Race report

Stunning Ferrand-Prévot rides to historic stage win and into Tour de France yellow

The French woman put in a sparkling ride on the Col de la Madeleine riding everyone off her wheel to take the stage win and the yellow jersey in her first Tour de France Femmes.

Pauline Ferrand Prevot - Tour de France 2025
Cor Vos

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the eighth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift , taking the overall lead of the nine stage race, with one stage to go. The French rider dominated the final climb of the Col de la Madeleine, winning the stage by 1:33 and taking a lead of 2:37 into the final day.

Not only did the the French woman make it a third home win in three stages, she becomes the first French woman to wear the yellow jersey since the race returned in 2022.

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) was second, with Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) surviving from the day's break to take third.

Ferrand-Prévot rode a patient race, bridging to Gigante when the AG Insurance-Soudal rider attacked 12km from the finish at the top of the Col de la Madeleine. She then sat on the Australian’s wheel until they bridged to her team mate Marion Bunel, who had been in the day’s breakaway. When Bunel was done, Ferrand-Prévot surged away, reaching Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) and Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) who were all that remained from the 15-woman breakaway.

Knowing she was clear in the virtual yellow jersey, Ferrand-Prévot took responsibility in the leading group, first dropping Kastelijn, then, with 5km to go Fisher-Black, riding alone to the top of the mountain and into yellow.

A remarkable performance is made all the more so as this is Ferrand-Prévot’s first season back on the road after years racing and winning in mountain biking. She signed for the Dutch squad last winter stating she would win the Tour de France in three years. with one stage to go, it would seem she has done that at the first attempt.  

How it unfolded

The queen stage of the year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and with good reason. Only 111.9km, but a gut wrenching 3,539m was sure to define the day which finished at the top of the Col de la Madeleine.

While the Madeleine was the sting in the tail, the stage had a bite at the start, the Col de Plainpalais starting from the flag, making the opening 13.3km very interesting with its 6/3% average gradient.

Unsurprisingly and despite the gradient, attacks began from the start, putting many riders straight out of the back in the opening two kilometres. One of those on the move was yellow jersey, Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), her attacks forcing the other GC teams to chase, Le Court’s team hoping to wear them out in preparation for a late attack from Sarah Gigante.

For a while every move off the front, whoever made it, received an instant reaction, but 6km from the top of the opening climb, Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) got a small gap. The Dutch rider slugged on alone for a while but was soon joined by 13 others and the group gradually began to build a lead.

Amazingly, they were soon joined by Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) the breakaway winner of the previous two stages, making a leading group of 15. In that group Markus had her GC leader Niamh Fisher-Black, allowed away after a mechanical ruined her race on stage six. Pre-race favourite Demi Vollering had two of her FDJ-SUEZ team mates up there, in Elise Chabbey and Évita Muzic, while Le Court had Justine Ghekiere up there too.

However, when Chabbey took the maximum mountains points at the top of the Plainpalais the lead was only 29 seconds. That only shrunk on the descent, SD Worx-Protime coming to the front with green jersey Lorena Wiebes looking for points at the intermediate sprint after 56km to secure the classification.

However, with the gap at 20 seconds, when the road ramped up on one of the unclassified climbs they sat up, the gap soon going out to more than two minutes. By this time the peloton was 3:50 behind. This put Muzic into the virtual race lead, the former French champion having started the day only 1:32 off the lead.

With the race apparently settled it exploded on a long descent from another uncategorised climb, SD Worx-Protime coming to the front and opening the taps, splitting the peloton the bits. One of the casualties here was Le Court, the yellow jersey crashing on the entry to one of the many hairpin bends, though she immediately remounted and made a furious effort to get back on.

Le Court’s team mate, Gigante was another casualty, though the Australian didn’t crash she was dropped from the other GC riders’ group. Only 18 riders remained in that group at the bottom of the descent, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s Visma | Lease a Bike team and Demi Vollering’s FDJ-SUEZ lifting the pace, though Gigante soon got back on, the pace easing. With 48km to go the peloton then reformed with Le Court in there, he team heading to the front to set the pace.

Over the top of the second category Côte de Saint-Georges-d’Hurtières with 38km to go and the leading group was still four minutes ahead, FDJ-SUEZ in the perfect position, Muzic in the virtual yellow jersey. Once again, on the descent Lorena Wiebes came to the front, the tactics working again, Gigante and Le Court dropped, though this time Ferrand-Prévot with them and they were soon back in.

