Marianne Vos doubles up in yellow on Stage 6 after Lorena Wiebes crash at Tour de France Femmes

Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) sprinted to Stage 6 victory at the Tour de France Femmes to extend her lead in the yellow jersey to 30 seconds ahead of the mountains, and practically secure the green jersey.

After being guided to the run-in by team-mates, Vos was the one to profit from the Trek-Segafredo lead-out of Ellen van Dijk and Elisa Longo-Borghini, who had been hoping to propel the world champion, Elisa Balsamo, to a first stage win in France.

Instead it was Vos who secured a second victory, a first in the maillot jaune, with another dominant sprint success. It was made easier for her by the absence of Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM), who was unable to latch back on after crashing on a descent at high speed.

Stage 6, from Saint-Die-des-Vosges to Rosheim, had originally been marked as one on which the breakaway had a good chance of going to the line. Were it not for two key teams missing out on the escape, it might well have gone that way.

The 14 riders broke free from the bunch after 50km represented all of the main interested squads except Valcar-Travel & Service and UAE Team ADQ. The former, whose star signing Silvia Persico sat in second place overall, 20 seconds behind Marianne Vos, had designs on the yellow jersey. The latter fancied themselves a stage win with Marta Bastianelli.

After a (too little, too) late attempt by Bastianelli to join the escape proved futile, her team-mates set to work alongside Valcar-Travel & Service at the front of the bunch. Their shared efforts ensured the breakaway could never quite be comfortable up the road, no matter how well they were able to cooperate. At no point did the break’s lead top two minutes, and generally hovered between 60 and 90 seconds.

At the second of four climbs, the Cote de Klingenthal, Joss Lowden (Uno X Pro Cycling) launched her campaign for the polka dot jersey, claiming the top two points on offer on the Cat. 4. The third climb of the day, the Cote de Grundelbruch, came just a few kilometres later. Lowden was able to add another four to her total, and move within four of QOM competition leader Femke Gerritse (Parkhotel Valkenberg).

The bonus climb, the Route de Mollkirch, which came with 25km remaining on the stage, was where a calm and composed day became a chaotic one.

On its steepest slopes, from the bunch, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope) looked to dispense with the faster finishers. She was joined in her attack by Juliette Labous (Team DSM) but enjoyed little cooperation from the other teams, who were happy with the race coming down to a sprint.

The break had 40 seconds at that point, and although not the inevitable outcome, it was increasingly the likely one.

On the fast, technical descent Labous’ team-mate, Wiebes, slipped off the side of the road and hit the deck hard. Working for the win for Liane Lippert, all four of her team-mates pressed on.

Approaching the final categorised climb of the day an attack from Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) left just three riders out front. As well as Henderson there was the strong-seeming Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope) and Lowden hanging on.

The peloton looming, Le Net attacked the British pair 1km from the summit, knowing she had to stay away onto the descent to have a hope of stealing the victory.

Although she made it to the top alone, the level ground was to the advantage of Trek-Segafredo, who had European champion Van Dijk reeling her in. Le Net was tagged on the descent.

Vos had Riejanne Markus guiding her to the finale, while Van Dijk continued to keep the pace high on behalf of Balsamo.

A hectic finale saw Trek-Segafredo do their utmost to set it up for the world champion. Van Dijk continued on the front through the tricky, twisty closing kilometres. By keeping the tempo high, she deterred anyone from taking advantage and allowed her team-mate to bide her time.

With Balsamo on her wheel, at 550m Longo-Borghini accelerated out of the line from fifth place. As they entered a narrow chicane, requiring some braking and nervous moments, the Italian was able to get Balsamo to the front, but not with enough of an advantage over Vos. The yellow jersey sat on the Italian’s shoulder and waited for the moment to kick. When she did, simultaneously with Balsamo, at the 75m marker, it was a bigger reflex than any other finisher could handle.

Interviewed afterwards, Vos said: “It was a difficult race but of course we had a good situation, with Anna Henderson in the breakaway… With Anna upfront the rest of the girls kept me constantly out of the wind. Then in the final they did a perfect job to keep me up front and to keep the speed really high until the last corners.”

“I was in the wheel of Ellen van Dijk," Vos added, describing the final metres. "And when Elisa Balsamo came on the left with Elisa Longo Borghini pulling through, we went at the same time. I felt I had more speed but I also felt I couldn’t accelerate more. I just hoped it was enough.”

Vos is expected to lose the maillot jaune when the first mountain test arrives on Saturday, but this victory all but wrapped up the points classification. Vos moves to 267 points, with Wiebes a distant second on 191 ahead of two stages that will not favour sprinters.

General classification hopefuls Demi Vollering (SD Worx) and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) are 1'11" and 1'28" off Vos respectively.

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