It is no longer a complete surprise that Le Court is making one exclamation mark after another at the Tour and, after a second and a third place, has now also celebrated her first stage win and thus also returned to the lead of the overall standings, which she already held on the third stage. After all, she has already won Liège-Bastogne-Liège this season and a stage of the Giro d'Italia the year before. However, the actual mountain biker has not been racing on the road for much longer - with the exception of (inter)continental and national championships.

At international level, the stage win at the Tour is her fourth victory. And she owes it to her sprinting prowess, which may not match that of Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx - Protime) or Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), but can hardly be equalled in the ranks of female climbers. This was exactly the right mix for the longest stage of this year's 166-kilometre tour from the Futuroscope leisure park to Guéret, which led over various hills in the final section. She crossed the finish line in a group of seven ahead of Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx - Protime).

Overall classification sorts itself out

While Wiebes had to abandon the race relatively early in the final, Vos finished 33 seconds behind in the first group of followers - too much to claim the yellow jersey. Le Court took the overall lead with an 18-second advantage over Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Vollering (+23), last year's winner Kasia Niewiadoma (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto, +24) and Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx - Protime, +27), who were all in the group.

"We came into the group with a clear plan," Le Court began her explanation of the winning tactics. "The first thing was to stay safe, because the stage was long and flat and that wasn't easy because there were a lot of crashes. But I got through well. Then we wanted to win the bonus seconds, and that worked out."

Le Court: "That almost went wrong"

The battle for those bonus seconds in the middle of the climb to the last mountain classification of the day, less than ten kilometres from the finish, was the starting point for the group that ultimately fought for the day's victory. There, the front group also distanced Vos, among others. "I then had to somehow manage to stay in the group to fight for the stage win. That almost went wrong because I went into the last corner quite quickly and it was tighter than I thought. It was quite close. I lost a bit of speed there. But luckily I then had the best start in the group," said the beaming winner.

The other classification jerseys remained on the shoulders of the women, who also wore them on the stage. Wiebes defended green, but lost ten points to Vos. Elise Chabbey (FDJ - Suez) is still the only woman to wear the mountain jersey in this tour. The same applies to Julie Bego (Cofidis Women Team) in the white jersey.

Stage 6 takes you into the Massif Central. The first 1st category climb of the tour awaits there. The Classement women finally take command. It remains to be seen how long Le Court can keep up.

Tour de France Femmes 2025 - Results of the 5th stage

>> Tour de France Femmes 2025: Route and stages of the women's Tour de France

>> Tour de France Femmes 2025: All the teams' line-ups

>> The TOUR Tech briefing on stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025

>> Lichtenberg's preview of stage 5: Rambazamba in the Massif Central

How the 5th stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2025 went

As on the previous days, the German women were at the front when it came to revitalising the stage. Franziska Koch (Team Pinic PostNL) and Franziska Brauße (CERATIZIT Pro Cycling Team) were among the first attackers, but like many others were initially unable to break away.

Up to the 100-kilometre mark, the peloton was always on the move and nervous, which also resulted in many crashes. Wiebes was one of those involved, but she was able to continue. Nevertheless, the list of casualties was long: Katrine Aalerud, Maria Giulia Confalonieri (both Uno-X Mobility), Elisa Balsamo (Lidl - Trek), Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly), Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco), Eugenia Bujak (Cofidis Women Team), but not all due to crashes.

Then a breakaway group formed after all. Francesca Barale (Team Picnic PostNL), Anneke Dijkstra (VolkerWessels Cycling Team), Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly), Catalina Anais Soto (Laboral Kutxa - Fundación Euskadi) and Brodie Chapman (UAE Team ADQ) formed a quintet that built up a lead of more than four and a half minutes.

Wiebes can't follow on the mountain

At the intermediate sprint 39 kilometres before the finish, which Jackson crossed first, the group still had a two-minute lead. Shortly afterwards, the first mountain classification on the
Côte de Chabannes (4th category). While Dijstra and Soto had to let go, Chapman took the points.

On the way to the next mountain classification, the Côte du Peyroux (4th category), Chapman left the rest of the breakaway group 25 kilometres before the finish. In the peloton, which had closed to within 50 seconds, Fenix-Deceuninck took over the pace work and managed to shake off Wiebes. Meanwhile, Chapman was the only one to arrive at the mountain classification with just 20 seconds ahead of the significantly reduced peloton.

Battle for bonus seconds prepares for the final

16 kilometres before the finish, Chapman received reinforcements. Shirin van Anrooij (Lidl - Trek), Dilyxine Miermont (CERATIZIT Pro Cycling Team), Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) rode to the front from behind. But CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto in particular did not let the group go. The lead always remained below 15 seconds, but nine kilometres before the finish, the group was put in a position to take the bonus sprint. However, Le Court was able to put Ferrand-Prevot and Niewiadoma in their place.

This resulted in a group that went over the mountain together (3rd category): The trio was joined by van der Breggen, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) and Vollering. Eight kilometres were still on the programme, some of them on the descent. Vos was unable to close the half-minute gap into the final. In the sprint for victory, Le Court was clearly the strongest and landed the one-two punch. Vollering came in second ahead of van der Breggen.