The darling of French cycling gave herself three years to accomplish her goal of winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. After a dominant performance on the race’s most crucial stage, she may win it in her first try.
Cor Vos
Two syllables reverberate atop the Col de la Madeleine on the evening of August 2nd, 2025.
“Pauline! Pauline! Pauline!”
The crowd cheers. The French darling, icon of French cycling, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of Visma Lease-a-Bike, has just won atop of the iconic climb on Stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The Frenchwoman finished 1:45 ahead of the Australian climber for AG Insurance-Soudal, Sarah Gigante. In a few moments, she will pull on the yellow jersey, first of her countrywomen to wear the hallowed garment in the revived women’s Tour.
Ferrand-Prévot bridged to Gigante, who attacked at 12.5 km to go in the queen stage, only to attack the young Australian a few kilometres later and go on solo to the top.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was the only pre-race favorite able to match the expected attack from Sarah Gigante on the Col de la Madeleine, and the only rider able to drop her.
If she holds yellow through stage 9, she’ll become the first cyclist in more than four decades to win Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France in the same year (the last, coincidentally, was another French racer, Bernard Hinault, in 1981). Remarkable. The press gallery looked on in awe, exchanging glances of disbelief.
Ferrand-Prévot was also caught by surprise, as this wasn’t meant to happen for a few more years. As she said in the post-race press conference, “I gave myself three years to try to win it, and it was really more of a personal challenge—to ask myself, “Can you actually do it?” And here we are.”
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