Kimberley Le Court of AG Insurance-Soudal claimed victory in stage six of the Tour de France Femmes on Thursday, crossing the finish line in a sprint to secure her second career stage win in the event. Marlen Reusser of Movistar held onto the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Le Court's triumph followed a challenging stage that saw her team provide crucial support during a bike change. She described her team as "amazing" for helping her rejoin the peloton. "They brought me back slowly but surely to the bunch, and I got back on top of the [second-to] last climb, which was a really big effort," Le Court stated. "Then I just tried to stay patient and recover from this big effort. I had to close the gap myself and I was really, really dead, I was on the limit. I can't believe I still had the legs to sprint."
The 146.8km stage seven, considered the "queen stage," is scheduled to take place on Friday, leading riders from La Voulte-sur-Rhone to a summit finish at Mont Ventoux in the French Alps.
Following stage six, Marlen Reusser leads the general classification with a time of 19 hours, 43 minutes, and 34 seconds. Demi Vollering of FDJ–Suez is in second place, 12 seconds behind Reusser. Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon–SRAM is third, 1 minute and 17 seconds adrift.
Kim Le Court's stage six victory positions her ninth in the general classification, 3 minutes and 26 seconds behind the leader.
Stage Six Results:
- Kim Le Court (Mau, AG Insurance-Soudal) – 4:01:48
- Cedrine Kerbaol (Fra, EF Education-Oatly) – same time
- Puck Pieterse (Ned, Fenix-Premier Tech) – same time
- Sarah Van Dam (Can, Visma-Lease A Bike) – same time
- Celia Gery (Fra, FDJ United-Suez) – same time
- Liana Lippert (Ger, Movistar) – same time
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita, UAE Team L'Imad) – +2 seconds
- Riejanne Markus (Ned, Lidl-Trek) – +5 seconds
- Dominika Wlodarczyk (Pol, UAE Team L'Imad) – +28 seconds
- Noemi Ruegg (EF Education-Oatly) – same time