Kimberley Le Court-Pienaar suffered a dramatic crash midway through the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes, as the race tackled the Alpine terrain towards the summit finish on the Col de la Madeleine. The yellow jersey wearer went down while leading the favourites on a descent, misjudging a corner and going over the handlebars.
She quickly remounted and resumed racing, but not before losing close to a minute on the general classification contenders.
At the time of the crash, Le Court held a 26-second lead over Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in the overall standings, with Kasia Niewiadoma, Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen all within half a minute as well. The incident placed her grip on yellow under serious pressure, with the decisive final climb still to come.
Le Court had been setting the pace on the descent from the Col du Granier when she overcooked a bend and crashed. While she appeared uninjured, the delay allowed the chasing group to open up a significant gap.
Despite the setback, Le Court remained composed and gradually closed the gap to the front of the race. Reports from the race suggest she made contact with the GC group again before the start of the penultimate climb.
It remains to be seen what impact the crash and subsequent chase will have on her performance on the Col de la Madeleine. With the GC tightly packed and the toughest climb of the Tour still to come, the yellow jersey is far from secure.
