What does the 2025 Tour de France Femmes mean for the women’s sport?

There wasn’t a dry eye in the country when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won stage eight on the Col de la Madeleine. Whatever our national allegiances, surely there was something in every one of us that wanted home success at the world’s biggest race? Whether that was Romain Bardet in the men’s event or Ferrand-Prévot. 

In 2019 Ferrand-Prévot told Velo, “I have decided to move away from racing on the road full time. I’m not saying that I’ll never do it again, but I can say that it’s my least favourite discipline, it’s a different atmosphere, and it makes it less enjoyable. The road is a very beautiful sport, but one that suits me less.” And off she went to win World Cups, rainbow jerseys and Olympic gold medals on her mountain bike.

While she had tasted road success in the early part of her career, she was not a regular winner. Of course, she’d won the road worlds in 2014, but other than that, Flèche Wallonne was her only top-level win and Emakumeen Bira her only stage race. In 2015, a stage of the Giro Rosa was her last road win, and she appeared lost, that part of her career fizzling out.

Her return has been explosive. First, there was victory at Paris-Roubaix and then a consummate, patient opening seven stages before those two fabulous, emotional stage wins, and, of course, the yellow jersey.

But what of the future? What else is there for her? She’s won everything on her mountain bike and fulfilled her pre-come back ambition of winning the Tour at the first time of asking. Will she really want to put herself through the privations that go with preparing for a repeat performance?

After years of the same old riders or teams winning the biggest races, last week AG Insurance-Soudal almost overturned the status quo of women’s professional road cycling. Almost, but not quite. 

For at least the last 15 years, the biggest races have been dominated by the established teams with European riders. We have to go back to 2016 to find the last time a non-European won the sport’s top stage race, American Megan Guarnier winning the Giro Rosa for Boels-Dolmans - now SD Worx-Protime. Three years earlier, Guarnier’s compatriot, Mara Abbot, won the race for the brand new Wiggle-Honda team, but Abbot was already well-established and had won the race before.

This year, though, an Australian, Sarah Gigante, came oh so close to challenging for the yellow jersey, one of the sport's biggest prizes, while riding for a team which only won its first WorldTour race last year. 

Thanks to the vision, ambition and work of the team’s founder, Natscha Knaven-den Ouden and the follow-up efforts of new manager Jolien H’hoore, the team can count themselves as one of the best in the peloton. Not only that, but their challenge at the Tour was with non-European riders in Gigante and Kim Le Court, the latter winning a stage and wearing yellow.

Had the Australian been able to descend better, or had a teammate in the final, she may well have finished second overall, and rest assured, both those aspects are something Gigante and the team will work on. Watch out world, they're all here to stay.

Does anyone have a long enough memory to remember when Team Sky won Tour after Tour after Tour? No sporting dynasty lasts forever, and maybe time’s up for SD Worx-Protime.

For so many years, SD Worx and Boels-Dolmans before them were the most successful team with the biggest budget, but, by their own admission, they have slipped backwards in all respects. In what was a rider’s market, they were unable to retain key riders, over the winter losing Demi Vollering, Niamh Fisher-Black and Marlen Reusser, the first two of those finishing second and fifth at the Tour last week.

And if the loss of those three was not enough, the women who remained and on whom the team relied for GC success at the Tour were unable to come up with the goods. Much like her compatriot, Remco Evenepoel, Lotte Kopecky’s winter preparation was ruined by illness and injury. And, after three years as one of the team’s sports directors, Anna van der Breggen has not been able to match the performances of her early career. 

These shortcomings have been obvious all year, so it's surprising they have attracted so much attention during the race, the only place they could genuinely have been expected to win being the sprints with Lorena Wiebes. She remains the best sprinter in the world, bar none. She won them the points classification, and Kopecky can be expected to return to form.

Van der Breggen's future is surely less certain, and it’s obvious the team needs a rebuild before we can expect the dominance of yesteryear.

The Tour de France has been the focus of the men’s sport for many years, and without it the women’s sport kind of wandered along aimlessly. Yes, of course, we had World Championships and Olympics, and those who bothered to follow other races knew the product has always been good, with exciting, engaging competition, but the sport had no focal point.

With the return of the Tour de France Femmes now, it has improved the sport beyond recognition. Now, instead of one dominant team - see SD Worx-Protime and before them Rabo-Liv - we now have more teams and more riders who can compete. There is genuine sporting jeopardy, more often than not we have no idea who will win any given race. This can only be good.

However, the proof in the pudding will come with coverage of the other smaller races, especially those which have no links with men’s races. Go to Trofeo Alfredo Binda or even the upcoming Tour de Romandie Féminin and you won’t find many journalists other than those from the host nation. 

There is also an issue with lower-level .1 and .2 races being cancelled, limiting opportunities for younger riders and asking for the development that the Tour has helped create. So we can’t ignore the shortcomings, look at the wider sport, there is entertainment everywhere. 

If the women’s sport in France had been sitting on the edge of the bed wondering whether to lie back down or get up, in the last two weeks, it’s well and truly started its day.

Think back to last year’s dramatic, final stage to Alpe d’Huez when one of the British TV commentators said they couldn’t wait to see Dutch corner. No one was there. I’m not inside the French psyche, but I wonder whether people saw the paltry crowds that day and felt ashamed. They certainly missed out. 

Whatever, they have welcomed this year’s race with open arms, heading to the roadside in their hundreds of thousands from Brittany to the Alps. They have truly taken the women’s race to their hearts, it’s been wonderful to see, and they’ve been royally rewarded. Even President Emmanuel Macron joined in the fervour, tweeting about Maeva Squiban’s (UAE Team ADQ) stage wins and calling Pauline Ferrand-Prévot immediately after her win.

To be fair, for so long, they had little to cheer about. In France the women’s sport had been slumbering for so long, with only FDJ-SUEZ carrying the torch for the sport. In 2006, they were known as Vienne-Futuroscope, then Poitou-Charente-Futuroscope and FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope, but they rarely troubled the scorers in the biggest races.

They finally won their first WorldTour race in 2020, Évita Muzic victorious in the final stage of the Giro Rosa. Behind the podium, team manager Stephen Delcourt could barely control his joy. His vision and ambition have since turned them into the world’s top-ranked team. And while there were once no other French teams in the peloton, now there are three, with Cofidis, Arkea-B&B Hotels, Winspace and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93.

Not only that, but France has four stage wins and a home champion to cheer for. Vive La France, Vive Le Tour.