Date: Wednesday, July 30
Distance: 166km
Start location: Jaunay-Marigny
Finish location: Guéret
Start time: 13:20 CEST
Finish time: 17:32 CEST (approx.)
A nearby town to Jaunay-Marigny is Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, best known as the home of Futuroscope — a futuristic multimedia, cinematographic theme park, which has welcomed over 60 million visitors since it opened in 1987. The town also has a strong cycling legacy, hosting the Grand Départs of the men’s Tour in 1990 and 2000. Stage five is the first time the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will visit the town. The headquarters of Demi Vollering’s team FDJ‑Suez are also located in Jaunay-Marigny.
Classified as a medium mountain stage, the first 100km are undulating, following gentle false‑flat ridges that gradually lift the riders from around 115m to approximately 400m elevation. It's in the final 40km where the race sharpens: riders will face three consecutive climbs — Côte de Chabannes (1.4km at 5.2%), Côte de Peyroux (3.3km at 4.3%), and the decisive Le Maupuy (2.8km at 5.4%) — the last cresting just under 6km from the finish in Guéret. After a fast descent, the riders hit a slightly uphill final 500m, ensuring a punchy and tactical end to the stage.
Contenders
After two pure sprint stages, the puncheurs get a chance for victory on stage five.
There's a chance the more versatile sprinters like Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) could make it over the climbs if attacks don't get too crazy, but they will likely find themselves without the same kind of team support they normally would on sprint stages.
It's more likely that the Classics riders and even the GC contenders may have their day. Defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto) can go well over this kind of short, sharp terrain, as can second in the current GC, Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal). If those kinds of riders go on the attack, then we'll also see the likes of Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) drawn out and potentially in the mix for the win.
World champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) is an obvious candidate for victory here if she's feeling back to her old self. The Belgian can climb as well as anyone in the race and boasts a powerful sprint that could help her win from a small group.
Lianne Lippert (Movistar) has a similar ability in tough sprints and could be a potential contender if the right scenario unfolds.
Other contenders include Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education - Oatly), and Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic-PostNL).
Prediction
We think Marianne Vos will take a second victory in the Tour on stage five.
