The 2025 Tour de France Femmes isn’t yet over, with one tough final stage through the Alps yet to be raced on Sunday. But the Col de la Madeleine has all but decided the destination of the yellow jersey, with the 2,000-metre behemoth giving the race what is very likely to be its first French winner.
This year’s race had been both designed and raced in such a way that the 18.9km test of the Madeleine was always going to be the decisive hour of the race, and so it proved. Heading into Saturday’s seventh stage, five riders at the top of the standings were separated by just 35 seconds, while another minute also covered the next five behind them.
However, as it was always going to do in a sport that doesn’t often race climbs of this length, the hors catégorie ascent blew the standings apart. Now, the gaps at the top are measured in minutes rather than seconds.
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On Saturday morning, amid the pouring rain in Chambéry, four favourites stood above the rest. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease A Bike), a proven mega-talent across nearly every discipline of cycling you can think of, carried home hopes, but, racing her first full road season in seven years, was somewhat unproven.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had both already won the race. The high mountains are their terrain, and so they would always take a front and centre role on the hardest and longest climb of the race.
Then there was Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), the Australian mountain goat who ascended to another level at the recent Giro d’Italia. Following her podium place, two stage wins and the mountain classification in Italy, some rival team directors brought her name up before any other.
There were other names in the mix, too, but come Saturday evening, that quartet fills the top of the standings.
Of course, Ferrand-Prévot is the headline-maker – literally. Sunday morning’s papers, including L’Equipe, crowned the Frenchwoman as the ‘reine’ – queen – of the Tour.
She vanquished any doubts with seeming ease on the queen stage after responding to Gigante’s first attack and then gliding away from both her and fellow climber Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) on the way to the top.
It was a feat of teamwork for the Frenchwoman’s Visma-Lease a Bike squad, she said later, hailing teammate Marion Bunel, who had been in the breakaway ready to drop back and help on the Madeleine.
“It was a pretty perfect day,” she said. “The girls worked really hard for me the whole day… We put Marion Bunel in the first breakaway so she could eventually help me on the final climb.
“When I got [to Gigante], we got to Marion, who was on a slightly flatter part, and that allowed me to recover on her wheel to then attack, accelerate, to try and drop Sarah. It was in the fine details, and everyone rode perfectly as a team.”
Barring disaster on Sunday’s final challenge, which features the Col de Joux Plane among 2,820 metres of climbing, the Dutch squad look to have delivered France its first Tour winner since the 1980s. She now leads Gigante by a whopping 2:37 heading into the final stage, having put 1:45 between her and the 24-year-old at the top.
Cédrine Kerbaol, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and Demi Vollering in a chase group during stage 8 – the trio remain in the fight for podium places (Image credit: Getty Images)
In Gigante, AG Insurance-Soudal have a new star of the sport, the only rider, along with Annemiek van Vleuten, to podium the Giro d’Italia and Tour Femmes in the same season.
She admitted after the stage that she has “so much work to do on the descent”, having been dropped multiple times when the road heads downhill this week (although her rivals, strangely, decided not to take advantage), but she is now a firm favourite for future Tours. All of this following iliac artery surgery last winter, too.
“To think in January, I couldn’t even ride my bike at all. I was just watching, and I didn’t know if the surgery would work, and then I just slowly get more and more confidence,” she said following the stage.
Vollering and FDJ-Suez will be searching for answers after the climb. The Dutchwoman’s title of pre-race favourite was swiftly shredded when Gigante put in the first big GC attack of the stage, 11.7km from the top, and she’d never see the front of the race again.
For a past Tour winner, and a French team which has invested a lot in this single goal (having also signed Juliette Labous, Elise Chabbey this winter to support Vollering), a three-minute time loss and third place can only be a disappointment.
Still, it could have been worse, given the fears after her crash earlier in the week. Did the fall have a lingering effect? It’s unclear, but Vollering had no answers to Gigante and Ferrand-Prévot on Saturday.
“My heart and lungs were OK, but my legs were just finished today. Normally, I should be able to follow, but I’m very disappointed, of course,” she said at the summit. “I just couldn’t keep up. It’s as simple as that. Cycling is very simple for once.”
Then there was the reigning champion, Niewiadoma-Phinney. The Pole had enjoyed a consistent but relatively quiet week. She was always among the leaders, staying out of trouble, and keeping her powder dry ahead of the high mountains.
She may not have been able to do the double, and, depending on whether she and Vollering will use the descents of stage 9 to attack Gigante, may not even be on the podium in Châtel, but Niewiadoma-Phinney wasn’t too downcast at the finish, highlighting the increasing quality of women’s cycling.
“Personally, I don’t feel great because that is not the result that I worked hard for, but at the same time, looking at the climb and the numbers, it was the best effort of my life,” she said.
“The fact that other riders improved so much shows how the women’s peloton is growing, and it makes me wonder what else we can be doing to win the races when simple improvement is not enough anymore.”
Niewiadoma-Phinney now lies 22 seconds off Vollering and 1:03 off Gigante, signalling there could yet be more GC action on the final day, even if yellow is out of reach. Fifth-placed Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), sixth on the stage, is also within striking distance of the podium, 1:34 away from Gigante.
With a day remaining, the Tour de France Femmes is far from over, and there’s plenty left to play for, but the winner was decided on the Madeleine.
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