Key events
88km to go: The average speed thus far is 38.3km/h. Which is extremely fast when you factor in the small matter of the category one climb they’ve been over, even while factoring in the immutable law that what goes up, must come down.
92km to go: Utter confusion reigns in regard to the Eurosport TV schedule, as per.
On their website the listings state that the live coverage starts at 11.30, but it appears to be 12.30 BST / 13.30 CET.
97km to go: Puck Pieterse, who won stage four in dramatic fashion, was first over the top of the Col de la Croix de la Serra.
1. Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) 10 pts
2. Ghekiere (AG Insurance – Soudal Team) 8 pts
3. Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) 6 pts
4. Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) 4 pts
5. Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) 2 pts
6. Lippert (Movistar Team) 1 pt
Kool abandons
108km to go: The peloton is just cresting the Col de la Croix de la Serra, the first climb, and the only category one on today’s menu.
There are 113 riders in the front group including, I believe, all the GC contenders.
Dsm–firmenich PostNL’s Charlotte Kool, meanwhile, has abandoned:
Kool won stage one, in the The Hague, last weekend:
A quick recap of stage six …
Cédrine Kerbaol took the first-ever stage win by a French rider in the modern Tour de France Femmes, with a daring attack 15km from the finish in Morteau, to move up to second in the overall standings, with two mountain stages of the race remaining.
“First French winner on the Tour de France Femmes, that’s something super-cool,” Kerbaol said after victory on stage six. “I hope it gives a lot of motivation to the next generation. That’s what I’m thinking about.” Her Ceratizit-WNT team’s social-media feed was more succinct. “Holy shit!” it exclaimed on X.
The path to her success was laid by an initial attack from the local rider Juliette Labous, who was racing on the roads of her youth. But if Labous was too tightly marked by the favourites to break away, Kerbaol was not and she moved clear over the top of the final climb, the Côte des Fins.
Read more here …
Preamble
The first six days have been eventful – from the extremely congested top of the general classification, to Demi Vollering’s stage five crash that looks likely to have cost her overall victory. But everything remains up for grabs in this weekend’s concluding two stages.
Just 22sec separates the top four riders in GC and over a minute is the range across the top 10: Vollering, of SD Worx Protime, now sits 10th and 1min 19sec is the margin that separates the reigning champion from the current overall leader, Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon/Sram Racing.
As Niewiadoma said after stage five and Vollering’s mishap, “1:19 in the mountains is nothing to be honest”, so expect the GC to be shaken up significantly by the coming 166.4km route, featuring five categorised climbs, between Champagnole and Le Grand Bornand. If tomorrow’s finish atop Alpe d’Huez is the Queen Stage, today is first in line to the throne.
Scheduled stage start time: 11.30 BST
