It was the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes, featuring the first real mountain of this edition, a summit finish on the mighty Col de la Madeleine.
As such stages are extremely rare in women’s cycling, it’s very hard to predict what will happen. Last year’s Tour de France Femmes proved that, with Katarzyna Niewiadoma securing her GC victory on Alpe d’Huez after Demi Vollering failed to take enough time. Vollering was the race favourite again this year, but Sarah Gigante had shown extremely strong form on Monte Nerone during the Giro d’Italia, and she had not lost much time in earlier stages, with FDJ-SUEZ choosing not to eliminate their rivals early. Paris-Roubaix winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma, and Vollering were separated by just five seconds in the GC heading into the Madeleine, showing how close the race really was.
Puck Pieterse burned 1,977 kilojoules over 2 hours and 45 minutes at a rate of 12.72 kJ/kg/h before hitting the Madeleine, making this an extremely hard stage. Race leader Kimberley Le Court Pienaar crashed early on and later sacrificed herself on the Madeleine to support Gigante, putting many riders under pressure, including Anna van der Breggen, who was dropped.
Gigante attacked with 12 km to go, followed by Ferrand-Prévot, while other GC contenders like Vollering and Niewiadoma were gapped. The Olympic XCO champion and Paris-Roubaix winner was flying. A few kilometres later, she dropped Gigante and soloed to a very impressive victory. Ferrand-Prévot took the GC lead with a 2:37 gap over Gigante, and more than three minutes over Vollering and Niewiadoma ahead of the final stage, which features the Col de Joux Plane midway through.
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Ferrand-Prévot delivered a historically strong performance, averaging 5.04 ᵉW/kg for 64:50, one of the best in women’s cycling. Even with altitude adjustment, this effort is not far off Demi Vollering’s iconic performance on the Tourmalet in 2023 at a higher altitude. This is Ferrand-Prévot’s first road season since 2018, after years of focusing on XCO. The only other significant climbing data we have from her is from Jebel Hafeet in the 2025 UAE Tour, where she averaged 4.47 ᵉW/kg for 36:58 on a much easier stage.
With both Gigante and Ferrand-Prévot dominating long, steep climbs, we are seeing a shift in women’s cycling. Stages like these give lightweight climbers a real chance to challenge more powerful riders like Vollering.
