As it happened: French one-two in first mountain test at Tour de France Femmes 2025

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Stage 6 brings the peloton its first mountain day, which will begin in Clermont-Ferrand and finish in Ambert for a total of 124km

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Bonjour and welcome to our live updates on stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025.

Today's stage starts in the city of Clermont-Ferrand and takes on four categorised climbs as well as an intermediate sprint and bonus sprint on the 123.7km long route to Ambert.

GC after stage five

Coming into today the jerseys are all very close on time and points. Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) has a 18" lead over her closest rival Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Riders are heading to sign on in Clermont-Ferrand. The city hosted the Grand Depart for the race two years ago with two stages starting there and one finish as well, so it will be very familiar to the riders.

With the stage being so short and a likely lively start to potentially form a breakaway, riders are on the rollers to warm up. Including the yellow jersey of Le Court. Also, with the temperatures up to 26°c in Clermont-Ferrand, the ice vests are out.

To take a more in-depth dive into today's stage, take a look at our stage 6 preview for all the info you need...

At the very last moment of yesterday's stage, Le Court lookd round as she eased up to celebrate and saw and rapidly closing Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez).

Just 10 minutes until the neutral start.

Just 3 riders left for Uno-X Mobility after a very difficult day yesterday where they lost two riders after losing one on stage 4 as well.

Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) is still in the top 10 of GC (10th at 1'16") but is unhappy with her performance and it motivated to gain time back on her rivals today...

Neutral start

Unfortunately, Valentina Cavallar and Marjolein van 't Geloof of Arkea-B&B Hotels have had to leave the race with illness.

Huge crowds saw the riders roll out of Clermont-Ferrand today...

The official race start is expected in about 10 minutes but a few riders have ad mechanicals which could delay things.

Yesterday's stage gave us a flavour of what to expect in the GC fight today and in the remaining days in the mountains...

123.7km to go

Attack!

Just 133 riders start today after a huge number left yesterday, overnight and this morning with Mie Bjorndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) being the latest rider to leave.

New attacks begin in the peloton led by Ceratizit.

A small group have a gap of 10" on the peloton.

All together once again. It is very cagey start to stage 6 as there is a lot to race for today with a likely change in the mountain standings as well as the GC fight and battle for the stage win.

A new move of 5 riders get a small gap but the peloton are flying along in these early stages.

That group is brought back but multiple moves keep trying to get away including the green jersey of Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime). However, nothing is allowed to go clear as of yet.

Attack

Wiebes and co have been dragged back and everything is together once again.

Ten riders go clear of the peloton. Again, they only have a tiny gap on the chasing peloton.

That group is brought back into the bunch once again. The fight for the early breakaway has been fierce with the peloton not keen to let anyone go up the road as of yet.

A new move comes and it is just one rider going clear. Maybe this one can stick.

Morgane Coston (Roland-Le Devoluy) is the rider who has pushed on solo out of the peloton and has a gap of 10" over the bunch.

There was a brief counter attack by a Ceratizit rider but she was swiftly brought back. Coston now has a gap of 15" over the peloton.

The gap is coming back down again to the French rider as she, once again, has 10" which then reduces to just 5" in very short order.

Around 10km until the intermediate sprint in Sermentizon. Coston's gap goes back up to 10" again.

Coston's gap back down to 5" as it appears she will be caught before the intermediate sprint.

Coston caught and it is all back together yet again.

100km to go

The rider who has gone clear for Uno-X Mobility is Linda Zanetti. The sprinter could take some good points at the intermediate sprint as she extends her lead to 15" over the peloton.

Four riders are now 15" behind Zanetti with the peloton at 20".

Just 5km to the intermediate sprint as another rider joins the counter move trying to join Zanetti out front.

The chasing group join Zanetti and it includes the polka dot jersey of Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) who appears to be going for the mountain classification.

There is another small group in the chase as well but the peloton are not far behind.

Chase group caught as the peloton closes the gap to 12" up to the group including Chabbey and Zanetti.

There is a new counter move behind the leaders as they roll through the intermediate sprint.

intermediate sprint (Sermentizon)

20 riders in the leading group with a gap of 40" over the peloton. There are some really big names involved in the move listed in the intermediate sprint results below.

Onto the first QoM of the day, the 1.7km long category 3 climb of the Côte de Courpière which has an average gradient of 6.8%.

