Tour de France Femmes: Squiban's perfect attack earns home favourite stage six win
The 23-yea-old from Brest held off the pursuing peloton of favourites on the final climb to claim the biggest win of her career and also the second stage win for a French rider since the women's race was rebooted as the Tour de France Femmes in 2022.
Squiban, riding for UAE Team ADQ, attacked alone, three kilometres from the top of the Col du Chansert, and maintained her lead on the fast descent, through the bonus sprint and into the finishing straight on the Boulevard Henri IV.
'When they told me I had a minute and a half (lead) I couldn't believe it,' she said after the stage. 'I mainly wanted to get a head start before the climb to the bonus sprint. Then I was hoping to be part of a small group from the bonus sprint to the finish.'
Behind her, overnight race leader, Kim Le Court, was as good as her word at the bonus sprints, and made every second count. The Mauritian took another four seconds, just ahead of defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma, to extend her overall lead.
'The goal was to control the race, and then see if the legs were there,' Le Court said. 'After that, it was to take the remaining bonus seconds, as there was already a rider up ahead.'
'We tried to close the gap to Squiban to try and get the stage, but it wasn't going to happen so tried to get a bit more time at the finish. I couldn't wish for it to be better, apart from maybe winning the stage.'
The 29-year-old now leads overall by 26 seconds from Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and by 30 seconds from Niewiadoma, who leap-frogged pre-race favourite Demi Vollering into third place.
The first mountain stage of the 2025 edition included 2,475 metres of altitude gain over four categorised climbs, including the first category Col du Beal, and provoked significant time gaps through the peloton. Marianne Vos tumbled down the yellow jersey rankings, dropping from sixth position to 29th after stage six
Although the rest of the favourites stayed together over the top of the 10km climb, Cédrine Kerbaol and defending champion Niewiadoma tried their hand on the descent, but were recaptured at the foot of the Col du Chansert, the platform for Squiban's solo attack.
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Demi Vollering's FDJ-Suez team mate, Juliette Labous, set off in pursuit in the closing kilometres, but it was not enough to draw out any initiatives from the main challengers for final victory.
Ferrand-Prévot, gold medallist in Olympic mountain biking, has been a discreet presence so far, after showing an explosive acceleration on stage one. Her stealthy performance is fuelling French hopes that she may break the host nation's 40-year Tour de France drought.
FDJ-Suez team manager Stephen Delcourt's apparent anxieties over Vollering's chances may be heightened by the prospect of a French rider being guided to overall victory by his nemesis, Visma–Lease a Bike's Jos Van Emden, although the pair now appear to have ended their public feud.
Friday's stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry may have lesser altitude gain, but is expected to inflict yet more pain, as it crosses the summit of the 1,134m Col du Granier, just 17km from the finish. With three mountain stages still to come, only 132 of 154 starters remain in the race.
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