The story of Thursday’s fifth stage of the Tour de France Femmes looked like it was going to be catch-the-breakaway-sprint-it-out. But a late crash delayed and hurt yellow jersey Demi Vollering enough to take her out of the race lead. SD Worx-Protime’s consolation was Kata Blanka Vas earning the day’s victory. Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma seized yellow–she has a 19-second lead over Olympic Games champion Kristen Faulkner and 1:19 over Vollering. Simone Boilard was the top Canadian in 49th.
The Course
As the race finally entered France from Belgium, five categorized climbs were on offer across 152.5 km. It looked like one for the sprinters.
🚲 Stage 5 / Étape 5 🚲
🚩 Bastogne
🏁 Amnéville
📏 152,5 km
⏰ 11:55 CEST > 16:00 CEST
⛰ 1×3️⃣c, 4×4️⃣c
💚 km 105,8#TDFF2024 pic.twitter.com/ddYV0cvjpP— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 15, 2024
After several attacks and short-lived breakaways, a trio formed with Loes Adegeest the first to shuffle away with 80 km to go and then cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel and Julie Van de Velde joining her. The green jersey and double stage winner Charlotte Kool was far behind. SD Worx-Protime and then Movistar whipped up the pace in the peloton.
After the final climb of the day, the escape trio still survived. The gap was only 13 seconds with 7 km to go and it didn’t look good for its chances.
There was a huge peloton crash in a left-hand bend with 6 km to go. It took a while for Vollering to get going and she was slow to spin, her coccyx seemingly affected. Where were her teammates?
The van Empel breakaway was dispatched by a yellow jersey-hungry group. Third-place Niewiadoma wanted it. On an uphill finish, Vollering’s Hungarian teammate Blanka Vas outsprinted Niewiadoma and Liane Lippert.
Friday’s stage has a double climb near the finish leading to a flat 8-km route to the line in Morteau.
2024 Tour de France Femmes Stage 5
1) Blanka Vas (Hungary/SD Worx-Protime) 3:46:51
2) Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland/Canyon-SRAM) s.t.
3) Liane Lippert (Germany/Movistar) s.t.
49) Simone Boilard (Canada/Uno-X) +1:43
113) Olivia Baril (Canada/Movistar) +4:58
115) Alison Jackson (Canada/EF-Oatly-Cannondale) s.t.
2024 Tour de France Femmes GC
1) Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland/Canyon-SRAM) 11:27:29
2) Kristen Faulkner (USA/EF-Oatly-Cannondale) +0:19
3) Puck Pieterse (The…
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