Vollering wins sprint to take Tour de France Femmes stage five, Reusser stays in yellow

Aug 5 : Dutch rider Demi Vollering won a sprint finish against her two main rivals to take stage five of the Tour de France Femmes on Wednesday, with Switzerland's Marlen Reusser coming in second to hold on to the overall lead.

Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) looked to have stolen a march with 300 metres remaining, but Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) took off in pursuit and hit the front close to the line.

A gruelling up-and-down 140-km ride from Macon to Belleville-en-Beaujolais with eight categorised climbs brought the expected shake-up in the general classification, but the top two remained the same.

Reusser, who won Tuesday's individual time trial to move into yellow, holds a 12-second lead over 2023 winner Vollering, with Niewiadoma-Phinney moving from sixth overall to third, one minute 17 seconds behind the leader.