Tour de France Femmes Stage 6 Preview: The Climbing Ramps Up

A medium-climbing stage will let Ash stretch her legs - but not too much with the final two days and their mountain-top finishes looming.


By Molly Hurford |

Stage 6 – Saint Dié des Vosges to Rosheim – 128.6km – Friday, July 29

With only three stages left in the eight-stage Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, today’s hilly stage is an important one for any GC hopefuls. The 128.6km course doesn’t contain any particularly steep climbs or technical sections, but will certainly be a tactical race, particularly for those riders hoping to claim the QOM jersey as they head into mountain stages in the final two stages.

tdffaz stage 6The course has four QOM climbs and an intermediate sprint. It finishes on a downhill as riders speed into Rosheim, which could make for an exciting finish if the peloton is still together.

Riders to Watch

Jumbo-Visma’s Marianne Vos is still sitting in the yellow and has grown her gap to 20 seconds over her top competition, Silvia Persico and Kasia Niewadoma. But with three stages left, and two of them being mountain stages, Vos will be fighting hard in Stage 6 to extend her lead in the yellow, and to maintain her green jersey (yep, she’s technically leading in both GC and points standings).

Because the final two stages are mountain stages, the climbers will have a distinct advantage once they make it through this stage—so expect to see riders like Moolman-Pasio in the main group but not working too hard, in order to preserve energy for the final days and big climbs.

Expect another sprint finish, and as we’ve seen in the last five stages, don’t take for granted that only the usual suspects will be at the front of the race. The Tour de France Femmes has so much attention around it that teams and individuals are giving it their all to take a single sprint, stage win, QOM, or even just a really impressive attack. And with mountains coming up, this might be the last stage where riders are finishing (mostly) in one large pack.

When to Watch

Coverage starts fro 14h30 on Supersport and GCN

If you’re concerned about missing some pedalling time while you spectate the race, you can always hop on Zwift and ride sections of Zwift Island created to mimic parts of each stage—and join other Tour de France Femmes-obsessed fans while you ride!

SAFFA WATCH

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio avoided the carnage of the longest stage, and will now be looking to her climbing prowess to consolidate, or improve her 5th overall on GC.

 

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