SIlker Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) is also in the breakaway. She is Chabbey's closest rival in the battle for polka dots with just 5 points splitting them going into today.

Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto), Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) complete the list of riders in the break.

Pluimers has been dropped from the breakaway. The peloton have not let this go as there is still 40" between the two groups.

The peloton are now 45" ahead of the peloton who have just caught Pluimers.

QoM (Côte de Courpière)

Crash!

80km to go

Onto the final of the two category three climbs, the 2.6km long Côte d'Augerolles which has an average gradient of 5.6%.

Molenaar and Eric are the next to lose touch with the leading group.

Williams, Norsgaard, Bredewold and Zanetti have also all been dropped by the leaders as the group continues to whittle down with 12 riders now clear of the rest.

Justine Ghekiere doing a lot of early work on the front of the peloton for AG Insurance-Soudal and the yellow jersey, Le Court.

The leading group have 29" over Williams, Zanetti, Bredewold and Norsgaard and 1'00" on the peloton. This looks like it could possibly go away and form the definite break of the day.

Abandon

Several riders have been dropped out of the back of the peloton with over a minute and a half to the first group of 8 which includes Andersen after her crash.

QoM (Côte d'Augerolles)

70km to go

The QoM fight seems to be becoming a three-woman fight as Chapman joins Chabbey and Smulders.

The peloton have now started setting a strong pace with EF Education-Oatly, Cofidis and SD Worx-Protime leading the way. Now a gap of 57" between the break and the peloton.

The chasing group has been caught by the peloton with 12 riders leading by 55" over the pack with 66km to go.

Multiple riders are losing touch with the peloton including the green jersey of Wiebes as they are now on the Col du Béal climb. The gap is hovering around a minute between the break and the bunch.

Chapman gave her all in the break yesterday and won the most combative prize. She is now in the breakaway again and giving her all as she gets a carte blanche now her leaders are out of the race...

Kraak is setting a very strong place in the break and has extended the advantage of the break to 1'25" over the peloton led by SD Worx-Protime, VolkerWessels and Fenix-Deceuninck.

60km to go

Pace of the peloton has dropped as Wiebes is back in the bunch again after getting dropped. AG Insurance-Soudal join the other teams on the front to join in the chase.

AG Insurance-Soudal coming to the front has really helped the bunch close the gap as they are now 1'13" behind the break.

Chabby is, by far, the best placed rider in the breakaway with just 1'19" of a gap from her to the yellow jersey of Le Court. This is one of the reasons why the peloton are not letting this go.

The pace in the peloton has now dramatically changed with AG Insurance-Soudal absolutely hammering the pace on the front of the bunch. This has brought to gap down to 54".

Attack in break

Fenix-Deceuninck rejoin AG Insurance-Soudal on the front of the peloton. It is an odd choice when they have Kastelijn in the break.

More riders getting dropped from the peloton including Wiebes, who has been dropped twice already.

The pace has shot up in the peloton again and the gap up to the break is now just 42". So many riders losing touch with the peloton.

The gap continues to reduce with just 35" between the break and the bunch. More riders dropped from peloton including Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime).

The riders are 7km from the top of the Col du Béal with just 30" gap between the break and peloton.

Gerritse, Georgi and Hanson are getting dropped from the breakaway with the latter fighting to stay in contact.

50km to go

Gerritse and Georgi caught by the peloton.

Chabbey is now upping the pace in the break and is testing the rest of her breakaway companions.

That move by Chabbey followed by Chapman dropped Hanson and Kraak with Paladin struggling to followw as well with 4km to the top of the climb.

It really looks as though AG Insurance-Soudal are setting up an attack by either Le Court of Gigante with Julie van de Velde setting an infernal pace in the peloton.

However, the break led by Chabbey has dragged the gap out to 37" again.

Sixth place in the GC and former yellow jersey, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) has lost touch with the peloton.

Hanson has been caught by the peloton.

Kraak also now caught. The gap dips under 30" for the first time in a long time.

Paladin has been dropped by the break now as well.

Inside 2km from the top of the Col du Béal.

Chapman has now taken over the pacing in the breakaway.

Paladin makes it back into the break. Very impressive ride by her.

Belgian national champion, Ghekiere, comes back to the front of the peloton to work for Le Court and Gigante. They are 28" off the back of the break.

