She nearly celebrated too early and saw her victory pinched by Demi Vollering, but Mauritian champion Kim Le Court took her first Tour de France Femmes stage win and seized the yellow jersey back from Marianne Vos. Alison Jackson was in her second breakaway of the Tour. Top Canadian was Magdeleine Vallieres in 38th.
The Course
Heading into the Massif Central, Stage 5’s 166-km route from Chasseneuil-du-Poitou to Guéret marked the longest day of the 2025 Tour. There were three Cat. 3 and 4 climbs in the final 35 km to make things interesting. The final climb of Le Maupuy had a bonus sprint in its middle.
The opening 55 kilometers saw Stage 3 and 4 winner Lorena Wiebes caught up in a crash and Alison Jackson get into a short-lived breakaway. Then a duo escaped, Jackson formed a chase with a Chilean and soon there was a leading quintet. Another Canadian, Kiara Lylyk, tried to bridge over.
Movistar toiled at the pointy end of the peloton. The first categorized climb Côte de Chabannes thinned out the Jackson breakaway’s numbers and halved its lead. Australian time trial champion Brodie Chapman dumped Jackson and Francesca Barale on Cat. 4 Côte du Peyroux, burnt orange-clad Fenix-Deceuninck yanking the field 30 seconds behind.
Green jersey Wiebes, Sarah van Dam, world champion Lotte Kopecky and a few others were distanced on the climb. Chapman received four reinforcements before Cat. 3 Le Maupuy. Jackson’s teammate and compatriot Magdeleine Vallieres tried to bridge as well.
Canyon-SRAM started to rip it up to the base of Le Maupuy. Le Court took the six seconds at the midway point, but Vollering attacked towards the top of the climb. An elite group with Le Court, Vollering, Anna van der Breggen and last year’s champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma steamed towards the finish, dropping Vos.
Le Court had a lead-out rider in Sarah Gigante. Van der Breggen went hard with 750 meters to go but was pulled back. In the sprint, Le Court sat up and celebrated early, encouraging Vollering to try to nick the day’s flowers. The Mauritian just survived. Le Court leads Pauline Ferrand-Prévot by 18 seconds in the GC.
The second half of Thursday’s stage usher in the 2025 Tour’s bigger climbs.
2025 Tour de France Femmes Stage 5
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