The penultimate stage of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was won in style by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) in Saint François Longchamp. After winning Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift in April Ferrand-Prevot mastered brutal final Col de la Madeleine climb (Hors category, 18.6 km at 8.1%) on Stage 8 to seize the Yellow Jersey in front of the cheering French fans, who enjoyed a third successive French stage victory. After attacking 9km from the summit, Ferrand-Prevot crossed the line 1’45” ahead of Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team), with Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl – Trek) third at 2’15”. Demi Vollering (FDJ – Suez) was fourth at 3’03”, crossing the line just ahead of fifth placed Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck). The GC battle was truly ignited on the tough ascent of the Col de la Madeleine as expected, with the stage results putting Ferrand-Prevot 2’37” clear at the top of the classification, with Gigante second, Vollering third (3’18”) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto) fourth (3’40”).
Immediate action
Dilyxine Miermont, the Frenchwoman from Ceratizit, did not start Stage 8, meaning there were 129 riders in the Tour peloton as the racing commenced. The Dutch climber Riejanne Markus (Lidl – Trek) attacked in the company of Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundaction Euskadi), 5 km into the first climb and 8 km from the Col du Plainpalais summit. Markus was joined by 13 other riders in the breakaway, including her teammate Niamh Fisher-Black, as well as Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez), Elise Chabbey (also FDJ-Suez), Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck).
Squiban active again
Winner of the last two stages, Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) rocketed out of the peloton in an attempt to close the 29 seconds separating her from the breakaway 3km from the top of the Plainpalais climb. She soon joined the front group to make it 15 in the lead, but in the polka dot jersey Chabbey took 10 more QOM points at the Col de Plainpalais (km 13.3 km) summit, ahead of Squiban and Markus.
Heading to the sprint
Following the Plainpalais descent, en route to the intermediate sprint, the peloton let go and allowed the breakaway to build a lead of 3’40” with 73 km to go. However there were attacks from the front of the break and Squiban caught up with Lotte Claes (Arkéa - B&B Hotels Women) and Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL). With 70 km to go, this trio had a 12" lead over the rest of the breakaway, 2'32" over counter attackers Celia Le Mouel (CERATIZIT Pro Cycling Team) and Morgane Coston (Roland Le Devoluy), and 3'38" over the peloton. Ahead of the intermediate sprint the breakaway all came back together at the front, whilst behind there was drama as Yellow Jersey Kim Le Court-Pienaar crashed whilst leading the peloton. She was soon back on her bike but lost significant ground and had to chase back hard to re-join the favourites group.
Chaos on the Le Frêne descent
The descent of Le Frêne further took its toll, with the peloton splitting into groups after Le Court-Pienaar’s crash. In the first peloton group chasing the breakaway, only about 20 riders remained, including Ferrand-Prevot, Kerbaol and Vollering, with Le Court-Pienaar in a second group which trailed by a minute. German champion Koch took the lead at the Intermediate Sprint in Châteaufort (km 56.7), ahead of Squiban. The breakaway was by then only 2'44" ahead of the first group of the peloton. Before the second categorised climb of the day - Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières (Cat. 2, 4.9km at 5.9%) - the first part of the peloton, led for a time by FDJ-Suez despite Muzic's presence in the breakaway, finally relented, allowing Le Court-Pienaar to re-join the other favourites. But the peloton had lost ground to the breakaway again: 3'43" with 45 km to go.
Strong Chabbey stays on top
Without a particularly strong effort over the other riders in the leading group, Chabbey extended her lead in the mountains classification by taking first place at the summit of the Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières. Second-placed Squiban scored three points, meaning Chabbey was guaranteed to retain the polka-dot jersey for one more day by finishing the stage.
Battle on the Col de la Madeleine
Beginning the final Col de la Madeleine (Hors category, 18.6 km at 8.1%) climb the Yellow Jersey group was only 1'40" behind the breakaway, which soon lost Claes, Chabbey and Squiban. The break slowly disintegrated on the tough Madeleine ascent with only Fisher-Black and Kastelijn remaining in the lead 13 km from the summit. While her teammate Le Court-Pienaar had just finished her work in the front of the group before cracking, the Australian climber Gigante went on the offensive with 12 km to go, with only Ferrand-Prevot of the GC favourites able to stay with her on the climb. The Olympic mountain bike champion Ferrand-Prevot then attacked at the start of the final nine kilometres, after impressive work from her teammate Marion Bunel, with Gigante unable to keep up with her. The Frenchwoman caught Kastelijn and Fisher-Black seven kilometres from the summit, with Kastelijn immediately distanced and Ferrand-Prevot leaving Fisher-Black behind with five km to go, powering to the summit for a sensational victory.
