T&T’s Te­niel Camp­bell of Team Jay­co Alu­la had her best fin­ish so far at the sec­ond edi­tion of the Tour de France Femmes with Swift af­ter she crossed the line in a bunch fin­ish for 70th po­si­tion from a field of 129 cy­clists who com­plet­ed the 126 kilo­me­tres (78 miles) ride from Onet-le-Chateau to Al­bi on Thurs­day.

Com­ing on the heels of just miss­ing out on her first top 100 fin­ish when she end­ed in the 102nd po­si­tion dur­ing Tues­day's Stage Three, Camp­bell, 25, the na­tion­al women’s road race cham­pi­on clocked three hours, 20.01 min­utes, the same time was giv­en to her team­mates Ni­na Kessler, and Alexan­dra Man­ly who placed 54th, and 84th re­spec­tive­ly, while the trio of Am­ber Pate (3:20.12 hrs.), Georgina Howe (3:24.38) and Jes­si­ca Allen, al­so in 3:24.38 end­ed in the 92nd, 120th and 121st spots re­spec­tive­ly.

She said on Face­book af­ter the race: "Rough day men­tal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly af­ter be­ing asked a sen­si­tive ques­tion pre race but man­aged to pull through once the flag dropped."

When the Tour be­gan on Sun­day, Camp­bell placed 125th fol­lowed by 136 in Stage Two, 102nd in Stage Three, and 130th at the end of Stage Four on Wednes­day.

Not for the first time Spain’s Ane San­teste­ban Gon­za­lez was the top fin­ish­er from Team Jay­co-Alu­lua in the sev­enth spot in 3:07.52 sec­onds, to trail Ri­car­da Bauern­feind

Canyon-SRAM Rac­ing) who took the stage vic­to­ry, a six-sec­ond in­ter­me­di­ate time bonus sprint, and a 32-sec­ond mar­gin of vic­to­ry over the chas­ing pack which moved her up to ninth in the over­all stand­ings, one minute, and 38 sec­onds be­hind over­all leader Lotte Kopecky.

On what should have been a pre­dictable sprint fin­ish, the Tour de France Femmes brought us two dra­mas on Stage Five with a so­lo break­away and a ma­jor change to the gen­er­al clas­si­fi­ca­tion as De­mi Vol­ler­ing (SD Worx) tum­bled through the over­all rank­ings.

Vol­ler­ing was is­sued a 20-sec­ond penal­ty for draft­ing off her SD Worx team car fol­low­ing a mid-stage punc­ture.

The pun­ish­ment saw her plum­met from sec­ond in the yel­low jer­sey com­pe­ti­tion to sev­enth - now 1:03 be­hind her team­mate Lotte Kopecky. Cru­cial­ly, she is al­so 12 sec­onds be­hind ma­jor Tour de France Femmes favourite An­ne­miek Van Vleuten (Mo­vis­tar).

Kopecky re­mains in the yel­low jer­sey with a com­bined time of 18 hours, 55 min­utes, and 17 sec­onds, and now holds a mar­gin of 51 sec­onds over Ash­leigh Mool­man Pa­sio (AG In­sur­ance-Soudal-Quick­Step) in sec­ond place, who shares the same time with Ka­sia Niewiado­ma (Canyon-SRAM), Elisa Lon­go Borgh­i­ni (Lidl-Trek), An­ne­miek van Vleuten (Mo­vis­tar) who now sit in third, fourth and fifth po­si­tion re­spec­tive­ly.

Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-De­ce­un­inck), who gained time in the GC as she took her first pro win in Rodez on Stage Four, sits in sixth po­si­tion over­all and three sec­onds ahead of Vol­ler­ing.

To­day’s Stage Six from Al­bi to Bla­gnac over a dis­tance of 122 kilo­me­tres (76 miles) is tipped to be a sprint stage with lit­tle change to the gen­er­al stand­ings, but re­cent form sug­gests that noth­ing is as pre­dictable as it seems.

How­ev­er, the as­cent of the Tour­malet on Sat­ur­day's Stage Sev­en is sure to split the top of the field and re­order the gen­er­al clas­si­fi­ca­tion com­plete­ly.

Yes­ter­day's Stage 5 Onet-le-Chateau to Al­bi (126 km/78 miles) top 10 fin­ish­ers

1. Ri­car­da Bauern­feind (Canyon/Spram Rac­ing) – 3hrs 07 mins 20 secs

2. Marlen Reuss­er (Team SD Worx) - +00.22

3. Liane Lip­pert (Mo­vis­tar) -

4. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) +00.32

5. So­raya Pal­adin (Canyon/Spram Rac­ing)

6. Rie­janne Markus (Team Jum­bo-Vis­ma)

7. Ane San­teste­ban-Gon­za­lez (Team Jay­co-Alu­la)

8. Ash­leigh Mool­man-Pa­sio (AG In­sur­ance-Soudal Quick-Step)

9. Elisa Lon­go-Borgh­i­ni (Lidl-Trek)

10. Coralie De­may (St Michel Mav­ic-Auber93)

Over­all stand­ings af­ter Stage Three (422.2 km)

1. Lotte Kopecky (SD-Worx) – 18hrs 55 mins 17 secs

2. Ash­leigh Mool­man-Pa­sio (AG In­sur­ance-Soudal Quick-Step) - +49 secs

3. El­isha Lon­go-Borgh­i­ni (LIDL-Trek) - +51 secs

4. Katarzy­na Niewiado­ma (Canyon/Spram Rac­ing)

5. An­ne­miek Van Vleuten (Mo­vis­tar)

6. Yara Kastelijn (FENIX-De­ce­un­inck) - +01.00 min­utes

7. De­mi Vol­ler­ing (SD-Worx) - +01.03 min­utes

8. Liane Lip­pert (Mo­vis­tar) – +01.25

9. Ri­car­da Bauern­feind (Canyon/Spram Rac­ing) - +01.38

10. Juli­ette Labous (Team DSM-Fir­menich) - +01.48

Who’ll be wear­ing what jer­sey to­day:

Yel­low (Over­all Leader): Lotte Kopecky (SD-Worx) 18hrs 55 mins 17 secs

Green (Points): Lotte Kopecky (SD-Worx) – 166 pts

Pol­ka-dot (Climber): Anous­ka Koster (Uno-X Pro Cy­cling Team) – 23 pts

White (Youth): Cé­drine Ker­baol (Cer­a­tiz­it-WNT Pro Cy­cling) –18hrs 58 mins 24 secs

Team: Team SD Worx – 56 hrs 47 mins 51 sec­onds

Re­main­ing Stages

Stage 6: Ju­ly 28: Al­bi to Bla­gnac – 122 km/76 miles (flat stage)

Stage 7: Ju­ly 29: Lan­ner­mezan to Tour­nalet Bag­neres-de-Big­orre – 90 km/ 56 miles (moun­tain stage)

Stage 8: Ju­ly 30: Pau – 22 km/ 14 miles (In­di­vid­ual Time Tri­al)