08/05/26 12:10:00
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08/05 12:09 CDT Demi Vollering wins 5th stage of the Women's Tour de France,
Marlen Reusser keeps yellow jersey
Demi Vollering wins 5th stage of the Women's Tour de France, Marlen Reusser
keeps yellow jersey
BELLEVILLE-EN-BEAUJOLAIS, France (AP) --- Demi Vollering crowned a battling
performance by winning the fifth stage of the Women's Tour de France on
Wednesday while Marlen Reusser kept pace to keep the yellow jersey.
Vollering, the 2023 Tour champion, attacked on both of the last two categorized
climbs and she kept enough in reserve to beat Reusser and Poland's Katarzyna
Niewiadoma-Phinney in a three-way dash for the line.
The Dutch rider won her first stage of this Tour and stayed in contention for
the general classification.
"Every single rider of the team was part of it, and I enjoy those victories the
most, when everybody put their hard work in it. It's even more special and
beautiful," Vollering said.
Swiss rider Reusser, the world time trial champion who seized the yellow jersey
the day before, still leads by 12 seconds from Vollering, with
Niewiadoma-Phinney third, 1 minute and 17 seconds behind.
Challenging course
Wednesday's stage was a challenging 140-kilometer (87-mile) trek up and down
between Mcon and the finish in Belleville-en-Beaujolais.
The climbs took their toll with Marianne Vos among the dropped riders early on.
Puck Pieterse was first over the first four climbs and secured the polka dot
jersey for the "Queen of the Mountains" when she crested the category 3 Col de
Fontmartin. It gave the Dutch rider a 16-point lead over Nikola Noskov with
just 15 left to win.
Lorena Wiebes, who won the Tour's first two stages, was dropped going up the
Col de Fontmartin, but she won the intermediate sprint to fasten her hold on
the green jersey for points.
A 19-woman breakaway tackled the category 2 Col de Gerbet, where they faced 4.6
kilometers at an average gradient of 6.5%, eking out an advantage of nearly 1
minutes over the peloton featuring Reusser and Vollering.
Pieterse was also first to the top, stretching her lead in the mountains
classification to 23 points.
With 50 kilometers to go, the leading riders had stretched their advantage to
around 1 minute, 50 seconds, but it was down to 1:20 some 15 kilometers later
and it continued to shrink as they ascended the Col de Durbize, the penultimate
climb of the day.
Swiss rider Noemi Regg veered into the path of a passing service motorbike and
was clipped, sending her crashing to the road.
Vollering takes over
Vollering attacked 700 meters from the summit of the the Col de Durbize,
followed by Bella Holmgren, Niewiadoma-Phinney and Reusser, while defending
champion Pauline Ferrand-Prvot was unable to keep up. They joined the leaders
with 22 kilometers to go.
Vollering attacked again on Mont Brouilly, with just Reusser and
Niewiadoma-Phinney still with her by the summit. They had a sizable advantage
over their rivals going into the last five kilometers.
Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked with 320 meters remaining when Reusser and
Vollering appeared surprised to see the Polish rider speed off, but they both
recovered and Vollering just pulled ahead of her rivals at the finish.
"I thought I was not going to make it anymore, and I somehow made, so it was
really like a relief," Vollering said.
"Next time," said Niewiadoma-Phinney, the 2024 winner.
This edition of the race, the fifth of the Women's Tour, covers 1,175
kilometers (730 miles) over nine days.
Stage six is another demanding mid-mountain stage ending in Tournon-sur-Rhne
before Friday's anticipated mountaintop finish on Mont Ventoux.
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