Le Court-Pienaar wins Stage 6 of Women’s Tour de France, Reusser retains the overall lead

Montreal’s Magdeleine Vallières Mill finished 25th in the stage and ranked 21st.

Le Court-Pienaar lay on her back in a mixture of exhaustion and elation as she savoured her victory after winning in about four hours.

“It was a crazy day. I had a mechanical problem and had to change my bike,” Le Court-Pienaar said. “It was 50 kilometres from the end and it was very stressful. It was very hard to get back and I used up a lot of energy.”

The Swiss rider Reusser maintained her overall lead of 12 seconds from Dutchwoman Demi Vollering, with Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney one minute 17 seconds behind in third.

Two-time Giro d’Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini jumped up a couple of places to fourth overall to move into outside contention for the title at 2:28 back. Le Court-Pienaar ranked ninth overall at 3:26 behind while defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of France was 15th.

Six climbs

Stage six took riders on a 153-kilometre (95-mile) route featuring five modest climbs and one tricky category two-level climb — the third-hardest category in the race — before a downhill dash to Tournon-sur-Rhône in the Ardèche region of south-central France.

A three-rider breakaway formed early on. But they were soon caught heading up the Cat. 2 Col de Lalouvesc, a grind of nearly nine kilometres.

Another breakaway formed shortly after, with two-time Olympic road race bronze medallist Longo Borghini among them. Following the day’s last climb up Cote de Boucieu-le-Roi, they were joined by Le Court-Pienaar, winner of the Liège—Bastogne—Liège classic last year.

Behind them, 2023 Tour champion Vollering upped the pace but the peloton could not get to within 15 seconds of the leading eight riders, who contested the stage win. Le Court-Pienaar’s extra power made the difference as she attacked from deep.

“I had a difficult time trial on Tuesday,” she said. “I found my legs today. This was for my team, my husband, they sacrifice a lot for me.”

Friday’s seventh stage is for climbers and ends with a mammoth 15.7-kilometre ascent of the iconic Mont Ventoux.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Le Court-Pienaar wins Stage 6 of Women’s Tour de France, Reusser retains the overall lead

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