Tour de France Femmes 2025: stage five sets longest test into Massif Central – live

86km to go: Why not send me an email? Merci.

82km to go: “Really looking forward to today,” said Kim Le Court (AG Insurance–Soudal) earlier. “If the legs are there we are going to try and grab yellow. For sure it’s going to be a fight.

“The yellow is in our minds, but it’s more important to take some seconds in GC. If we can finish in a small group, then for sure, we’ll go for the win.”

87km to go: Five riders up front now: Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ), Francesca Barale (Team Picnic PostNL), Catalina Anais Soto (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels Cycling Team).

They have 1min 45sec on the peloton.

87km to go: Barale, Jackson, Dijkstra and Soto Campos are now up front together and they have 1min 35sec on the bunch. There are other riders trying to get across.

Now, in the UK, we have live coverage but still no live pictures. Is this good enough, on the part of race organisers, ASO? I don’t think so.

“For sure, it will be a fast race again, because the wind is quite strong and we have a tailwind,” Ferrand-Prévot of Visma-Lease A Bike said this morning.

“It will be important to be in a good position, and to start the last climb in the top positions.

“We want to win the stage with Marianne, and keep me in good position in GC … we want to be good, but also to save some energy for the last days … the last three days will be hard enough to make the difference. We have to find the balance.”

93km to go: “I recovered good,” Vollering said before today’s stage. “I already feel better today than yesterday. It was a relief to be able to ride, because my neck was so stiff [after the crash on Monday] … today is a really nice day, super-close to our service course – there will be a lot of people cheering, and I am looking forward to our “home” race.

“We focus every day as a team, on what we can do. Yeah, step by step.”

97km to go: According to TNT Sports, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) has abandoned following an earlier crash that involved about 15 riders.

There are two more withdrawals on the official page, that have appeared in the last hour or so, but Balsamo is not among them.

Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv-Alula-Jayco) and Katrine Aalerud (UnoX-Mobility) are the latest withdrawals listed.

More to follow.

99km to go: The Côte de Chabannes (1.4km, 5.2%) is the first climb of the day. It’s a category four.

Then the Cote du Peyroux (3.3km, 4.3%), another cat-four, then the category-three Le Maupay to finish (2.8km, 5.4%).

All those climbs come in the last 40km or so.

102km to go: Dijkstra and Barale are now working together up front and they have 1min 27sec on the chasing bunch.

Two chasers are in between the peloton and the leaders: Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly) and Catalina Soto (Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi). They are 20sec behind.

107km to go: Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels) is trying to bridge across to the solo attacker, Barale.

109km to go: Francesa Barale (Picnic PostNL) has attacked and has 40sec on the peloton.

Picnic PostNL are certainly trying to animate the race. The average speed has gone up to 46.7km/h.

111km to go: “Today we’re going to try to do something special, why not take back the yellow jersey?”

Not my words, the words of Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), currently third in GC, before today’s stage.

112km to go: Wiebes, in fact, crashed earlier and that is the reason she was off the back of the bunch. Sounds like there is no serious harm done, however, and she is back and riding in the peloton.

115km to go: I take it back about things being calm in the peloton. This was in fact the fastest first hour of the race so far.

118km to go: Anna Van der Breggen also dropped back to help Wiebes back into the peloton. Meanwhile, Visma-Lease A Bike are controlling on the front of the bunch.

128km to go: I wonder how Vollering is feeling after her crash two days ago. It’s entirely possible that the injuries are more painful today.

Yesterday, Jos van Emden, the Visma-Lease a Bike DS, claimed that FDJ-Suez want Vollering in “a gilded cage”, after Vollering and her team complained about a lack of respect in the peloton.

“What he’s saying is ridiculous,” Jos van Emden, the team director at Visma-Lease a bike, told Dutch media after an outburst by his counterpart Stephen Delcourt. “Apparently he wants a peloton of eight riders, with Demi in it, to ride in a gilded cage. He’s simply been influenced by Demi, by Demi’s posturing.”

129km to go: Wiebes, in the green jersey, is 13sec behind the peloton with a teammate, Blanka Vas. Probably a mechanical and no harm done, presuming they catch up with the bunch without too much trouble.

132km to go: “The strategy is to go for victory with Marianne without losing time overall for me,” said Ferrand-Prevot earlier, of the Visma-Lease A Bike drill for today’s stage.

134km to go: Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility) is the latest to give it a crack. She is caught.

141km to go: Now Elena Cecchini (SD Worx-ProTime) has clipped off the front, solo, and has 33sec on the peloton. Even so, the average speed of the overall race has dropped further, to 43.7km/h.

144km to go: Elena Hartmann (Ceratzit) and Victoire Berteau (Cofidis) did launch a cheeky little attack, but they’ve now been caught.

145km to go: I don’t currently have the luxury of live pictures, but the average speed – 44.6km/h – would suggest things are relatively calm in the peloton. Relatively being the operative word.

150km to go: Vos’s ability, combined with the time she’s spent at the top of the sport, is nothing short of astonishing. I’m old enough to remember her beating Lizzie Deignan (then Armitstead) to the women’s road race gold medal at London 2012.

152km to go: “We’ll have to see how the day will go,” said the race leader Marianne Vos before today’s stage. “It’s the longest stage and there is more climbing in the final. Every rider, the whole bunch wants to be in the breakaway today. So it’s going to be an especially tough start.”

Regarding the points classification battle with Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) –the green-jersey wearer Wiebes leads Vos by 40pts – she said: “Lorena has a good advantage, and as we said up front, that’s not the main target. With Lorena as competition you know that’s going to be hard.”

Quotes via LeTourFemmes.fr

154km to go: Franziska Koch (Picnic–PostNL) has gone on the attack yet again. She was really strong yesterday and spent most of the day in a two-rider break. And she’s obviously feeling good … however, the peloton is all together, after Franziska Brausse (Ceratizit) chased Koch down.

The Polish rider Agnieszka Skalniak-Sojka, of Canyon/Sram-zondacrypto, was the solitary withdrawal before today’s race. You can see the full list of abandonments here on the official site.

“She’ll be deeply missed but above all, we’re hoping that she recovers quickly,” the team wrote on X.

There are 143 riders remaining.

Speaking after yesterday’s stage, Pauline Ferrand Prévot (Team Visma-Lease A Bike) said she is looking forward to the road going up … she’s feeling good, clearly, and will be making an assault on the GC in the high mountains.

With the top 10 all within 31sec of race leader Marianne Vos it is all looking extremely well poised for the mountain stages.

Christian Prudhomme, director of the men’s race, said over the weekend he had hoped for “more of a duel” between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard in the GC. Well, here is the tight overall battle he wanted.

That, of course, is Jeremy Whittle’s stage report from yesterday, which you have ample time to peruse before today’s hostilities.

Lorena Wiebes secured her second stage win in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes on the Avenue John Kennedy in Poitiers, after again fending off her Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos in an uphill sprint.

Wiebes, who also won the Italian classic Milan-San Remo and the the points classification in the Giro d’Italia, described 2025 as her “best season to date”. She has also won five Giro stages between from 2021-2025.

“I have tried to have more of a free mindset, like I had in the Giro,” Wiebes, of Team SD Worx-Protime, said. “This season has already been really good, even if I hadn’t won in the Tour de France. It doesn’t feel like we have a lot of pressure from the team.”