Marianne Vos remains leader in the Tour de France for women. The number one in the general classification finished third in the fifth stage on Thursday afternoon. Just like in the opening stage, the win went to her compatriot Lorena Wiebes. Vos just fell short in the final sprint.
The yellow jersey of Marianne Vos, who comes from Babyloniënbroek, was hardly in danger. Vos wears the leader’s jersey from the second stage. She also leads the green jersey battle. Wiebes has 191 points, Vos leads with 217 points.
‘Marianne was an idol to me’
“As a little girl I never thought that I would sprint against Marianne. She was an idol to me and now we are fighting for the green jersey,” said Wiebes. “It would be nice if I could win that jersey, but the gap is still big. I can also take points in the intermediate sprints. We’ll see.”
It was the longest stage of this Tour de France. The stage, from Bar-le-Duc to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, was 175 kilometers long and went over a sloping terrain with two climbs of the fourth category. That is a distance that most riders sometimes cover during training, but rarely during competitions.
In the peloton, 45 kilometers from the finish, there was a big crash. This also couldn’t hurt Vos.