Kim Le Court won stage six of the Tour de France Femmes with a brilliant sprint to deny her breakaway companions at the end of another full-gas day of racing.
The Mauritian national champion overcame a late mechanical to bridge across to an elite six-rider breakaway, which had gone clear with 30km to go, along with Lidl-Trek’s Riejanne Markus with just 10km remaining.
AG Insurane-Soudal’s Le Court attacked on the fast, flat run-in to the finish in Tournon-sur-Rhone and despite being hauled back in, had enough left in the tank to sprint for the stage win and hold off her rivals, claiming her second career stage win at the Tour.
French rider Cedrine Kerbaol of EF Education-Oatly was second, with Puck Pieterse, leader of the Queen of the Mountains competition, third.
Le Court said afterwards: “The race was crazy. I had a mechanical on the downhill of the second-last climb. I had to change bikes but my team was amazing. I got back in the group on the last climb and that was a really big effort… I tried to stay patient after this big effort.
“They were not really co-operating [after she joined the breakaway], which was obvious, but I wanted to try. I got a gap in the last few kilometres. I was really, really dead, I can’t believe I still had the legs to sprint… but I will never give up after this big effort my team needed.
“I think the team needed it. I’ve been really struggling since the [time trial, on stage four]… of course we have GC ambitions, but winning a stage at the Tour de France is very special. People don’t really remember top five, top 10 on GC, but they do remember stage winners.”
Movistar’s Marlen Reusser remains in the overall lead, having marked every move by her major rival and 2023 champion Demi Vollering, who remains second, 12 seconds down. 2023 winner Kasia Niewiadoma sits third, 1’17” off the pace. All three crossed the line in the peloton, less than half a minute behind the eight escapees.
Stage six, from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhone, had been expected to be slightly less frantic after a series of difficult days in the saddle and with the queen stage, finishing on Mont Ventoux, to come on Friday. But it was raced at full tilt as the riders tackled six categorised climbs over 153km on another punishing day through the Ardeche and Massif Central.
A three-rider breakaway escaped early on but was reeled back in, before French national champion Celia Gery, who was born in the nearby commune of Talencieux, accelerating away on the descent before the final categorised climb of the day, the Cote de Boucieu-le-Roi.
That sparked a group to chase her down, including former Giro d’Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini, who moved up to fourth overall, Pieterse, Kerbaol, and 2023 stage winner Liane Lippert, while Le Court and Markus bridged the gap later on.
Stage seven will take the riders 146.9km from La Voulte-sur-Rhone to the hors-categorie (beyond categorisation) summit finish atop the legendary Mont Ventoux, which is expected to further shake up the general classification standings.
