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Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes stage, cuts Reussers lead to 12 seconds
Swiss rider Reusser wins Tour de France Femmes time trial to take yellow jersey
Demi Vollering of FDJ-Suez won Stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes on Wednesday in a three-way sprint finish, narrowing the overall lead of yellow jersey holder Marlen Reusser to 12 seconds.
The 140-kilometer stage from Mâcon to Belleville-en-Beaujolais featured eight categorized climbs, including the Category 2 Mont Brouilly, where Vollering launched a decisive attack with 10 kilometers remaining. She was joined by Reusser and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of Canyon-Sram, with the trio breaking away from the peloton. Niewiadoma opened the sprint, but Vollering overtook her in the final meters to claim her fourth career Tour stage victory and the 66th of her career. The win earned her a 10-second time bonus, reducing Reusser’s lead from 14 to 12 seconds.
Reusser, who took the yellow jersey after winning Tuesday’s 21-kilometer time trial in Dijon in 27 minutes and 30 seconds, retained the overall lead. Niewiadoma now sits third in the general classification, 1 minute and 17 seconds behind Reusser. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of Visma-Lease a Bike lost 2 minutes and 35 seconds on the stage, falling to 17th overall, 5 minutes behind the leader. Anna van der Breggen of SD Worx-Protime also ceded more than 2.5 minutes, dropping out of contention.
Vollering, a 29-year-old Dutch rider, has dominated the season with 11 wins, including the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Giro d’Italia. She described the stage as a team effort, saying, “The whole team, every single rider was part of it. I enjoy those victories the most, when everybody put their hard work into it” . She added, “I gave it everything to the line. It was a very long sprint and I needed every single metre in the finish straight, but I managed to do it.”
Paula Blasi of UAE-L’Imad, who held the white jersey for best young rider after Stage 1, lost the classification to Antonia Niedermaier of Canyon-Sram following her 15th-place finish, 2 minutes and 27 seconds behind Vollering. Blasi, a former Spanish junior champion in the 800 meters, transitioned to cycling after a running injury and had won the Amstel Gold Race and Vuelta a España this spring.
Thursday’s Stage 6 covers 153 kilometers from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhône with six categorized climbs, serving as a prelude to Friday’s ascent of Mont Ventoux. The Tour concludes Sunday in Nice.
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