Demi Vollering stormed to victory on an electric stage 5 of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in Belleville-en-Beaujolais on Wednesday.
The FDJ United-Suez rider won from an elite group of three, pipping yellow jersey Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) on the line. The trio now look set to contest for overall victory at the race, after they put time into all their other general classification rivals. Reusser still leads the race, but her gap to Vollering has shortened to just 12 seconds, with four stages to come.
The trio escaped from the rest of the favourites on the final two climbs of the day, the Col de Durbize and Mont Bruilly, with the latter proving especially decisive in deciding the direction of the stage win, and probably the outcome of the whole race.
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Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) once again lost time, well over two minutes, which might mean her defence of the yellow jersey is now over. She was distanced on the Durbize, along with Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), as FDJ put the pressure on.
On Mont Bruilly, Vollering repeatedly tried to escape, but every move was matched by Reusser, who took yellow on stage four’s time trial; Niewiadoma then put in a dig, but the elastic did not snap. However, those three were then alone, and worked hard to ensure the maximum time possible was put into their rivals.
In the finale, Reusser led the three in, and Niewiadoma launched a surprise early sprint, aimed at catching her rivals out. Vollering, however, had the power to close the gap just in time for the line, with Reusser following in in second.
“Today, it was a really cool race,” Vollering said on TV post-race. “The whole team, every single rider of the team, was part of it, and I enjoy those victories the most, when everybody puts their hard work into it, it’s all the more special and beautiful, because you do it all together. The way how I managed to win the sprint, I thought I wasn’t going to make it anymore and I somehow made it. It was a relief after the finish line.
“I knew Kasia would go early, because she always does, and I knew Marlen would gamble, so I let her gamble a bit. To try and make her work. She didn’t, and I was like OK, if I don’t do anything, Kasia is going to win. I just have to try, and maybe Marlen will come over me but at least I tried. I just gave it my everything until the line, it was a very long sprint, and I needed every single metre on the finish straight. I managed to do it, so I’m very happy about it.
“For her [Reusser], it looks very bright now. The only good thing is that I won the Tour already, Kasia as well, Marlen is the one who never managed to win it yet, so she’ll have to work for it. I’m sure it will be a hard battle, because she is not a rider who you can beat easily because she is very strong. I will try everything to do that.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
How it happened
The opening 40km of the stage were marked by endless attacks at the front of the peloton over the first three categorised climbs of the day, led by the second-category Côte de Cenves. However, no break stuck until Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health) headed up the road with 105km to go.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) took the maximum points on the first three climbs of the day to extend her lead in the the Queen of the Mountains competition, while Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) took second in the intermediate sprint behind Cipressi to extend her lead in the points classification.
Cipressi was caught with 99km to go, which brought the race together again, and started the fight for the escape once again. Pieterse once again won the sprint to the top of the third-category Col de Fontmartin, 54.1km into the stage.
With 79km to go of the day, on the run-in to the Col de Gerbet, a group of around 20 riders broke away from the peloton, but things were not yet settled behind, partly due to the presence of Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM), who was ninth overall before the day, 1:43 behind race leader Reusser. The group built up a lead of 40 seconds, and included Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike), Franzi Koch (FDJ United-Suez), Lianne Lippert (Movistar), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team L’IMAD) and Pieterse.
The latter took the maximum points again over the top of the Gerbet, as the FDJ United-Suez-led peloton was 1:38 behind. Pieterse repeated her point-winning feat on the Côte de Pruzilly, too.
As the race approached the final hour, with 48km to go, the 19-woman break had 1:50 on the chasing group of favourites.
On the Col de Durbize, with 31km to go, the break started to splinter, with the gap starting to come down to the GC favourites behind. Włodarczyk was among the first to push on, followed by Lippert, Vallieres, Niedermaier and De Vries.
Behind, a huge leadout by Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) for her team leader Demi Vollering saw defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) put into trouble, as Vollering continued to surge. The gap to the front of the race was just 40 seconds over the top of the Durbize. Ferrand-Prévot was almost a minute behind Reusser heading into the final 23km.
The break was caught by the chase including Reusser and Vollering with just under 23km to go. At the bonus sprint, Reusser surged off the front to take six bonus seconds, two more than Vollering, extending her lead overall briefly.
Atop the final climb of the day, Mont Brouilly, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Vollering and Reusser put distance into the rest of the race, with Vollering unable to crack her rivals on the descent to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. The race was then destined for a sprint.
Results
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2026 stage five: Mâcon > Belleville-en-Beaujolais (140km)
1. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez in 3:53:54
2. Marlen Reusser (Swi) Movistar “
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM ”
4. Dominika Włodarczyk (Pół) UAE Team L’Imad + 0.45
5. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl – Trek “
6. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM “
7. Nienke Vinke (Ned) SD Worx – Protime + 1:12
8. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike “
9. Thalita de Jong (Ned) Human Powered Health “
10. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) Lidl – Trek
General classification after stage 5
1. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, in 15:41:18
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez, +12s
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM, +1:17
4. Antonia Niedermaier (Ger) Canyon-SRAM, +2:40
5. Dominika Włodarczyk (Pol) UAE Team L’IMAD, +2:54
6. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team L’IMAD, +2:58
7. Isabella Holmgren (Can) Lidl-Trek, +3:05
8. Femke de Vries (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, +3:11
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly, +3:41
10. Paula Blasi (Esp) UAE Team L’IMAD, +3:51
