As it happened: History made as GC fight begins at Tour de France Femmes stage 5

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Stage 5 will begin in Jaunay-Marigny-Futuroscop to Guéret with a total of 166km - the longest stage of the Tour de France Femmes

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Bonjour and welcome to our live updates on stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025.

Today's stage is the longest of the race with the riders set to tackle 165.8km of racing between Chasseneuil du Poitou Futuroscope to Guéret.

The race may be a slow burner today as there isn't any sprint of any kind until 40km to go. That means 126km of flat or gently rolling terrain for the peloton to get very nervous on.

Some articles to have a read of while the riders get ready to start the stage...

The riders are due to set off for the neutral start in around 20 minutes from now.

The main focus today is on what sort of stage it will be. Will it be a breakaway success with some GC snipes behind? Perhaps a GC rider will come out on top and claim yellow? Or will it be yet another day for the likes of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) to go head-to-head again?

The deciding factor will likely be on the final climb of Le Maupuy. It is 2.8km long with an average gradient of 5.4%. However, this tells just part of the story. The category 3 climb is also where the bonus sprint is placed.

The riders are all getting ready for the stage with sign on almost complete.

Yesterday saw Ana Vitoria Magalhães (Movistar) take the first mountains points by a Brazilian rider in Tour de France history!

This morning sees Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) join Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) as the 10th and 11th riders to abandon the race.

Neutral start

Crash!

165.8km to go

No moves coming early on with a long wait until the action points of the day and, indeed, television coverage.

143 riders start today's stage.

Attack!

160km to go

Attack!

The three riders have just 10" on the peloton. This doesn't appear to be sticking.

Saying that, the gap expands to 18".

The leading three have 20" on the peloton with Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) 12" down on the leaders.

150km to go

It is all back together again after various attempts to form the break almost stuck. Another fast start at the Tour.

Around 100km until the intermediate sprint in Dun-le-Palestel.

Crash!

The peloton are riding at very high speed and splits are starting to form under the pressure.

Cecchini is caught but new moves start up again immediately with Uno-X Mobility involved in a three rider group.

The three leaders are Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) and Teuntje Beekhuis (Uno-X Mobility) and they have a gap of 22" on the peloton.

Many riders have tried to form a break today including the likes of Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Mobility), Alice Maria Arzuffi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) and many others besides, but it is Jackson, Beekhuis and Molenaar who have got the gap for now.

The peloton is all back together. Including the riders involved in the earlier crash such as Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility).

Abandon

It has been a very difficult race so far for American national champion and Olympic road race champion, Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly).

Crash!

Five riders clear of the peloton in all the carnage. Several riders went down in the crash.

The five riders attacking have been caught. There is a small group off the back of the peloton after the crash.

Wiebes, with help from SD Worx-Protim teammate Blanka Vas, is back in the peloton again. A scary moment that the green jersey and second overall could've done without.

Thankfully, everyone involved in the last crash are back riding again.

The race split into four. Wiebes and co have, in fact, not made it back on and are 33" off the back of the peloton. There is another group over two minutes down.

The small group of attackers have been brought back by the peloton but Wiebes' group are yet to rejoin.

Puncture

Lorena Wiebes' group is now back in the peloton again after a frantic chase.

The Visma-Lease a Bike plan sounds simple on paper...

More attacks as a group of four riders get a 13" gap ahead of the Visma-Lease a Bike led peloton.

And it is all back together yet again.

The race is about to head into the perfect terrain for double Giro d'Italia Women stage winner, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) with her sitting 19th in GC at just 51" from yellow.

The average speed in the first hour has been a rapid 46.5kph.

Multiple riders are going back to the car for feeding as the race appears to have calmed down for the first time today.

Attack!

Barale extends her advantage to 24". She may have timed this perfectly just as every team is going back to get bottles, gels, bars etc.

There are some big plans in place for Kim Le Court and her AG Insurance-Soudal team as they try to take the stage and reclaim yellow from Vos.

110km to go

The gap is starting to fall again as Barale has 30" and the counter move has been dragged back.

Crash!

Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) trying to bridge to Barale. She is 20" off the leader. The peloton are back up to 40".

Dijkstra has bridged to Barale as Jackson and Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) are trying to join them. They are 25" from the leaders and 25" from the peloton.

