Tour de France Femmes - Stage 5

Hard day ahead on the road from Onet-le-Château to Albi

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) wearing yellow during the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

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Tour de France Femmes - Stage 5

Dates 27 Jul
Race Length 126 kms
Start Onet-le-Château
Finish Albi
Race Category Elite Women

Stage 5 of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift offers a typically hard to predict test - could a long breakaway make it? Or will the sprinters’ teams ensure it comes together for a bunch kick? It’s definitely in the balance: there are plenty of climbs that are prime for attacks, but the 24km run-in gives interested parties sufficient time to pull back any risky leaders.

Taking in 126km between Onet-le-Château and Albi, this stage sees the race head back towards the south west of France, taking in the rolling countryside and villages of the Aveyron and Tarn départements.

The short list of categorised climbs, and the fact that this stage is officially designated as a ‘flat’ day, may make stage 5 seem deceptively easy, but it’s a pretty rolling day that will be a mid-week challenge for the peloton. The three categorised climbs that do feature are fairly short and sharp, but it’s the compounding of the longer, gentler, uncategorised rises that will begin to sap the energy of plenty of riders. If it does come to a sprint, expect it to be a reduced group and some tired legs among the sprinters.

The climbs to look out for are the steep kicks of the Côte de Najac and the Côte de Laguépie, both over 7% and coming at the 75km and 85km marks respectively. Though a decent way from the finish, the punchier riders won’t be afraid of having a go on these climbs to try and make life harder for the sprinters.

The final climb, the Côte de Monestiés, comes with 24km to go, and then it’s either flat or descending all the way to the line. It could well be in this final section where the fate of any breakaway is decided - a concerted chase could certainly bring a group back, but they’ll have to be organised about it. If it is a sprint finish, the fast women will be pleased about the relatively flat run-in to Albi, though the road does drag up towards the line.

Grace Brown’s inside view

“After last year, I expect all the stages to be hard,” FDJ-SUEZ’s Grace Brown said about stage 5. “Maybe because it’s not the first Tour de France Femmes it will be different, but my gut feeling is that whenever there’s an opportunity to make it hard, it will be hard. So this is definitely a bit of an in-between day. It’s not got anything that’s the key point of the day, but more small roads and climbs. The finish in Albi, it’s sort of sprinty, but it drags uphill a bit at the finish again.

“I suspect the climbs towards the end will be hard and it will split up a bit, but not drastically, because then it’s quite easy coming into the finish.”

Climbs

km 75 - Côte de Najac, 2.1km at 7.4% (cat 3)
km 85 - Côte de Laguépie, 1.5km at 9% (cat 3)
km 102 - Côte de Monestiés, 1.6km at 6.4% (cat 4)

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all eight stages of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from Sunday, July 23 to Sunday, July 30, plus daily expert analysis on The Breakaway. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.