Blanka Vas has sprinted to win stage five of the Tour de France Femmes but her SD Worx-Protime teammate and defending champion, Demi Vollering, surrendered the overall lead after losing time in a crash.

Vollering was one of several riders involved in a crash six kilometres from the finish and the Dutchwoman looked in pain as she battled to the line to limit the damage done in the general classification.

Her misfortune drops her to ninth overall with a gap of one minute and 19 seconds to make up over the final three stages if she is to retain her title.

The peloton was chasing down a group of three riders when the incident happened on a sharp bend during the 152.5-kilometre ride from Bastogne to Amnéville.

Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram Racing), who began the day third overall and 34 seconds off Vollering, made the most of the crash to take the yellow jersey.

In the end it came down to a battle between Vas and Niewiadoma for the stage win and it was the Hungarian who claimed a narrow victory, with Germany's Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) coming in third.

"It's crazy, I still can't believe it. I don't know what to say," Vas said.

"I did not expect this today because I felt so bad during the race."

Niewiadoma had lost out on stage four in a sprint finish, coming in third behind the Dutch duo of Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Vollering.

But she now has the consolation of the overall lead, having finished third the previous two years.

"It feels very special for sure, I just learned about getting the yellow jersey a couple of minutes ago so I feel like it still didn't really reach me, but super happy," Niewiadoma said.

"Today's stage was very chaotic in general, I feel like all the stages so far were very hectic and dangerous, so we knew that we just had to stay in the front."

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) was the best-placed Australian in 30th position, 35 seconds adrift of Vas, and she sits 23rd on the general rankings.

Australia's Olympic individual time trial champion Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) was 39th, 1:22 behind the stage winner, and is 50th overall.

Niewiadoma has a 19-second lead over American Kristen Faulkner (EF–Oatly–Cannondale), who finished fourth on the stage.

Pieterse, who also crashed, dropped from second to third, 22 seconds off the lead.

Reuters/ABC