German climber Ricarda Bauernfeind wins the fifth stage of the Women’s Tour de France with a solo victory in Albi. The Canyon rider, who attacked 35 kilometers from the line, withstood the return of a chasing group and won ahead of Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser and German champion Liane Lippert. Belgian Lotte Kopecky, fourth on the stage, retains her yellow jersey.
Dutchman Demi Vollering, who was in second place overall, was penalized 20 seconds for an extended dugout behind her sporting director’s car, and dropped to 7th position. A bad operation for one of the two big favorites for the final victory, who sees her main rival and compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten now precede her by 12 seconds.
At the end of a stage that the Dutch sprinter Lorena Wiebes, who did not start due to digestive problems, did not take part in, Bauernfeind signed the second success of her career. The pocket runner (55 kg, 1.66 m) escaped shortly after the penultimate difficulty of the day, the Laguepie coast, to quickly widen a gap of one and a half minutes. Despite a pursuit led by Reusser for the benefit of his leader at SD Worx, Lotte Kopecky, Bauernfeind resisted to become at 23 the youngest winner of a stage of the Grande Boucle.
The day after the longest stage of the Tour (177 km) and in suffocating heat, many riders had difficulty in the three difficulties of the day. A skimming from behind left only around twenty competitors to compete for victory as the final approached, riders like Marianne Vos or Elisa Balsamo having been left behind from the first difficulties.
This stage was also fatal to the Frenchwoman Evita Muzic. The rider from the FDJ-Suez team, eighth in the 2022 edition and 14th at the start of the stage, could not finish the stage due to stomach pain.
On Friday, the peloton will link Albi to Blagnac in Haute-Garonne on a course offering four listed difficulties (all 4th category), the last appearing more than 40 kilometers from the line.
