Stage 6 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift takes the race into the mountains and the Massif Central, with the GC battle about to go up a notch.
The stage, which starts in the huge Place de Jaude in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand, will be run entirely in the department of Puy-de-Dôme. Beginning on fairly flat roads, it will head to Courpière, where things will get serious.
The ascent of the Col du Béal (Cat 1, 10.2km at 5.6%) will be quickly followed by those of the Col de Chansert (Cat 2, 6.3km at 5.5%) and the Côte de Valcivières. Running through a wild landscape of volcanic rock, there will be no respite at all on the road to Ambert.
After the exhilarating finish to Stage 5, which saw the selection go down to the big GC favourites on the final climb of Le Maupuy before the descent into Gueret, Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) got the best of the seven-rider group for the win, so she is in control of the Yellow Jersey.
Le Court-Pienaar leads the GC by 18" from Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma | Lease a Bike), with Demi Vollering (FDJ - SUEZ) third at 23”. Defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) is fourth at 24” and Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx - Protime) sits fifth overall, just 27” adrift of Le Court-Pienaar.
With Vollering demonstrating her strength and strong capacity for recovery from her crash in Angers on Monday and the likes of Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) still in GC contention, there will be plenty of protagonists on Stage 6.
