With her second stage win, Marianne Vos of the Netherlands has extended her overall lead in the women’s Tour de France. The 35-year-old prevailed safely on the sixth stage in the sprint.
Second was the Italian Marta Bastianelli ahead of Lotte Kopecky from Belgium and cycling world champion Elisa Balsamo from Italy. The hilly part of the day led over 129 kilometers from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in the Vosges to Rosheim.
Three-time road world champion, who was also an Olympic champion in 2012, is now 30 seconds ahead of Italy’s Silvia Persico and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma. The German champion Liane Lippert came in 24th place in the daily ranking at the same time and is still 13th in the overall ranking, 3:09 minutes behind Vos.
In a descent almost 25 kilometers before the finish, the two-time stage winner Lorena Wiebes from the Netherlands fell, among others. She was able to finish the race with bleeding grazes.
Although the German riders ultimately had nothing to do with the decision, Franziska Koch and Katrin Hammes were part of a 14-man lead group that was able to pull away during the course of the race. At times the group was about two minutes ahead of the peloton, which eventually contained all the breakaways.
The seventh stage this Saturday covers 127.5 kilometers from Sélestat to Le Markstein Fellering. There are three mountain classifications of the first category to be mastered. The race ends on Sunday with another mountain stage.