The peloton has finally let a gap go over a minute to the breakaway. Barale and Dijkstra have 1'15" on the bunch with Jackson and Soto still 25" down in the chase.

100km to go

It was "a big relief to feel good" for Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) after her crash on stage three. All the uncertainty around whether she would be able to start yesterday or not will have been a lot for her to deal with.

Jackson and Soto have bridged to Dijkstra and Barale with a new chaser in the gap, Sara Martine (Movistar). She is 1'10" down on the leaders with the peloton 1'22" down.

Martin dragged back by the peloton again. They are only allowed a relatively small gap to the four leaders.

The gap has been reduced further to just one minute between the peloton and the breakaway.

Abandon

Counter attack

Abandons

Counter attack

The leading four riders have 14" on Chapman, 1'00" on Markus and 1'15" to the peloton.

Split in the peloton with 10 riders going clear of the main bunch.

Chapman has bridged to the leading quad of riders to make it a quintet. Markus has been caught with the peloton now a minute behind.

With all the crashes today and in this race as a whole, you can completely understand why Ellen van Dijk has decided to step away from the sport with fears for her safety...

Abandons

The riders have made it over the halfway mark in the stage. And there is a new counter attack by a rider from Winspace-Orange-Seal.

The counter attack is by Kiara Lylyk (Winspace-Orange-Seal). The Canadian rider has a big gap to bridge with 2'04" between her and the leaders and the peloton now at 2'37".

The race has finally settled down with a gap between the five leaders and the peloton now at 3'17" with Lylyk in the gap at 2'05" from the leaders.

Lylyk's gap appears to be going out as she struggles to get across to the leaders.

Counter attack

Williams tried but is already caught again. The peloton now over 4 minutes down on the leaders.

Movistar leading the peloton en masse. It could be an ideal day for their rider Liane Lippert.

70km to go

The riders are now 30km away from the intermediate sprint in Dun-le-Palestel.

Crash!

Movistar are pushing very hard to try and close the gap as they catch Lylyk. A good effort by the young Canadian from Winspace-Orange-Seal but she wasn't able to get close to the leaders.

Bunel is now almost 3 minutes behind the peloton. She is having a very tough Tour de France Femmes.

60km to go

Last rider on the road is Czech champion Kristyna Burlova (Ceratizit) 6'50" down on the leaders and over 3'00" down on the peloton.

The breakaway are working very hard but that doesn't take the playful nature of Jackson away from her...

Multiple teams now challenging Movistar on the front of the peloton as the wind speed is going up. SD Worx-Protime, FDJ-Suez and Fenix-Deceuninck.

50km to go

The average speed so far has been 43.65kph. It has been an extremely fast stage.

Movistar are really testing the peloton here as they are in one long line. Multiple riders struggling to hold onto the back including Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal).

Just 5km to go until the intermediate sprint in Dun-le-Palestel.

The Spanish national champion of Sara Martin has done a huge amount of work on the front of the peloton. Ever since her attack was pulled back they have been working flat out.

AG Insurance-Soudal have now joined Movistar in the chase.

The breakaway are working extremely well together in a chain gang but the gap is still coming down. There is now 2'18" between the bunch and the break.

Movistar are joined by AG Insurance-Soudal, FDJ-Suez, Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto and Cofidis on the fron of the peloton.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Loren Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) now moving up for the intermediate sprint where they will be competing for 11 and 10 points behind the five rider break.

40km to go

Intermediate sprint (Dun-le-Palestel)

Onto the first QoM of the day, the category 4 Côte de Chabannes. 1.4km at 5.2% with several riders losing touch with the bunch due to the gradients and pace of the bunch.

Attack in break

QoM (Côte de Chabannes)

FDJ-Suez, AG Insurance-Soudal and Visma-Lease a Bike leading the peloton over the Côte de Chabannes with Amber Kraak, Justine Ghekiere and Femke De Vries.

The next QoM summit comes in 10km time on the Côte du Peyroux with a further 2 and 1 point(s) available. The three leaders have 1'46" on the peloton.

30km to go

Multiple surprise riders said to be out of the back:

Dijkstra and Soto are caught by the peloton.

Onto the Côte du Peyroux go the break and peloton with just 50" between them now.

The Côte du Peyroux is 3.3km long with an average gradient of 4.3%.

Chapman has gone solo as she launches her attack with Barale chasing after her. Jackson isn't giving up but has been dropped.

