Tour de France Women: Le Court-Pienaar consolidates yellow jersey in stage won by Squiban

Stage six of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes marked the first real test in the mountains, although it proved to be more of a taste of what's to come than a real battle.

Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) consolidated her lead by earning eight bonus seconds, six of which came from her third-place finish. 2023 winner Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) finished fourth, while the victory went to the breakaway Maeva Squiban, ahead of Vollering's teammate, Juliette Labous.

For the second day in a row, Le Court-Pienaar finished ahead of Vollering. The defending champion, still recovering from a crash on stage three, commented: "Kim is very explosive; I couldn't keep up with her. But I didn't want to push myself too hard because the Tour is still long."

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) maintains second place, 26 seconds behind the yellow jersey, while Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney climbed onto the virtual podium thanks to time bonuses, overtaking Vollering who is now fourth, 31 seconds behind.

The surprise of the day was Sarah Gigante, who demonstrated she can be as competitive on the downhill as she is on the uphill. The Australian, seventh overall at 1:03, impressed her opponents so much that Team Visma-Lease a Bike's Sports Director Van Emden declared: "She's made enormous progress; I think she can aim for the overall victory in the Tour."