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

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That was a complete dud of a stage only saved by seeing an attacking rider win, and yes gutted for NFB, but ironically she moved up a spot on GC, but a Top 10 finish looks difficult now, better to go for a stage win. Tactics by FDJ, truly baffling and of course AG made Gigante work, but it was so easy it hopefully didn't take much out of her.
 
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The problem with putting all the, in effect, decisive stages in a cluster in the second half of the race is that you may well get something of a phony war if the pacing isn't optimal, and the geography of the route means that today was always liable to be somewhat conservative among the big favourites. A little surprised we didn't get more secondary figures battling over the stage win and that they let Squiban go so readily, but I guess most of the riders far enough down on the GC to have that freedom also had teammates in the GC mix to look after (Bauernfeind, Vallières) or have already won a stage (García). I mean, Squiban also had a teammate well placed on the GC, but with Longo Borghini having withdrawn already, Włodarczyk is expected to be a bit more tangential to the final GC battle than, say, Niewiadoma...
 
I've memed the Giro was the best 2.1 race I ever saw, but the TdFF is really just a Dauphine marketed as a Grand Tour in most ways. Almost every edition, crash notwithstanding, has just been waiting for the final 2 stages in the mountains.
 
Beautiful victory for Squiban.

Peloton for the other boni seconds.
Squilban was the most chill and effective breakaway rider I've seen in almost any race this year. She rode like she knew exactly the effort to expend once she cracked the one minute gap and never gave back time.
The lead pack rode less efficiently; but she had no way of strategically predicting that. My guess was the favorites "put there best people on it" and when the gap grew they were unwilling to invest another watt of output.
Good for UAE, too.

Can't help but notice some of the favorites are working blocks and some rather cheesy moves to get a gap. Glad some long, hard hills are coming to stop that amateur sh*t.
 
For the first time in the history of the new TDFF we have a proper descent finish on our hands.
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107 mostly flat kms will bring the peloton from the nearly unavoidable town of Bourg-en-Bresse to the bottom of Côte de Saint-Franc, where Elise Chabbey, Silke Smulders and Brodie Chapman can continue their battle for mountain points.

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While it isn't the easiest climb in the race, it will still only be an appetizer for today's main course: Col du Granier.

It is listed as being 8.9 km long, but in reality it is more of a 20 km climb with a false flat part in the middle. The first hard section is the 1.2 km stretch to the QOM at Côte de Berland.

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This is in no way the hardest side of Granier, but it is obviously not the intention that the race should be decided today already. However, it's still possible to lose/gain time both uphill and downhill during the last 25 km. Will Van der Breggen pull everyone for no reason once again? Can Gigante hold on in the descent? How will FDJ make sure they don't win the stage? These are some of the questions that will get the answered in the next 7-8 hours.

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Granier has featured in the men's Tour de France 17 times since 1947, but the last time was over a decade ago in 2012. The side they're climbing today is to me most famous for Iban Mayo's solo win in a wet Classique des Alpes in 2001, where he upstaged Lance Armstrong for the first time.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIL-CbhUReM