Demi Vollering stormed to victory on an electric stage 5 of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Belleville-en-Beaujolais on Wednesday.
The FDJ United-Suez rider won from an elite group of three, pipping yellow jersey Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) on the line. The trio now look set to contest for overall victory at the race, after they put time into all their other general classification rivals. Reusser still leads the race, but her gap to Vollering has shortened to just 12 seconds, with four stages to come.
The trio escaped from the rest of the favourites on the final two climbs of the day, the Col de Durbize and Mont Bruilly, with the latter proving especially decisive in deciding the direction of the stage win, and probably the outcome of the whole race.
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Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) once again lost time, well over two minutes, which might mean her defence of the yellow jersey is now over.
More to follow…
