Mauritian rider Kim Le Court docket has made historical past for Africa by profitable a stage on the girls’s Tour de France.
Mauritian Kim Le Court docket turned the primary African to win a stage on the ladies’s Tour de France..
It was a case of double celebration for the 29-year-old who, on Wednesday took the fifth stage honours in a dash to reclaim the chief’s yellow jersey.
Le Court docket edged Dutch duo Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen after a hilly 166km trip, the longest of the Tour, from Chasseneuil-du-Poitou Futuroscope to Gueret.
In a single day chief Marianne Vos misplaced yellow to the AG Insurance coverage-Soudal staff chief after ending eighth, 33 seconds adrift, on the day.
Soudal Group’s Mauritius rider Kimberley Le Court docket Pienaar, centre, celebrates subsequent to FDJ-SUEZ staff’s Dutch rider Demi Vollering, proper, as she cycles to the end line to win the fifth stage (out of 9) of the fourth version of the Girls’s Tour de France biking race {Julien de Rosa/AFP)
Le Court docket, who had a quick spell already on the prime of the overall classification after stage two, now leads France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot by 18 seconds.
“It’s actually been a dream begin to the Tour. The stage win, the yellow jersey,” mentioned Le Court docket.
“I wasn’t even excited about it once we began in Brittany.
“As for what occurs subsequent, we’ll see, since I don’t know my limits within the mountains, this Tour being my first main stage race the place my staff has requested me to compete for the general classification.”
Vollering, the Tour winner in 2023 and favorite for this version, is third at 23sec after recovering from a heavy fall on Monday.
Final yr’s winner, Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma, took fourth within the stage to take a seat properly positioned at 24sec off the general lead.
Thursday’s sixth stage is a mountainous 123.7km trip from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert that includes three ascents, together with the class one climb up the Col du Beal, with the race ending on Sunday.
