Kimberley Le Court Pienaar claimed stage six of the Tour de France Femmes, as Marlen Reusser took her slender lead over Demi Vollering into Friday's seventh stage.
Le Court, who rides for AG Insurance-Soudal, joined a small breakaway group 10km from the finish in Tournon-sur-Rhône
The 30-year-old Mauritian, who had to change bike towards the end of the 146km course from Montbrison, launched her sprint with 300 metres remaining and held off the challenge of the French rider Cedrine Kerbaol, with Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands coming in third.
Le Court hailed the efforts of her teammates following her victory in just over four hours.
"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," she said. "Then I just tried to stay patient, tried to recover from this big effort."
Reusser retained the yellow jersey of the overall race leader for a third day with a 12-second lead over Vollering. Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney lies third, one minute and 17 seconds behind Reusser.
Early breakaway
After setting out from Montbrison, a group of three riders built an early lead of more than two minutes but were reeled in by the peloton with 54km remaining.
Magdeleine Vallières set a blistering pace at the front on the penultimate climb of Col de Lalouvesc, which split the main group of riders.
A group of six then got away, before they were joined by Le Court and Riejanne Markus. The breakaway managed to hold off the chasing pack, and Markus made a move with one kilometre left.
However, she was unable to capitalise on her attack count and Le Court, who led the race for three stages last year, took the spoils.
"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 at the end. I was [at] the limit. I can't believe I still had the legs to sprint."
Friday's stage seven takes the riders 146.8km from La Voulte-sur-Rhône to the summit finish at Mont Ventoux.
The 2026 competition finishes on Sunday with a 99km race around Nice.
(with newswires)
