Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Demi Vollering has crowned a battling performance by winning the fifth stage of the Tour de France Femmes while Marlen Reusser kept pace to keep the yellow jersey.
Vollering, the 2023 Tour champion, attacked on both of the last two categorised 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.
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.
Wednesday’s stage was a challenging 140km trek up and down between Mâcon 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 Nosková 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-rideer breakaway tackled the category 2 Col de Gerbet, where they faced 4.6km at an average gradient of 6.5 per cent, eking out an advantage of nearly 1½ 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.
Australia’s Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) was 16th, 2:27 behind the winner. She is 23rd overall, 9:10 behind Reusser.
