Aug 6 (Reuters) - Kimberley Le Court of Mauritius overcame earlier difficulties to emerge victorious in a reduced sprint and win stage six of the Tour de France Femmes on Thursday, as Swiss rider Marlen Reusser held on to the overall lead with three stages remaining.
Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) joined a small breakaway group 10 km from the finish, launched her sprint with 300 metres to go and held off French rider Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) on the line, with Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands coming in third.
The 30-year-old Le Court suffered a mechanical before the final climb and had to change bikes, but, thanks to her teammates, made it back in time to launch her telling move.
"They brought me back slowly but surely to the bunch, and I got back on top of the last climb, which was a really big effort," Le Court said.
"Then I just tried to stay patient, try to recover from this big effort. Riejanne Markus and I bridged to the breakaway, and we got to the front."
There was no change at the top of the standings after the 153.4-km ride from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhone, with Reusser (Movistar Team) holding a 12-second lead over Dutch rider Demi Vollering. Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney is third, one minute and 17 seconds off the leader.
A group of three riders built an early lead of over two minutes but were brought back with 54-km remaining.
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres set a blistering pace at the front on the penultimate climb of Col de Lalouvesc, which split the peloton, leaving a reduced bunch of around 30 riders to go for the stage win.
A group of six then got away, before they were joined by Le Court and Markus. The breakaway managed to hold off the chasing pack, and Markus made a move with one kilometre left.
The Dutch rider was unable to make her attack count and it was left to Le Court to claim an almost carbon copy victory of her stage win last year when she outfought Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney in a seven-rider sprint to the line.
"When Riejanne made an attack from the back, I knew it was going to happen because that's the only way she can win a race like this," Le Court said.
"I had to close the gap myself, and I was really, really dead. I was on the limit. I can't believe I still had the legs to sprint.
Friday's stage seven takes the riders 146.8 km from La Voulte-sur-Rhone to the summit finish at Mont Ventoux, when Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney will be expected to make their move to overtake Reusser.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond and Pritha Sarkar)
