Race report stage 6 TDFF: French victory in France by Kerbaol

Stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes 2024 delivered a spectacular show as the peloton took on the challenging 159.2-kilometer route from Remiremont to Morteau. This hilly stage was marked by a series of key climbs that tested the mettle of the riders, setting the stage for critical moves in the race for the general classification (GC).

Early Breakaway

From the start, it was clear that Stage 6 would be a battle of attrition. The race began aggressively, with multiple riders attempting early breakaways. The peloton, led by teams with GC aspirations, kept a close watch, ensuring that no early move gained too much ground. The early break featured notable climbers and strong all-rounders who aimed to create a buffer before the decisive climbs later in the stage. A group of 18 riders was in the lead of the race with some strong contenders, including the rider for the fight for the green jersey with Marianne Vos.

As the riders climbed the Col de Ferrière, the peloton began to fracture, with stronger teams pushing the pace leaving a thinned out peloton. Movistar and FDJ-Suez were particularly active at the front, setting up their leaders for the final climbs. The intermediate sprints saw Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) picking up valuable seconds, but the peloton was always lurking close behind, ensuring that the race would come down to the final ascents.

Shaping of the Race

The day’s critical points came on the climbs of La Roche du Prêtre and Côte des Fins. These climbs, while not the most severe in terms of gradient, were enough to cause significant splits in the peloton. Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime) made a decisive move on La Roche du Prêtre, attacking from the front and dragging a select group of riders with her. Among them were Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM), Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), and Juliette Labous (Team DSM-Firmenich), all key contenders for the yellow jersey.

Niewiadoma in particular, staying at the front and dictating the pace. Her Canyon//SRAM team had been instrumental in keeping her well-positioned throughout the stage, and as the riders crested the final climb, it was clear that the fight for the stage win would be fierce.

Decisive move

Cédrine Kerbaol made a decisive solo move late in the race, breaking away from the peloton and holding off a hard-charging group in the final kilometers. As she powered through the closing stages, the peloton, led by Canyon//SRAM Racing and FDJ-SUEZ, struggled to close the gap, ensuring that Kerbaol would take the stage win riding solo to the finish line. Her victory saw a French rider take the win where it was the first day of the Tour where the race started and finished in France.

In the sprint behind the rider from Brest, Marianne Vos took bonification seconds for the green jersey outsprinting the thinned out peloton ahead of Liane Lippert. Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma finishing safely in this group as well.

Kerbaol’s move up the General Classification was another highlight of the day. By winning the stage and securing the 10-second time bonus, she climbed to second place overall, just 16 seconds behind the yellow jersey, held by Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM). Niewiadoma, who finished safely within the group, managed to retain her lead, but the competition tightened significantly with only a few stages left.

Cedrine Kerbaol

I felt really good. I’ve got my team-mates who were always there to place me, to put me in the best possible position. On the last climb, I took my time patiently because I often tend to attack a bit too early and get counter-attacked. And then I said to myself, I’m going to let pass the bonuses (QOM and sprint red.), and then I am going to focus on going to get the win. And then there it was, there were a few attacks, and then a little moment of fallback in the peloton and then I put the attack in. I know that in the downhill I can still make the difference with some girls. and so I saw right away that it made a gap and then well there I said to myself we’re getting into time trial mode now.

I’ve never won a race like this, so legendary. And I’ve never been so close to all the girls who are in front in GC. It’s quite crazy. And just like last year, once when I had the white jersey on my shoulders, I said to myself now we’re going to have to go and get it. We’re not far from either, so we’re going to try to anything for the anything and then we’ll see afterwards.

Kasia Niewiadoma

‘’It was very nice. It was super nice to get a lot of positive comments from the girls in the peloton. I feel like racing for so long in the professional bunch, you make a lot of friends, so it was really nice to have a quick chat with so many of my colleagues about it. So, yeah, it was very special.’’

Does the yellow jersey make the rider stronger? “I hope so. I hope I will feel super strong tomorrow and the day after. Today was a very hard day at the end, but, yeah, I felt good. So, it definitely feels rewarding to still keep the yellow jersey.”

Did you worry about losing the jersey because it was quite close with Cedrine?

“No, not really, to be honest. It’s racing, as we saw yesterday. I knew that I still had Niamh with me, and she was doing a great job pulling. The finish was on a little uphill section. So it was very tight at the end, of course, but it wasn’t crossing my mind. I was just focusing on every kilometer that we were going through.”

Marianne Vos

We tried to control the large groups, and then a group of 13 riders, including Fem (van Empe red.), broke away. That was very good. It was a very big group. I thought it would be nice to make the bridge, and it worked out. From there it was a struggle for me.

It was tough. When you’re involved in an early break, you use a lot of energy. And at the end, it became quite intense. Unfortunately, the bird had already flown by that point. An there was nothing I could do about that. Over the last summit, I was happy to see the peloton in front of me, so I could still make a move.

The maximum points for the green jersey was the highest attainable, and now the highest attainable goal in the Tour is to take that green jersey to Alpe d’Huez later on. First I need to recover from this.

Demi Vollering

Vollering survived the day well after her crash yesterday without any significant pain or trouble: ‘’I’m happy that it went well today. And today wasn’t too crazy, thankfully, in that respect. So I survived well.

She wasn’t afraid that she would be bombarded with attacks today: ‘’No, actually not. Because if they wanted to do that, Kasia would have to do it herself, of course. That would also take her energy for tomorrow. Sometimes I had to close some gaps, but luckily I was able to keep up every time, without too many problems. I am confident. The next two days will be fine. I’m very keen to get that yellow jersey back, maybe even more than before. So I hope it will come good. I feel like Kasia also didn’t make a move again. So yes, we’ll see tomorrow and the day after who is the best and who deserves the yellow at the end.’’

Tomorrow is the longest stage of this year’s edition with 166,4km of hard racing with 5 climbs and a summit finish in le Grand Bornand. The cards are shuffled and tomorrow the hands will show which cards to play.