Tour de France Femmes stage 3 preview: at last a chance for the sprinters

The opening two days of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes have been a literal roller coaster, taking the peloton up and down and around the roads of Brittany. Now it's time for a change of scene as the race begins its long journey south-east, ultimately heading for the Alps at the end of the week.

Stage three, though, should provide the sprinters with their first nailed-on chance, that is, unless another breakaway can take some time.

Apparently, one for the sprinters. But with the Tour de France Femmes, you never quite know, especially after Sunday's stage.

On stage three, the race begins its journey south-west to the Alps, starting in La Gacilly and finishing in Angers, some 163.5km later, making this the second longest stage of the nine.

A quick glance at the jagged profile would suggest a hilly day out, but with only 1,320m of vertical ascent scheduled, there’s significantly less climbing than stage two, which was also a lot shorter. The day’s only classified climb, the fourth category Côte de la Richardière, comes early on, after only 34.1km, and at just 4.8% over its 1.2km, it’s unlikely to present too much of an obstacle.

There’s an intermediate sprint on the menu too, at Ver d’Anjou, with 39.6km to go, but with only points and no bonus seconds available it’ll be interesting to se whether the likes of SD Worx-Protime and Visma | Lease a Bike bring a breakaway back to fight for the points, or will they mop up what a break leaves them.

After arriving in Angers, the race crosses the River Maine with 4km to go, following the embankment, before re-crossing the river, where it gets trickier. There’s a 90º turn across the bridge inside the closing 1,500m, with a fast right then left with one kilometre to go. The final 500m is straight and slightly uphill, so positioning and timing will be key.

A breakaway is likely to be given its head today; they’ll get themselves a gap, but the sprinter’s teams will control, possibly bringing them back for the intermediate sprint, but they’ll definitely try to have them back for the final. With Lorena Wiebes among their squad, this job may be left to SD Worx-Protime, though they’ve not shown too much yet this Tour, so they could help out.

It’s tough to look too far beyond Lorena Wiebes for what is likely to be the first bunch sprint of the race. She’s unbeaten in a sprint this year, even winning the uphill kick and finishing second behind Mavi García yesterday. SD Worx-Protime have lowered their sights for this year’s Tour, and they will be desperate to get a stage win just to build confidence, and Wiebes is the woman most likely to deliver, so the team are likely to work to control any breakaway.

She may have dropped off the back on Sunday, only finishing fifth, but Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) will also be there. Vos has said she’s all in for Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s yellow jersey bid and the points classification is not a priority, but why did she compete for points at the intermediate sprint on Sunday? Vos will take green if she can, and that means contesting the bunch kicks. The team have already shown a real and effective commitment to their winners and this will continue.

Lidl-Trek clearly didn’t feel Elisa Balsamo was up for Sunday’s finish, but Monday is a whole different kettle of fish. The Italian is a very classy rider, and the team will want her to make their mark. The next two days are their opportunity. Wiebes is her problem, though; she has not beaten her in a sprint since the opening stage of the 2023 Simac Ladies Tour. There’s always a next time. 

Another Italian will be in contention too, and should Letizia Paternoster take the win, it would be a backup for her Liv-AlUla-Jayco team after Mavi García’s stage win on Sunday. That should certainly give her confidence, as should her improvements in recent seasons. She’ll need to sprint cleverly, though. 

The weather shouldn’t prove an issue. It’ll be warmer than the two previous stages, and there's not much wind, so the long open stretches shouldn’t invite an echelon action, though it will be behind the peloton for much of the day, so it could be a fast one.