizzie Deignan (then Armitstead) to the women’s road race gold medal at London 2012.
152km to go: “We’ll have to see how the day will go,” said the race leader Marianne Vos before today’s stage. “It’s the longest stage and there is more climbing in the final. Every rider, the whole bunch wants to be in the breakaway today. So it’s going to be an especially tough start.”
Regarding the points classification battle with Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) –the green-jersey wearer Wiebes leads Vos by 40pts – she said: “Lorena has a good advantage, and as we said up front, that’s not the main target. With Lorena as competition you know that’s going to be hard.”
Quotes via LeTourFemmes.fr
154km to go: Franziska Koch (Picnic–PostNL) has gone on the attack yet again. She was really strong yesterday and spent most of the day in a two-rider break. And she’s obviously feeling good … however, the peloton is all together, after Franziska Brausse (Ceratizit) chased Koch down.
The Polish rider Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka, of Canyon/Sram-zondacrypto, was the solitary withdrawal before today’s race. You can see the full list of abandonments here on the official site.
“She’ll be deeply missed but above all, we’re hoping that she recovers quickly,” the team wrote on X.
There are 143 riders remaining.
Stage five has begun
We are racing. No, they are racing.
The temperature, according to the official site, is a mere 22.5C. That is almost wintry by the standards of the Tour de France.
Points classification: top 10 before stage five
1) Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) 197pts
2) Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike) 157pts
3) Koch (Picnic PostNL) 70pts
4) Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) 66pts
5) Vollering (FDJ-Suez) 59pts
6) Jansen (Volkerwessels Cycling Team) 54pts
7) Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) 48pts
8) Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram) 47pts
9) Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) 39pts
10) Lippert (Movistar Team) 35pts
Speaking after yesterday’s stage, Pauline Ferrand Prévot (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) said she is looking forward to the road going up … she’s feeling good, clearly, and will be making an assault on the GC in the high mountains.
With the top 10 all within 31sec of race leader Marianne Vos it is all looking extremely well poised for the mountain stages.
Christian Prudhomme, director of the men’s race, said over the weekend he had hoped for “more of a duel” between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in the GC. Well, here is the tight overall battle he wanted.
Top 10 GC after before stage five
Today, you suspect, will not be a GC day, but here is the top 10:
1) Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) 11hr 13min 11sec
2) Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) +12sec
3) Kimberley Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) +12sec
4) Pauline Ferrand Prévot (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) +18sec
5) Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram Zondacrypto) +22sec
6) Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) +25sec
7) Anna Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +27sec
8) Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) +27sec
9) Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) +31sec
10) Chloe Dygert (Canyon/Sram Zondacrypto) +31sec
That, of course, is Jeremy Whittle’s stage report from yesterday, which you have ample time to peruse before today’s hostilities.
Lorena Wiebes secured her second stage win in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes on the Avenue John Kennedy in Poitiers, after again fending off her Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos in an uphill sprint.
Wiebes, who also won the Italian classic Milan-San Remo and the the points classification in the Giro d’Italia, described 2025 as her “best season to date”. She has also won five Giro stages between from 2021-2025.
“I have tried to have more of a free mindset, like I had in the Giro,” Wiebes, of Team SD Worx-Protime, said. “This season has already been really good, even if I hadn’t won in the Tour de France. It doesn’t feel like we have a lot of pressure from the team.”
Preamble
The profile of stage five, between Chasseneuil-du-Poitou and Guéret, looks ripe for a breakaway in the final: there are three categorised climbs inside the last 36km, two category fours and one category three, after a relatively flat 130km or so.
However, the location of the day’s intermediate sprint, at Dun-le-Palestel after 127km, may lead certain teams to try and control the race until then. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx–Protime), who leads the green jersey standings after two stage wins in two days, said yesterday she may try to get in breakaways to fight for more points. But perhaps Marianne Vos, the overall leader and yellow-jersey wearer, and her Visma-Lease A Bike team will lend a hand in controlling things.
At 165.8km, this transitional stage is the longest of this year’s race. It will be interesting to see how fierce the battle to form an early breakaway becomes, because there are already plenty of tired bodies in the peloton, with a few teams and riders hoping for a relatively easy day with a non-threatening breakaway allowed up the road.
This being the Tour de France Femmes, though, it’ll probably be flat-out all the way.
Stage start time: 12.35pm UK/1.35pm local
