Kim Le Court-Pienaar produced the biggest surprise of this year's Tour de France Femmes on Thursday, surging past Cédrine Kerbaol and Puck Pieterse in Tournon-sur-Rhône to win stage 6 from an eight-rider sprint. The AG Insurance-Soudal rider opened her kick with 300 metres to go and held on to claim her second career stage victory in the race, celebrating with the Mauritius flag on the line.
The 153.4km stage from Montbrison to Tournon-sur-Rhône, which packed six classified climbs and 2,531 metres of climbing into a hilly profile, had looked destined for a reduced bunch gallop. Instead, a day of relentless attacking ended with the day's decisive move going all the way. After the early three-rider breakaway was swept up on the Col de Lalouvesc, French champion Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) attacked on the descent with 34km remaining. Puck Pieterse led the response, dragging Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L'IMAD), Kerbaol, Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike) across, and the six leaders bridged to Gery with 31km to go, taking a 30-second advantage over a reduced peloton onto the Côte de Boucieu-le-Roi.
Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) tried to split things up with an attack 15km from the finish, and Le Court-Pienaar jumped straight onto her wheel. The pair made contact with the front group just before the bonus sprint, which the Mauritian won, and with 5km remaining the leaders still held 32 seconds. Le Court-Pienaar, Kerbaol and Markus traded attacks in the finale before the winner launched her decisive sprint inside the final 300 metres.