'Teamwork is what you need' - Le Court wins historic Tour stage and retakes yellow

Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) claimed her first-ever victory at the Tour de France Femmes after sprinting from a star-studded group of seven GC contenders on stage 5 to Guéret. In the process, Le Court, hailing from Mauritius, became the first rider from Africa to win a stage of the Tour de France Femmes.

The Mauritian used her fast finish to her advantage after her teammate Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) provided crucial support in the finale, keeping a strong pace to deter attacks, as well as keep the yellow jersey group behind. In the process, Le Court moved back into the race lead, and will wear the yellow jersey for the second time in the race, having worn the maillot jaune on stage 3. 

Le Court now leads Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma | Lease a Bike) by 18 seconds, whilst Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) sits in 3rd at 23 seconds ahead of the crucial upcoming mountain stages that will decide the general classification. 

"We came into the stage with a very clear plan, to try and stay safe in the early part of the stage because it was long and flat. That was quite difficult, there were a lot of big crashes. My teammate also got really injured, but glad she's back on the bike," Le Court said after her victory.

It was a tactical finale, but for Le Court, the aim was to make sure she placed herself in the best position possible to capitalise on her fast finish, having already proved her speed by claiming bonus seconds on the final climb of the stage.

"The big goal was to take the bonus sprint, which I managed to do, and then if we finish in a small group, try to take the stage victory. It was a bit tricky at the end. I went around the corner really fast in first position. I thought it was closer than I expected. Luckily, my kick is the fastest in the group," Le Court explained. Despite a slight mistiming in the finale, Le Court was still comfortably the fastest in the finish and had enough time to plan her victory celebration despite Vollering pushing her close 

Le Court credited her teammate, Gigante, who returned to the front group after the final descent, as instrumental in securing the win, particularly in the closing kilometres when cooperation in the lead group was limited.

"I had a teammate with me, so that helped a lot, I think that if I didn't have Sarah, maybe the group behind would have come back because some girls in the front group were not keen to pace," Le Court explained.

"I think there was only me, Demi and Kasia that was kind of keen to do the work and get to the line, so yeah once Sarah got back after the downhill I was really lucky to have her because she just committed fully to the line and without her I wouldn't do what I did today and without the whole team. This shows that teamwork is really what you need in the sport."

When questioned about her celebration at the finish line and whether she might have celebrated too early with a late surge from Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), Le Court dismissed any concerns, insisting that she was assured of victory. 

"No, I don't think so, I think when you are on the bike, maybe it can look like on TV, like in Liège-Bastonge-Liège, it looked really close from the front, but when you turn around, you can see you have the speed and you cross the line first," she said.

"Maybe I gave a little bit of a fright to people watching at home, but yeah, in a sprint when you lift your hands normally, you should double check and it should be ok, but luckily for me, I had enough gap," Le Court added.