(Albi) The German Ricarda Bauernfeind won the 5th stage of the Tour de France Women alone on Thursday in Albi where the Belgian Lotte Kopecky, 4th, kept her yellow jersey.
The Canyon team climber, who attacked 35 kilometers from the line, withstood the return of a group of pursuers and won ahead of Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser and German champion Liane Lippert.
There was no change in the top places in the general classification: the two big favorites of the Tour, the Dutch Demi Vollering (2nd overall) and Annemiek van Vleuten (6th) had a quiet day in the top positions, avoiding to attack.
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 Canadian Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin (Cofidis) also returned her bib.
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.
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.
