Dark horses to watch at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes
Someone unexpected always comes to light in almost any race, and the Tour de France avec Zwift is no different. Indeed, a long stage race - and at nine stages the Tour is the women’s sport’s longest - provides many opportunities for lesser-known riders to stake their claim for greatness.
Not that any of our dark horses are lesser known. We’ve included some of the riders we think could find themselves on the final podium on August 3rd, but could also end up anywhere in the top 20. They are not the top favourites but what we’re certain of is that these riders will figure somewhere in the mix.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal)
In her sixth season as a professional, success has been a long time coming for Sarah Gigante. Having won the Australian road title riding as an independent, she was first picked up by American squad, Team Tibco-SVB, then by Movistar in 2022.
There, though she bagged one win, she suffered repeated illness and injury, becoming the forgotten woman until signing for AG Insurance-Soudal at the start of last year. On the Belgian squad, she made an instant impact, winning the Willunga stage and GC at the Tour Down Under.
She was seventh overall at last year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, but the big breakthrough came at the Giro d’Italia Women earlier this month, where she won two mountain stages, finishing third overall.
She’s not overly comfortable in the bunch, and the chaos of the opening stages on tight Breton roads may see her lose time overall, but we will see her competing with the best on the mountain days.
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma | Lease a Bike)
After years away winning world titles, Olympic gold medals and beating all-comers on her mountain bike, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s first year back has been a qualified success. Though she was found wanting at the UAE Tour, her first race back, the French woman has made steady improvements ever since.
Without doubt, the highlight was her solo win at Paris-Roubaix, while the cobbles of northern France aren’t often an indication of form in the mountains of the south, though they are an indication of the French woman’s absolute class. In her earlier road career, she was one of the peloton’s best climbers, though back then opportunities were far fewer than now.
However, her issue is a lack of racing, having not competed since withdrawing from the Vuelta Femenina in early May, citing a lack of fitness.
Ferrand-Prevot is a huge talent, and has set her sights on being the first French woman to win the Tour, but this is her first attempt after giving herself three years to achieve the target, and with her lack of preparation, victory would be a surprise.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx Protime)
When Annemiek van Vleuten sealed her yellow jersey at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, SD Worx team manager Danny Stam said there was only one woman who could have beaten her. That woman was his assistant sports director, the then recently retired Anna Van der Breggen.
Now she’s back, and though Lotte Kopecky is their leader for the Tour, Van der Breggen is arguably better suited to riding a strong GC in the next week or so. An excellent climber, strong time trialist and supremely tactically astute, she won the Giro four times in the first part of her career. If there had been a Tour de France then, surely, she’d have won it already?
Her comeback began well, with third at Setmana Valenciana, second at Strade Bianche, a stage win and third at the Vuelta Femenina. But there have been uncharacteristic crashes, and she was a long way from winning a fifth maglia rosa at the recent Giro, her form apparently going backwards.
However, an on-form Van der Breggen can threaten almost any podium.
Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck)
Those watching the women’s sport for many years may have viewed Pauliena Rooijakkers as an unfulfilled potential. Yes, she did well on hilly races, but she would be caught out of position and struggle on descents. However, in recent seasons, she’s transformed into a solid stage racer.
The change began when Rooijakkers joined Canyon//SRAM in 2022, taking her first, and so far only, professional win at Durango-Durango, a climbing race with plenty of descending. The transformation accelerated last year after a move to Fenix-Deceuninck, where she took fourth at the Giro and and more impressive third place at the Tour, both on the back of hugely impressive performances in the mountains.
This year, she’s followed a similar trajectory, with little in the way of podium action early on, but another fourth place at the Giro. She’s not a winner, though, and that 2022 win in Spain remains her only victory at .1 level or above, so a stage or even GC win would be a huge surprise.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
One of the peloton’s most natural racers, when you look at what Puck Pieterse has achieved, it seems It seems unbelievable she has only 31 professional race days.
A mountain bike world champion, a silver medalist at the cyclocross world championships and Under 23 road World Champion, she finished in the top 10 of every spring classic she raced this year, winning La Flèche Wallonne at the first time of asking, the Mur de Huy, one of the final climbs most notorious for needing experience.
Last year was the first anyone could describe as a full road season, racing some of the classics, then the Tour de France, her first-ever WorldTour stage race, where, despite her inexperience, she won a stage, finished 11th overall and was the best young rider.
She’s not raced on the road since her prolific spring campaign, turning instead to the mountain bike, where she’s won five World Cup races. And though she has no multi-day events in her legs this year, on last year’s showing that’s no hindrance.
A win, or even a podium at the Tour, would be a surprise, but Pieterse is a surprising rider and her combination with Rooijakkers could see one or both benefit.
