Is she racing for yellow?
With the big mountain stages to come on the weekend, with a summit finish on the iconic Col de la Madeleine (18.9km @ 8%) on Saturday’s queen stage, Le Court Pienaar leads the GC by 26 seconds over home favorite Ferrand-Prévot, with Niewiadoma-Phinney in third, at 30 seconds, and Vollering 1 second farther back in fourth. The Mauritian champion has collected a whopping 34 bonus seconds so far, which is the reason she leads the race. Vollering has picked up only 6 bonus seconds. In last year’s TdFFaZ, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney beat Vollering by only 4 seconds. So, Le Court Pienaar might have a more ambitious goal than picking up stage wins and riding in yellow for as long as possible.
She certainly rode confidently on the stage’s category 1 and category 2 climbs and never looked like cracking even on the steepest sections. So, until she says or does otherwise, she must now be included in the group of favorites, which also comprises Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma–Lease a Bike), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx–Protime), Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto) and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck).
A French heroine
The heroine of stage 6 was the unheralded 23-year-old Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), who attacked 3km from the summit of the last climb, the category 2 Col du Chansert (6.4km @ 5.4%), gradually built out her gap on the long descent and completed a bold 32.3km solo to notch her first ever WorldTour win and the second French stage win in the TdFFaZ. Another French rider, Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez), finished second, 1:09 adrift, while Le Court Pienaar came third, 4 seconds farther back.
The young Frenchwoman’s victory was all the more remarkable because her team had been reduced to only four of its original seven riders. UAE leader Elisa Longo Borghini, who won the Giro d’Italia two weeks before this race began, was forced to drop out after stage 3 due to an intestinal virus. Two other UAE riders subsequently abandoned after crashing, which left Squiban’s team drastically short-handed.
“It’s incredible. I don’t know what to say,” a still tearful Squiban said after the biggest win of her career. “When they told me I had [a lead of] a minute and a half, I couldn’t believe it. I mainly wanted to get a head start before the climb to the bonus sprint. Then I was hoping to be part of a small group from the bonus sprint to the finish. It’s really an amazing feeling. I didn’t expect to do that.
“I know we had a strong team, we are only four now, but we are all really strong, and we knew that we were able to do something big today. Finally, we did it. A special day for us.”
After the crashes of the previous day’s stage, which saw no fewer than nine riders drop out, Thursday’s race was relatively uneventful, with a large breakaway riding ahead of the peloton but kept on a tight leash by AG Insurance–Soudal because Le Court Pienaar wanted another stage win.
Asked about her feelings after another podium finish, she said, “It could only have been better if I won the stage. I felt really good today. The goal was to control the race. At the beginning we kind of got a bit stuck with the big break, so we had to kind of control the race from the start, which was OK… My teammates were superb, I mean I couldn’t ask for a better team. They’re so dedicated to me and to the goal.”
But what exactly is the goal?
A historic stage win
The TdFFaZ GC battle actually kicked off on the last, and hardest, of the three categorized climb of Wednesday’s stage 5, the category 3 ascent to Le Maupuy (2.7km @ 5.3%), with an attack by Vollering 9km from the finish line. She took six riders with her, including all the GC contenders, and the group gradually pulled away from the chasers. With 7km left to ride, that gap had ballooned to 20 seconds.
The lead group was still together when the riders hit the final kilometer and had a lead of 31 seconds over the chasers. Van der Breggen attacked 700m from the line but was quickly caught and eventually passed by Le Court Pienaar and Vollering, who rode an excellent sprint but could not catch the Mauritian, who became the first African rider to win a stage in the TdFFaZ. She also regained the yellow jersey, which she had lost to Marianne Vos (Visma–Lease a Bike) after stage 3.
Though Vollering looked uncertain on that final climb, her ride on the descent and in the sprint, where she came within a whisper of pipping Le Court, suggests that the injuries she sustained in a heavy crash near the end of Monday’s stage 3 appear to be healing. (For a comprehensive description of the stage, please see here.).
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Wiebes leads Škoda Green Jersey race
In the race for the Skoda green jersey, two-stage winner Lorena Wiebes holds a narrow lead over Vos, 208 points to 178, with Le Court-Pienaar well down in third, at 118 points. With three big mountain stages left in the race, the points classification race will now come down to the three remaining intermediate sprints, two of which come after a category 1 climb. Vos is a more accomplished climber than Wiebes and may make it over these climbs, but the points will probably be taken by breakaway groups.
That leaves the intermediate sprint on Friday’s stage 7, which comes after about 75km of flat road. I imagine that both Vos and Wiebes will try to join an early breakaway and then race for the 25 points. That may be the spot where Wiebes, who has been consistently faster than Vos, secures her Skoda green jersey win.
Results of Stage 6, 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
- Maëva Squiban, UAE Team ADQ 3:20:46
2. Juliette Labous, FDJ-Suez +1:09
3. Kim Le Court Pienaar, AG Insurance–Soudal +1:13
4. Demi Vollering, FDJ-Suez “
5. Dominika Włodarczyk, UAE Team ADQ “
6. Margot Vanpachtenbeke, VolkerWessels “
7. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Visma–Lease a Bike “
8. Magdeleine Vallieres, EF Education–Oatly “
9. Pauliena Rooijakkers, Fenix-Deceuninck “
10. Puck Pieterse, Fenix-Deceuninck “
General Classification After Stage 6
- Kim Le Court Pienaar, AG Insurance–Soudal 18:29:05
2. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Visma–Lease a Bike +0:26
3. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto +0:30
4. Demi Vollering, FDJ-SUEZ +0:31
5. Anna van der Breggen, SD Worx–Protime +0:35
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers, Fenix-Deceuninck +0:53
7. Sarah Gigante, AG Insurance–Soudal +1:03
8. Puck Pieterse, Fenix-Deceuninck +1:12
9. Cédrine Kerbaol, EF Education–Oatly +1:24
10. Evita Muzic, FDJ-Suez “
