5 favourites for the polka dot jersey at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes
At the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, there has only been one Queen of the Mountains who has not finished on the overall podium. In 2022, it was second-placed Demi Vollering, and 12 months later, Kasia Niewiadoma won polka dots when finishing third. Last year, though, Justine Ghekiere took the honour after winning a stage and being a breakaway regular. We’ve avoided our yellow jersey favourites, instead focusing on the climbing breakaway specialists and GC dark horses.
Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal)
Let’s start with last year’s polka-dot winner, Justine Ghekiere. The Belgian rider seems to be getting better each year, growing in confidence as someone still establishing herself in the sport.
Last year, she inherited the polkadot jersey after being in the breakaway on stage six, winning the following stage with another breakaway, before securing the jersey on stage eight, with yet another move up the road.
She’s stronger now and winning more too. After one win a year in the two previous seasons, she already has two this year, winning a stage at the Tour of Norway and the Belgian road championship.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal)
Ghekiere's AG Insurance-Soudal team mate Sarah Gigante is possibly on the way to being the best climber in the women's peloton.
As they did for the Giro d’Italia Women, the Belgian team heads to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with a focused and hugely strong team, and though they have declared Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Kim Le Court as their GC rider, Gigante is the more likely to succeed in the mountains.
After years of Illness and injury, the Australian proved a return to form at the Giro d’Italia Women and was peerless in the mountains, winning the blue jersey. She was also third on GC, so unless she loses time, the GC riders are unlikely to allow her any space if they can help it.
Marion Bunel (Visma | Lease a Bike)
A superstar of the future, the 20-year-old French woman is happiest in the mountains. Last year’s victory at the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic, beating Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), might be her only professional win to date, but she also her performances elsewhere are a real indication of her potential, not least winning the Tour de l’Avenir Femmes.
There she won both uphill finishes, including at Colle delle Finestre, where she put 1.55 into the opposition.
The team have two leaders, though, and Bunel isn't one of them, but if she gets the freedom from her Visma | Lease a Bike team, we could well see her in mountain breakaways and in polkadots on Sunday week.
Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)
An aggressive, attacking climber, the young Dutch woman also has the punch for those mountain sprints, so essential in winning polkadots. She’s not a big winner, though, but that one victory gives a glimpse of her talents.
At last year’s Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia, she won a two-up sprint with her team mate, Mavi García, herself an accomplished climber, at the end of a tough stage in the Spanish mountains.
The team are going into the race with aggressive intent, which suggests they will be looking for breakaways, while team mates García and Monica Trinca Colonel are both GC riders, so would never be allowed up the road, leaving Smulders with opportunities.
Petra Stiasny (Roland-Le Dévuley)
Swiss rider Petra Stiasny only turned to cycling during the pandemic, but she has shown herself as a brilliant climber. Her breakout race was the climb to Thyon 2000 during the 2022 Tour de Romandie, where she finished fifth behind some of the sport’s biggest climbing names.
What she also showed in that race was a real vulnerability in the bunch, unable to hold position when the going gets chaotic, and she may well lose time on the early stages, which could allow her some freedom later on.
The team have never won a WorldTour race and just don’t have the wherewithal to compete for the overall podium, so they will be looking for some way to earn points and make their name.
