Stage 6 may have been the first time the Tour de France Femmes of 2025 ventured out on a day with the mountains label, but it turned out to be more a testing of the general classification waters and a scene-setter rather than an explosion of the race, much akin to the hilly stage which came before.
Still, that doesn't mean the games weren't being played and strengths and weaknesses revealed. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) managed to consolidate her position in the yellow jersey by sweeping up eight bonus seconds, six of those by virtue of her third place, with 2023 winner Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) in fourth on the stage, which was won by breakaway rider Maeva Squiban with Vollering's teammate Juliette Labous the runner-up.
It was the second day in a row that Le Court-Pienaar crossed the line ahead of Vollering, who is on the mend from a stage 3 crash, with the riders coming second and first on stage 5.
"I mean, in the end, you try to grab what you can grab. But, yeah, Kim, I mean, she's so explosive, so I could not hold the wheel yesterday and today," said Vollering at the team bus. "I didn't want to totally kill myself, because the Tour is still long."
Still, not taking bonus seconds meant Vollering slipped from third to fourth overall, at 31 seconds back, as defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney snagged two seconds as a reward for coming third at the intermediate bonus point. That put her one second ahead of the now fourth-placed Vollering.
However, FDJ-SUEZ sports director Lars Boom seemed content.
"The pressure was on, I think all day, creating also fatigue for the whole peloton, I think, and a high tempo," he told reporters after the stage. "It was, for sure, not an easy day, and it suits us going into the Alps to have a bit more fatigue in the peloton."
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) maintained her position in second at 26 seconds back from Le Court-Pienaar. "It’s a good sign that she was able to conserve some energy today”, said sports director Jos Van Emden.
Another rider who held firm was Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) in fifth, at 35 seconds back, and all in all, there was very little movement within the top 10, except that Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) plunged away, which was no surprise given the terrain. However, it was more than position and seconds that drew notice.
Cédrine Kerbaol's downhill attack may not have stuck but it was enough to remind rivals of the EF Education-Oatly rider's prowess on the descents.
Then there was Sarah Gigante. After her performance at the Giro d'Italia Women, where the AG Insurance-Soudal rider emphatically won two summit finish stages and came third overall, everyone clearly knew she could climb. However, there was certainly some scepticism that she could go downhill with even close to the same panache.
That's why one of the big GC revelations of the day was her ability to make her way back to the front group of favourites on a day with such challenging downhill sections, including the solid descents of the category 1 Col du Beal and Col du Chansert, although there is no doubt a big part of that was down to the work of her teammates, particularly the unrelenting efforts of Justine Ghekiere. Still, it was enough to make her rivals take notice of the rider who now sits in seventh place at 1:03.
They may no longer be quite so confident they can shake the Australian on Friday, a stage which finishes with a descent running down from the category 2 Col du Granier to the line in Chambéry, and certainly aren't going to allow her to fly under the radar any more even though she is ostensibly at the race in a support role for the current holder of the yellow jersey, Le Court-Pienaar.
"I give compliments to Gigante," said Visma-Lease a Bike's Van Emden. "She has improved a lot, and in my point of view, she's going to be … a very big GC contender. I think she's in a position to win the Tour de France now."
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