Tour de France Femmes 2024: stage five, Bastogne to Amnéville – live | Tour de France Femmes

13km: Next comes the bonus sprint, where every second counts, with 20 seconds separating them. The three breakers are not far apart: Van de Velde by 6 seconds, Adegast by 4 seconds, Van Empel by 2 seconds. None of them are the favourites for the overall win. Vollering in yellow is safely hidden in the pack. Van de Velde is now looking to win the stage alone.

15km: On this final climb the group splits up, the riders at the back are pushed out and the breakaway’s lead shrinks. They fall further back, under 20 seconds, and come the bonus hill. After a valiant effort Van Empel takes the lead and the points. Peters leads the group in the chase and does much of the work on the hills.

20km remaining: As we approach the final 20km of downhill stretch, the three at the front all seem to be enjoying themselves quite easily.

Nick Gibson got in touch: “Can you explain why your team is dragging Vollering and her SDWorx team along for the ride? Surely the team at the front is responsible for the speed of the pack?”

There are rumours that Movistar want this stage for Emma Norsgaard, and there are fears that Kristen Forkner may make a move.

25km remaining: Finally, the break time is down to around 1 minute 30 seconds. There are some sprinters in the pack. Ampel and Adeheste have scored points on the Côte de Briey. There is one more climb and soon the Côte de Monteis la Montagne. Then, with 15km to go and more hills, the race really starts towards Amnéville.

30km remaining: Van de Velde, Adegeest and Van Empel remain the leading trio, with Marianne Voss switching bikes with a few kilometres to go and perhaps hoping to get in for a sprint finish if there is a chance.

35km remaining: The breakaway has extended its lead to 2:30. The next few clicks have two category 4 climbs. The Cool pack is well back, about 5 minutes ahead of the Broom Cart, but there may be doubts about the winner of the two stages earlier this week. It wasn’t a good day for her.

46.8km remaining: There’s a lot of action heading into the intermediate sprint. The top three are safely away but need to chase the small sprint points. 13th place below 5th means the sprint teams will have the pace. Van de Velde leads the breakaway through and they don’t sprint. But after scoring 25 points she suggests she has a problem with her bike. Marianne Vos is involved. Kool in green has no points. Maeva Squiban is chasing but we don’t see the explosiveness of Alice Towers.

50km remaining: The front three are really trying. Alice Towers is chasing them on the hilly road but not making much progress. The intermediate sprint is probably not going to happen for a real sprinter. Will the same happen at the big finish? Erika Magnardi, who crashed on the UAE Bike just before, is finally on a bike that is the right size for her and is chasing hard.

60km remaining: The gap remains at 55 seconds. Racing through the French countryside, Britain’s Alice Towers made a strong start after the breakaway.

65km remaining: Adegeest is in the lead, joined by Julie van de Velde (AG Insurance Soudal Team) and two-time Cyclocross World Champion Fem van Empel. Charlotte Kuhl’s pursuit is successful and she has rejoined the pack. All eyes are on the middle spring, with less than 20km to go. The gap to the leader is 55 feet.

73km remaining: At the Cote de Fermont, Roes Adegeest won the title of Queen of the Mountains with a breakaway, while the Porcarese was closely fought, with Silvia Persico coming in second.

75km remaining: Already past Pancras, Peters has secured two mountain points to strengthen her hold on the jersey. Charlotte Cool, who has returned to the pack, has dropped out of the main pack, at least for a while. She was wearing the green jersey and was considered a favourite to win the stage, but is over a minute behind. Why is this being advertised as a flat stage?

84km remaining: With the race still in France and with no excitement yet to come from Paris 2024, the pack is regrouping after several aborted attacks on the climb up the Côte de Saint-Pancre-Saint-Pancrace.

Who is St. Pancras?

St. Pancras, a 14-year-old boy who converted to Christianity and refused to give up his faithAs a result, he was beheaded by Emperor Diocletian in Rome in 304. He is the patron saint of children. Right.

From the official website: “The 137 riders who completed Stage 4 yesterday have started Stage 5. With Spera Köln (Cofidis) withdrawing, there are now 136 riders in the peloton. Only one rider, Yanina Kuskova, remains from Tashkent City Team.”

The incident in Tashkent is one that requires investigation. The talented Rouleur managed to do just that.

“In the opening stage of the race, four of the team’s seven riders failed to complete the flat sprint day, and the second stage started with just three riders, two of whom dropped out on the 67km route to Rotterdam. The absence of established Continental teams that have performed well in the Tour in the past, such as Lifeplus Wahoo and Volker Wessels, has led to criticism of Tashkent’s qualification for the world’s biggest cycling race.”

“Groisman explained: “Last year we only did 1.1 or 2.2 races and this is a high level. It’s not easy. All the girls cried because of the criticism. I would challenge any team to bring seven Uzbek girls to this race and prepare them for the Tour in three years. They are not ready yet but we came here with UCI points and the UCI has to change the rules. We didn’t break the rules. It’s not fair to criticise them. They are working very hard.”

An update from the race – it won’t show anywhere in the world even with a VPN or anything – but the pack is moving fast, but as we approach the 100km to go, they’re all coming together.

Today’s climb:

• Today’s five categorized climbs offer up to 11 points in the mountaineering category.

• Côte de Haute (Km 14.1, Cat. 3, 1.2km, 7.9%)

• Côte de Saint-Pancre (Km 69.6, Cat. 4, 1.5km at 3.9%)

• Côte de Fermont (Km 79, Category 4, 1.5km, 4.6%)

• Cote de Brilly (Km 125, Category 4, 1.1km, 4.4%)

• Côte de Monteis-la-Montagne (Km 137.3, Category 4, 1.7km (6%))

Sailing in BastogneWith limited TV coverage in the UK at the moment, who would have done something like this for Les Hommes? But an early breakaway occurred, with Elena Pirone (Roland) attacking in the first 5km and opening up a 30″ gap. Micaela Drummond (Arkea B&B Hotels) joined the breakaway at 7km and on the first climb the gap was now 20″ over the pack.

The first climb, the Côte de Hot, features a Polka Pointage like this one:

• 1. Pirone, 3 points

• 2. Drummond, 2 points

• 3. Persico, 1 point

Here are the jersey wearers for Stage 5.

Jeremy Whittle reported from Liege on Wednesday.

Department store fiction in progress.

preamble