Tour de France Femmes 2025 (July 26th- August 3rd)

[Libertine Seguros]

Gigante eventually lost 5th to Fisher-Black as well. Painful learning experience for the Australian for sure.

 

[Ripper]

Gigante eventually lost 5th to Fisher-Black as well. Painful learning experience for the Australian for sure.

Hopefully an actual learning experience

 

[Ripper]

Not by me, I have been largely defending her calibre as a rider.

At the same time, "based on a true story" does not mean "accurate re-enactment of a true story". The era of super-peaking is truly back now, and I really don't know how I feel about it.

PFP has always been a super peaker though, no? Why does it make you uncomfortable?

 

[memyselfandI]

It's not special or miraculous, certainly not from a rider of PFP's undoubtable quality. The thing that has me uncomfortable is how convenient it is and all the stops being pulled out to make it some huge patriotic festival.

+1 this tbh.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

PFP has always been a super peaker though, no? Why does it make you uncomfortable?

Like I say, it feels very convenient that France's belle returns to the road to become the first winner of the TDFF (getting her win in fast before the generation of Bunels, Begos and Squibans take on the home support), and that after a Tour de France for men that saw dwindling audience figures and received criticism for being a foregone conclusion, the women's race has the most perfect outcome anybody could have scripted for the French press, and she finishes the race by winning solo in the yellow jersey while the TV cameras linger on the race director, the mastermind behind the race, and a litany of former French heroes and heroines are on hand to welcome her home and everybody can sing the Marseillaise and celebrate in unison. It's absolutely perfect for the race directors - almost too perfect.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Like I say, it feels very convenient that France's belle returns to the road to become the first winner of the TDFF (getting her win in fast before the generation of Bunels, Begos and Squibans take on the home support), and that after a Tour de France for men that saw dwindling audience figures and received criticism for being a foregone conclusion, the women's race has the most perfect outcome anybody could have scripted for the French press, and she finishes the race by winning solo in the yellow jersey while the TV cameras linger on the race director, the mastermind behind the race, and a litany of former French heroes and heroines are on hand to welcome her home and everybody can sing the Marseillaise and celebrate in unison. It's absolutely perfect for the race directors - almost too perfect.

I like PFP too much to agree completely. But I do recognize the probability of truth in your post.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Speaking of French multidisciplined riders making great comebacks to road cycling, triathlete Émilie Morier, who rode some elite races in 2022 without making much of a name for herself, and who only joined St Michel a month ago after impressing on the domestic amateur scene, finished 12th today and 25th overall. In this tri race in 2021, Taylor Knibb and Maya Kingma gapped her by 90 seconds in the bike leg.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Not so familiar with Nadia Gontova, but 10th today shows that she has a big engine! The big teams should take notice.

 

[JosefK]

After all stages are done, I'm wondering whether Demi Vollering will feel worse, or possibly better, about the outcome of this year's Tour vs. last year's? She got 2nd again. I.e., she finished as high up in the GC as she did last year (albeit without a stage win). All things considered, 2nd place was probably her ceiling this year, unlike last year.

 

[yaco]

Gigante eventually lost 5th to Fisher-Black as well. Painful learning experience for the Australian for sure.

Gigante can't descend to save her life and she was worse in the Tour De Suisse. In saying that, she is still a chance to win a Giro or Vuelta where there are shoter and slower descents. Finally, she she have won the Giro because somehow she lost 1m and 42s in a crossswind split where the wind was 9km in one of the more bizarre stages of 2025.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Not so familiar with Nadia Gontova, but 10th today shows that she has a big engine! The big teams should take notice.

Gontova has been doing pretty strong in the LatAm scene for a couple of years now, most notably she was 2nd in the Vuelta a Colombia last year. She's also a very strong TTer - 2nd in both the MTF stage and the ITT, almost taking back the whole 2 minutes that she'd lost to Lilibeth Chacón on the MTF, and also being 2nd in the Chrono Gatineau, beating some WWT pros like Marta Jaskulska and Letizia Paternoster on the way. She was also 8th in the Tour de l'Ardêche on a brief detour into Europe. Squiban was 5th and Włodarczyk 6th in that race, for what it's worth.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I like PFP too much to agree completely. But I do recognize the probability of truth in your post.

The fact that, as Mayomaniac pointed out in the Visma thread, the race director is a personal friend of PFP's and announced in the press that Hinault's successor would be a woman...well, I'm not going to totally foul her for it since I first mentioned her on this forum in a thread about "who will be the next great French GC rider" back in 2011, but at the same time I'm not in the position where I can influence what happens, whereas Marion...

 

[Izzyeviel]

No, the french secret service didn't arrange it so she won. You're better than this.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Kasia & Demi 4th time together on the GC podium. Almost like Pogiman & Vingegaard.

 

[RedheadDane]

Kasia & Demi 4th time together on the GC podium. Almost like Pogiman & Fishman.

Except it hasn't always been 1st and 2nd between them.

 

[AmRacer]

Except it hasn't always been 1st and 2nd between them.

Magic keyword, 'Almost'

 

[RedheadDane]

Magic keyword, 'Almost'

Nah, the "almost" would be in the number of times it has happened.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No, the french secret service didn't arrange it so she won. You're better than this.

Her decision to come back was specifically about winning this race. She still had to be strong enough to win it.

But all the additional stuff around it with the former champions on site to receive her at the finishing line, the car getting out of shot as the yellow jersey romps to solo victory, the lingering shots of Rousse in the car cheering for her, Cordon-Ragot crying on the commentary... it's all so perfect that, with the history cycling has of trying to arrange routes and things around the preferred outcome (Moser's helicopter, the twelveteen sprint stages in the Giro in the early 2000s, the 2012 Tour route, the 1985 Vuelta), that even if I don't truly believe anything to be scripted, when something fits so perfectly it's almost conditioned into me as a long term fan to get the heebie-jeebies.

