Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes won stage five of the Tour de France Femmes to claim her second victory on the inaugural Tour.
The Dutch rider, 23, sprinted to victory in Saint-Die-des-Vosges after a hilly 175.6km stage from Bar-le-Duc.
Wiebes, who won Sunday’s opener in Paris, finished ahead of Italy’s road race world champion Elisa Balsamo and compatriot Marianne Vos.
But yellow jersey holder Vos managed to narrowly increase her overall lead.
A third-place time bonus saw Vos push her lead from 16 to 20 seconds over Italy’s Silvia Persico and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma.
A dramatic crash with just over 45km remaining in the stage – the longest ever of a women’s race in the modern era – split the peloton and forced Movistar rider Emma Norsgaard to abandon the race.
The peloton eventually came back together and Vos maintained her impressive record of finishing in the top five of every stage so far.
Elisa Longo Borghini now trails the leader by 34 seconds having lost 13 seconds in the last 500 metres, when she took a wrong turn at a vehicle deviation area.
Asked if she was the best sprinter in the world right now, Wiebes said: “If you want to say it. I don’t like to say it for myself. Today I was happy to deliver this sprint after such a long stage.
“It’s still a goal to get the green jersey [for points classification], but we also want to stay in the general classification with Juliette [Labous]. It was a real team effort and that was the most important thing.”
The Tour concludes with stage eight on Sunday, a 123.3km mountain route from Lure to La Super Planche des Belles Filles.
Stage five results
1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned/Team DSM) 4hrs 32mins 16secs
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita/Trek-Segafredo) Same time
3. Marianne Vos (Ned/Jumbo Visma)
4. Rachele Barbieri (Ita/LIV Racing Xstra)
5. Maike van der Duin (Ned/Le Col-Wahoo)
6. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita/Ceratizit-WNT)
7. Silvia Persico (Ita/Valcar-Travel & Service)
8. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita/FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope)
9. Tamara Dronova (Rus/Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad)
10. Alexandra Manly (Aus/BikeExchange-Jayco)
General classification
1. Marianne Vos (Ned/Jumbo Visma) 16hrs 20mins 58secs
2. Silvia Persico (Ita/Valcar – Travel & Service) +20secs
3. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol/Canyon//Sram Racing) Same time
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita/Trek Segafredo) +25secs
5. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (SA/SD Worx) +55secs
6. Demi Vollering (Ned/Team SD Worx) +1min 1sec
7. Juliette Labous (Fra/Team DSM) +1min 9secs
8. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned/Movistar Team Women) +1min 18secs
9. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den/FDJ Suez Futuroscope) +1min 52secs
10. Elise Chabbey (Sui/Canyon-Sram Racing) +2mins 24secs
