Marianne Vos (Vimalies a Bike), who is committed to winning the green jersey at the Tour de France Femme, won the battle for second place on stage 6 to Morteau to move into the points lead.

After being separated on the final climb up the Côte des Fees, Vos fought hard to rejoin the pack on the descent and rejoined it in the last few kilometers of the race. She was the fastest sprinter in the bunch, however, and the victory went to Sedrine Kerbaol (Serratigit-WNT), who escaped in the final stages of the race.

“It's a pity that Sedrine had already opened a big gap. Otherwise, I might have been able to take the sprint win. Unfortunately, that was out of my control,” Vos told the international media at the finish line in Morteau.

“I was relieved to see the peloton again after the last climb. It was a great result today. I want to bring the green jersey back to the finish of the Tour de France Femme, but first I need to recover from this grueling effort.”

Charlotte Coole (Team dsm-Farmenich-Post NL) leads the green jersey point standings with 120 points, with Vos in second place with 95 points.

To gain even more points, Vos connected with a breakaway group with 87km to go and won the intermediate sprint in Sancy to put points on the line for Kool.

Three riders broke away from the front of the bunch on the final climb, but were caught with a few kilometers to go and the group went to the Côte des Fins. Juliette Laboux (Team dsm-Firmenich-Post NL) attacked and the group got even smaller.

Vos was separated just 500m from the summit and struggled to regain contact with the leading group.

“I decided to cross and succeeded. From that moment on it was painful. It was really tough,” Vos said.

She desperately tried to reconnect with the lead group on the descent, caught her breath, and sprinted to the finish line, earning enough points to take second place and the green jersey lead.

“On the last climb, I could still see the tail of the peloton and was happy to be back there. But someone had already escaped and there was nothing I could do. So to get maximum [sprint] points was the best achievement,” Vos said.

Vos now leads the points standings with 145 points, while Kool has dropped to second place with 120 points. Vos aimed to hold on to the jersey in the two remaining mountain stages. If he retains his lead at the summit of the Alpe d'Huez on Sunday, he will win the green jersey for the second time since 2022.

“I suffered a lot, although I might not have had much of an image of trying to struggle and fight back. I was struggling to survive to the finish,” Vos said. 'I want to defend, but first I'm going to try to recover from this.'

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