Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) won stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes, beating Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) in the sprint of a group of seven that formed on the Maupuy climb in Guéret.
Since Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished 33 seconds down in the second group, Le Court-Pienaar also takes back the yellow jersey as the new GC leader. Le Court-Pienaar now leads the overall classification by 18 seconds ahead of Vos' teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 23 seconds ahead of Vollering as the race heads into stage 6 on Thursday.
“We came into the stage with a clear plan. First, to stay safe in the early part, because it was long and flat. There were a lot of crashes, my teammate got injured on the chin, but I’m glad she’s back on the bike," Le Court-Pienaar said.
"Then the big goal was to take the bonus sprint, which I managed to do. And if we finish in a small group, to try to take the stage victory. It was a bit tricky at the end, it was closer than I expected, but luckily my kick was the fastest in the group,” she described the hectic stage finish among the selection of favourites.
The new GC leader continued to thank her team, and in particular Sarah Gigante, who was one of the seven riders in the front group and contributed massively to the group staying ahead.
“I had a teammate with me, that helped a lot. I think if I didn’t have Sarah, maybe the group behind would have come back because some girls in the front group were not keen to pace. It was only Demi, Kasia, and me, who were keen to do the work and get to the line," she said.
"Once Sarah got back after the downhill, I was really, really lucky to have her because she just committed fully to the line. Without her and the whole team, I couldn’t do what I did today, which shows that teamwork is really what you need in the sport."
Le Court-Pienaar had raised her arms in triumph before the finish line, and Vollering came from behind with speed, but the Mauritian champion was first over the line by half a wheel.
“When you’re on the bike, maybe it can look close on TV, like at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But when you turn around, you can see that you have the speed and will cross the line first. Maybe I gave a bit of a fright to people watching at home, but in a sprint, when you lift your hands, normally you should double-check, and it should be okay. Luckily, I had enough of a gap,” Le Court-Pienaar finished.
Kim Le Court reclaims the yellow jersey after winning stage 5 at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
At 165.8km, the stage from the Futuroscope theme park in Chasseneuil-du-Poitou to Guéret was the longest of the nine-day race. Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) did not start the stage, leaving 143 riders in the peloton, though eight of them had to abandon in the crash-marred first two hours of the stage.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Eugenia Bujak (Cofidis), Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco), Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly), Katrine Aalerud, Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X Mobility), Marjolein van’t Geloof (Arkea-B&B Hotels), and Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) all had to step off the bike. Green jersey Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) also went down but made it back to the peloton while Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), Maurène Trégouët (Arkey-B&B Hotels), and Kristýna Burlová (Ceratizit) were left chasing all day after their crashes.
In a fast race with lots of attacks, it took over an hour for the breakaway to be established when Francesca Barale (Picnic PostNL) attacked solo. Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) bridged across on her own, followed by Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly) and Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), and when Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) also came across halfway through the stage, a break of five was formed.
Alison Jackson leads the breakaway on stage 5 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
They held an advantage of up to 4:35 minutes over a peloton, where Movistar did the lion’s share of work in the chase, reducing the gap to 1:47 minutes at the intermediate sprint with 39km to go.
On the fourth-category Côte de Chabannes, Dijkstra and Soto were dropped from the break, and the peloton reduced the gap to under a minute ahead of the Côte du Peyroux, where Chapman attacked and dropped Jackson and Barale.
Chapman crested the top of the climb, 22.6km from the finish, 17 seconds ahead of the peloton, and after a flurry of unsuccessful attacks, Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) got away and bridged to Chapman at the front. Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl-Trek) and Dilyxine Miermont (Ceratizit) made the jump across soon after, forming a new front group of five.
With 11km to go, this group had almost been reeled in when Squiban attacked again. However, she was caught on the lower slopes of the Maupuy climb. The bonus sprint with 8.6km to go was won by Le Court-Pienaar ahead of Ferrand-Prévot and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), and on the climb, a front group of seven riders emerged: Gigante, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Ferrand-Prévot, Le Court-Pienaar, Vollering, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck).
Sarah Gigante leads the selection in the final kilometres of stage 5 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
They crested the climb 23 seconds ahead of Vos and Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), with another group led by Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) another couple of seconds behind. Niewiadoma-Phinney put the pressure on in the descent, briefly splitting the group and dropping Gigante while Kerbaol’s group came back to Vos and Muzic.
At the 3km mark, Gigante made it back to the front and immediately went to work to keep the chasers behind. Van der Breggen tried to anticipate a sprint with an attack on the final kilometre but was shut down by Le Court-Pienaar, who then started her sprint with 250 metres to go to win her first Tour stage and reclaim the GC lead.
Kim Le Court and AG Insurance-Soudal celebrate at the end of stage 5 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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