Barale's initial reaction was strong but Chapman is so strong she takes off like a rocket.

Fenix-Deceuninck are dramatically upping the pace in the peloton working for Puck Pieterse and Pauliena Rooijakkers as Yara Kastelijn is on the front.

Jackson caught by the peloton as the peloton is losing riders out of the back all the time.

Green jersey dropped

Lotte Kopecky has dropped back for her SD Worx-Protime teammate with Amalie Dideriksen (Cofidis) and Franziska Koch (Picnic-PostNL) also out the back with them.

Chapman has just 25" on the chasing peloton that see multiple teams come to the front as they see their chance to drop Wiebes but the top of the climb is coming with a 3km descent afterwards.

Ghekiere now on the front with Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) and Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto).

QoM (Côte du Peyroux)

Wiebes and Kopecky now 50" off the back of the peloton.

Chloe Dygert now comes to the front with her leader and defending champion, Kasia Niewiadome-Phinney, on her wheel as they go down this rapid descent.

20km to go

Attack!

Two groups come together and Ottestad immediately goes on the attack but it is quickly shut down.

Attack!

Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) and Dilyxine Miermont (Ceratizit) bridge across to Squiban, Smulders and Chapman.

Multiple attacks coming from the peloton with Titia Ryo (Arkea-B&B Hotels) the latest to try. Quickly shut down but now Marianne Vos herself is attacking in the yellow jersey!

Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) tries a move that was closed down by Vos.

Wiebes is now over a minute and a half off the back of the peloton.

Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) on the front of the peloton working for Cedrine Kerbaol but they are not closing to Squiban, Chapman, Van Anrooij, Miermont and Smulders with just 14" seperating them.

Amazingly, considering she was at the back of the peloton not too long before the first climb, Gigante is in the peloton!

Bauernfeind is working flat out for Niewiadoma-Phinney in the peloton along with Dygert and Cecile Uttrup Ludwig.

Attack!

10km to go

Onto the final climb of the day, Le Maupuy with 1km to go for the bonus sprint and Squiban, Van Anrooij and Smulders have all been caught.

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Demi Vollering all at the front.

Bonus sprint

Attack!

Leaders:

Attack!

QoM (Le Maupuy)

5km to go

Gigante has been dropped by the leading group but is fighting to get back on with 3km to go.

Gigante comes back to the lead group and goes straight to the front for Le Court.

Kerbaol and Pieterse doing a fine job and are slowly closing the gap to 27" but Gigante is back working again in the lead group after Van der Breggen tried an attack with 2km to go.

Flamme Rouge!

Attack!

Kim Le Court of AG Insurance-Soudal celebrates but Demi Vollering of FDJ-Suez was very very close as the Mauritian national champion celebrated early.

Le Court is confirmed as the stage winner and that she also goes back into the yellow jersey.

Le Court takes the 10" bonus to go with her 6" bonus in the bonus sprint. Vollering in 2nd and Van der Breggen in 3rd.

Stage 5 top 10

GC after stage 5

What an incrediblee stage that was. You can read all the analysis and ractions from today on our homepage with our post race report being a perfect place to start...

Kim Le Court becomes the first African stage winner at the Tour de France Femmes.

And, of course, Le Court goes back into yellow before a key stage in this race as the Tour de France Femmes heads to the Massif Central.

Lorena Wiebes keeps hold of the green jersey over Marianne Vos but her advantage has shrunk to 30 points over her rival.

Elise Chabbey extended her lead over Silke Smulders by just one point today meaning she now leads by five points over her Dutch rival.

Julie Bego (Cofidis) retains her white jersey at the race by 22" over Nienke Vinke (Picnic-PostNL) with her moving up to 17th in GC, 2'10" behind Le Court.

Brodie Chapman was voted most combative rider on the day after a superb display to bridge to the break and then to attack it on the penultimate climb and holding on until the bottom of the final climb. She will wear the green numbers tomorrow.

Tomorrow the racing in the GC fight get a really big test with five climbs, one of which is a category one climb, the 10.2km long Col du Chansert with an average gradient of 5.5% topping out with 30km to go.

The day starts in Clermont-Ferrand, where the Grand Depart was a couple of years ago, and finishes in Ambert after 123.7km. This short sharp stage should be a real test for the riders hoping to take yellow in Chatel on Sunday.

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