Lorena Wiebes wins fifth stage of Tour de France Femmes

Lorena Wiebes won the fifth stage of Tour de France Femmes. This is her second stage victory in the tour.

The breakaway included Victoire Berteau (Cofidis), Antri Christoforou (Human Powered Health), Anya Louw (AG Insurance-NXTG), and Emily Newsom (EF Education-Tibco-SVB). They managed to create a lead of 3 minutes from the peloton at 70 kilometers before the finish line. The peloton started to catch up, and the lead diminished to 1 minute and 41 seconds after 20 kilometers.

Then 45 kilometers before the finish line, the peloton saw a massive crash. Emma Norsgard was heavily injured and taken to hospital. Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak’s right arm was injured. Marta Bastianelli (UAE-Team-ADQ) also injured her arm.

Breakaway split into two groups when Victoire Berteau and Christoforou decided to launch an early attack and drop Anya Louw and Emily Newsom. The first group enjoyed a lead of 36 seconds over the peloton. The peloton caught the breakaway just 2.7 kilometers before the finish line.

Elisa Longo Borghini was leading the peloton in the final kilometer of the stage but she took a wrong turn and lost her lead. It was Elisa Balsamo who took the lead then but Wiebes overtook her in final 300 meters to secure her second stage victory in the tour. Elisa Balsamo finished second and Marianne Vos finished third. Marianne Vos continues to lead in GC with 20 second lead over Silvia Persico.