QoM (Col du Béal)

Chabbey and Smulders kicked on after sprinting for the points but Chapman has closed them down again.

Just 24" between the break and the peloton.

Attack!

Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) comes to the front of the peloton to really test her opponents on the descent.

Paladin is pushing across the gap to join Chabbey and Lippert at the front of the race.

Chapman and Coston have been caught by the peloton.

Attack in peloton

Chabbey, Lippert and Paladin are just 10" ahead of the group led by Kerbaol and Niewiadoma-Phinney with the peloton close behind.

Onto the Col du Chansert, 6.3km long with an average gradient of 5.5%. A category two climb.

Chabbey goes solo and has a gap of 10" on the GC group.

Dropped

Attack

Attack!

Bauernfeind goes to the front to set the tempo for Niewiadoma-Phinney.

Attack

Gigante goes to the front of the peloton with Le Court on her wheel. Squiban now has 28" on the peloton.

30km to go

Julie Bego (Cofidis) and Nienke Vinke (Picnic-PostNL) have both been dropped together as they have their own little battle for the white jersey. Just 22" split them with Bego leading.

QoM (Col du Chansert)

Smulders was in the group but left it too late to attack and was accidentally blocked by Malcotti.

Chabbey leads the peloton for Vollering with 1'09" up to Squiban.

Mechanical

Squiban is absolutely flying down the descent but her gap hasn't gone out any further with 1'04" between her and the peloton led by Chabbey.

20km to go

Chabbey now has 29 points in the QoM competition with Smulders on 17 points and Chapman on 14 points.

Now onto the final climb of the day, the Valcivières which has the bonus sprint at the top before a short plateau then a descent to the finish in Ambert.

There are 22 riders in the GC group and they are 1'19" behind Squiban who leads solo and is looking very strong.

FDJ-Suez come to the front of the peloton with the whole team working for Vollering. It looks like they are setting up a big move for the former Tour winner.

Dropped by peloton

Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) also getting dropped from the GC group as Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez) takes over the pacing.

Smulders dropped with her Liv-AlUla-Jayco teammate Ella Wyllie among others.

Just 1km to the bonus sprint with Squiban definitely taking the 6" bonus leaving 4" and 2" bonuses for the GC riders behind.

What a ride this is by Squiban.

Labous still leads the peloton with Evita Muzic and Vollering in the line followed by the rest of the GC favourites and a few surprise riders too.

Bonus sprint (Valcivières)

Attack!

Attack!

Attack

Gigante now comes back to the front of the GC group to work for Le Court who looks superb on the bike.

Dropped by the peloton is Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels).

Into the final 6km for Squiban and she has 1'28" on Labous and 1'32" on the GC group.

Attack

4km to go for Squiban who has 1'31" now. She just needs to stay upright and the stage will be her's.

Inside 3km to go and the Labous is 1'25" from Squiban with the peloton a further 5" back.

Gigante has been distanced by the GC group as she can not follow on the descent.

2km to go for Squiban.

Flamme Rouge!

500 metres to go for Squiban.

Maeva Squiban of UAE Team ADQ wins stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025!

Behind, Labous is being chased down by a flying Kerbaol with Niewiadoma-Phinnney following ahead of Vollering, Le Court and the rest.

Labous takes second ahead of Kim Le Court who takes yet more bonus seconds.

Stage 6 top 10

GC after stage 6

It wasn't quite as brutal in the GC fight as perhaps hoped. However, stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes provided a brilliantly entertaining day of racing from start to finish.

What an amazing moment for Squiban. By far the biggest win of the 23-year-old's career.

Not only did Le Court keep yellow, but the Mauritian extended her lead to 26" over Ferrand-Prevot, thanks to her picking up 8" bonuses today.

Chabbey now leads the QoM standings by 15 points over nearest rival Smulders after another impressive performance.

Lorena Wiebes finished in 105th place today +22'07" down on stage winner, Maeva Squiban. However, she did manage to keep her green jersey with Marianna Vos also failing to take any points.

Julie Bego (Cofidis) keeps white for another day as she had a private battle with her main rival for white, Nienke Vinke (Picnic-PostNL) today. They finished +6'14" after Squiban in 35th and 36th place respectively. Still just 22" split them.

Tomorrow's stage is the third longest of the race at 159.7km long. There are three categorised climbs which all come in the final 60km of the stage.

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