I mean, if I recall correctly, Jeannie Longo lives in Annecy and Bernard Thévenet somewhere near Grenoble, so they're probably two old champions who were local enough to travel across to the finish regardless, or maybe who were local enough and available to travel up after PFP won on the Madeleine, but with all the way it was shot, it felt like the last half hour of the stage was a coronation, celebrated with vulgar patriotic fervour, more than anything else, and so when she blew away from the others with such a display of power despite it not being necessary and opened up such a huge gap so quickly, it just put that feeling in my brain about how having her finish solo with her arms aloft in the maillot jaune was just adding that extra bit of picture-perfectness to an already celebrated occasion, and I felt it was gilding the lily. It was already perfect, but she had to go on and make it even more perfect, and then more perfect still.

 

[JosefK]

The future looks a bit bleak for Pauline Ferrand-Prevot's competitors in the TDFF (or other grand tours). Her climbing in this form is unapproachable. Her bike handling is exquisite. She can descend like a stone. Time trialing? She's got that too, no doubt. Everyone else is toast.

 

[Izzyeviel]

None of that has anything to do with her, nor is unusual. It would be pretty upsetting if the french werent too bothered about it. Just be thankful you aren't british. You'd have hated the past few weeks (go Lionesses!)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The future looks a bit bleak for Pauline Ferrand-Prevot's competitors in the TDFF (or other grand tours). Her climbing in this form is unapproachable. Her bike handling is exquisite. She can descend like a stone. Time trialing? She's got that too, no doubt. Everyone else is toast.

She's shown over a long period that she has an extremely high ceiling but not such a high floor, this kind of form is not something she can hold for a long time. The Giro is way too close to the Tour for her to do both at this kind of level. The Vuelta might be too close to Roubaix as well if she wants to focus on that, she has built the whole of this season around the big French races, and in the only other MTF she's done this season she finished 40 seconds in front of Lorena Wiebes so that race can't be considered remotely representative of her ability.

The question is going to be more about what she decides to target going forward, whether she says "mission accomplished" around Roubaix (I can't imagine she doesn't target the Tour again) or goes for the same calendar again. She could do the Vuelta and the Tour, but I don't see a Giro-Tour double as being likely based on what she herself has said about the shape she's got herself in for this, and based on her historical precedents for how long she maintains peak level.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

None of that has anything to do with her, nor is unusual. It would be pretty upsetting if the french werent too bothered about it. Just be thankful you aren't british. You'd have hated the past few weeks (go Lionesses!)

It's not that they're not "not bothered about it". It's that they hammered home the symbolism of the feelgood finale so heavy-handedly that it felt forced.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Her decision to come back was specifically about winning this race. She still had to be strong enough to win it.

But all the additional stuff around it with the former champions on site to receive her at the finishing line, the car getting out of shot as the yellow jersey romps to solo victory, the lingering shots of Rousse in the car cheering for her, Cordon-Ragot crying on the commentary... it's all so perfect that, with the history cycling has of trying to arrange routes and things around the preferred outcome (Moser's helicopter, the twelveteen sprint stages in the Giro in the early 2000s, the 2012 Tour route, the 1985 Vuelta), that even if I don't truly believe anything to be scripted, when something fits so perfectly it's almost conditioned into me as a long term fan to get the heebie-jeebies.

I mean, if I recall correctly, Jeannie Longo lives in Annecy and Bernard Thévenet somewhere near Grenoble, so they're probably two old champions who were local enough to travel across to the finish regardless, or maybe who were local enough and available to travel up after PFP won on the Madeleine, but with all the way it was shot, it felt like the last half hour of the stage was a coronation, celebrated with vulgar patriotic fervour, more than anything else, and so when she blew away from the others with such a display of power despite it not being necessary and opened up such a huge gap so quickly, it just put that feeling in my brain about how having her finish solo with her arms aloft in the maillot jaune was just adding that extra bit of picture-perfectness to an already celebrated occasion, and I felt it was gilding the lily. It was already perfect, but she had to go on and make it even more perfect, and then more perfect still.

Wait, now it‘s suspicious that a car isn‘t inside a 20 second gap?

 

[Oldman]

Like I say, it feels very convenient that France's belle returns to the road to become the first winner of the TDFF (getting her win in fast before the generation of Bunels, Begos and Squibans take on the home support), and that after a Tour de France for men that saw dwindling audience figures and received criticism for being a foregone conclusion, the women's race has the most perfect outcome anybody could have scripted for the French press, and she finishes the race by winning solo in the yellow jersey while the TV cameras linger on the race director, the mastermind behind the race, and a litany of former French heroes and heroines are on hand to welcome her home and everybody can sing the Marseillaise and celebrate in unison. It's absolutely perfect for the race directors - almost too perfect.

I imagine there are other theories coming out of that basement but ask yourself: how often have the French scripted an event that, in your view is this convenient? Forget the usual cast of guys hanging out at the Vuelta and Italians at the Giro. They just didn't win to make it "convenient".
You also must have missed Bernard Thevenet at the start of this Tour as well as Jeannie L. Longo who born in the Haute Savoie and still reputedly lives there.
As for the "litany of former French heroes and heroines on hand" Jeannie likely thought it would be great to see a bike race in her Alpine backyard and gladly accepted the helicopter ride to the top rather than cycle it.

 

[Oldman]

It's not that they're not "not bothered about it". It's that they hammered home the symbolism of the feelgood finale so heavy-handedly that it felt forced.

Like I said...if it happened to a Spanish rider in the Vuelta or Italian at the finish in Rome would you feel the fan assemblage and pride would be "convenient"? Pride in a country's athletes might be a rare situation in France, I guess?