Aug 5 (Reuters) - 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.
"I knew Kasia would go early, because she always does," Vollering said.
"I knew Marlen would gamble, so I let her gamble a bit to try and make her work, but she didn't. I gave it everything until the final sprint and I needed every single metre in the last finish straight."
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 up to third overall, one minute 17 seconds behind the leader.
FERRAND-PREVOT STRUGGLES
Last year's winner Pauline Ferrand-Prevot struggled on the final climbs, and the French rider is now five minutes behind Reusser.
Mountains classification leader Puck Pieterse took maximum points on the first six climbs, and was part of a 19-rider breakaway with over 75 km remaining, but they were reeled in by the yellow-jersey group after the penultimate climb.
Niewiadoma-Phinney, the 2024 winner, appeared set to win her first Tour de France stage, but Vollering had other ideas and put in a blistering finish.
Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney have always finished on the final podium since the race began in 2022, and are well on course to do so again, with Reusser defending a slender lead with four stages left.
"Marlen has not won a Tour yet, and she will have to work for it as well. I'm sure it will be a hard battle, because she is not the rider who you can beat easily, because she is very strong," Vollering said.
Thursday's stage six is a 153.4-km hilly ride from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhone.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