Into the closing 25km the peloton’s pace lifted, Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto on the front and the deficit to the breakaway tumbled. At the foot of the Col de la Madeleine, with 18.6km of climbing left, the leaders were now only 1.59 ahead of the GC group.

As the climb began Fenix-Deceuninck headed to the front setting the pace as they had done so destructively on stage seven. However, instead of pushing on they allowed Le Court to make the pace.

At the front an attack from Fisher-Black deduced the leading group to just two, the New Zealander heading into the final 13km with only Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) for company and the GC group still more than two minutes down. Not for long, though, Gigante attacking the just around the 12km mark with only Pauliena Rooijkkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) able to go with her, Ferrand-Prévot was soon with them, and as on when they reached Ghekiere, giving Gigante an ally.

With 10 tortuous kilometres of the Madeleine to go, Ghekiere was gone, replaced by Ferrand-Prévot’s team mate and compatriot, Marion Bunel for assistance. With Bunel gone, Ferrand-Prevot simply rode Gigante off her wheel, riding away to victory. 

Result: stage 8, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

we are grateful to our partners.
Are you?

In a time of paywalls, we believe in the power of free content. Through our innovative model and creative approach to brands, we ensure they are seen as a valuable addition by the community rather than a commercial interruption. This way, Domestique remains accessible to everyone, our partners are satisfied, and we can continue to grow. We hope you’ll support the brands that make this possible.

Can we keep you up to speed?

Sign up for our free newsletter on Substack

And don’t forget to follow us as well

Domestique
Co-created with our Founding Domestiques Thank you for your ideas, feedback and support ❤️
  • Ruud Dimmers
  • Rudy Kappert
  • Rob Peters
  • Sjoerd van Oosten
  • Ivo Willekens
  • Lennart Boven
  • Gijs Moonen
  • Dennis Vandewalle
  • Tim Claes
  • Vegar Kulset
  • Bram van der Leij
  • Matthias Socker
  • Karolína Vyskočilová
  • Jeff Betts
  • Bram Wulteputte
  • Jakob Coleman
  • Koos de Boer
  • Jens van Hulle
  • Jan de Vries
  • Martin Lehovec
  • Marc Frei
  • Katelyn Stevens
  • Kristen Greenland
  • Dane Hamann
  • Michiel Deseyn
  • Rafael Santos
  • Josse Deboiserie
  • Matteo Arosio
  • Charlotta Wallensten
  • Quinten Lucq
  • Gisela Kunz
  • Arthur Chrispin
  • Laura Roberts
  • Jorik Tilstra
  • Fabian Deleersnyder
  • Max Zulauf
  • Kjell Crauwels
  • Francesca Gallione
  • Tonke van den Berg
  • Alex Taylor
  • Bart Thys
  • Kenneth Thuy
  • Josh Sakofsky
  • Daniel Nimpfer
  • Jolien Vermeulen
  • Joe Morgan
  • Sravan Pannala
  • Graham Denny
  • Thomas Huyghe
  • Stephan Kehr
  • Martin Hickman
  • Jeroen Sneyers
  • Jim Naughton
  • Eric Secember
  • Katy
  • Florian Aussieker
  • Kate Veronneau
  • Bryan Alberts
  • Wouter ter Halle
  • Dirk Spits
  • Guido Gelman
  • Tom Dijkerman
  • Ethan Lessiter
  • Joao Galveia
  • Koen van der Zwet
  • Bart van Vegchel
  • Jens Van Hulle
  • Simon Dalsgaard
  • Ilkka Holma
  • Ghislain Hofman
  • Harry Talbot
  • Andre Cunha
  • Erik Bulckens
  • Jennifer Treptow
  • Jiri Zakravsky
  • Jorge Serrano Barthe
  • Eddy van der Mark
  • Lynda Bowers
  • Michelle Baxter
  • Johan Ståhlbom
  • Darrell Dilley
  • William Burns
  • Berten van Herp
  • Keith Blackwood
  • Peter Eastaugh
  • Aaron Borrill
  • Pete Stanton
  • Shawn F.
  • Martin Wiesemborski
  • Samuel Doll
  • Ken Brinsmead
  • Mike Morgan
  • George Harborne
  • Michael Gibbons
  • Scott Mellin
  • Daniel Hinich