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

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This was a chance for an epic stage. But now all together again.
Could still be, after all Joux-Plane is a pretty nasty climb, does somebody like Gigante now feel they have to attack it, because if they get dropped on this descent, they can't leave it until Corbier and let some of the strong, or at least brave, descenders like Niewiadoma and Kerbaol go ballistic and jeopardise her podium - but then if Gigante goes that early, can she withstand the long distance effort or will she end up paying for it later with the likes of Vollering profiting? It opens up some interesting tactical questions. Summit of Joux-Plane is still 55km from home, so we could still get a couple of hours' worth out of it. Or nothing. The outcomes are all still on the table.
 
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Could still be, after all Joux-Plane is a pretty nasty climb, does somebody like Gigante now feel they have to attack it, because if they get dropped on this descent, they can't leave it until Corbier and let some of the strong, or at least brave, descenders like Niewiadoma and Kerbaol go ballistic and jeopardise her podium - but then if Gigante goes that early, can she withstand the long distance effort or will she end up paying for it later with the likes of Vollering profiting? It opens up some interesting tactical questions.
Yeah it could be a crazy stage, just unlikely to be for 1st place.
 
Now it obviously seems like it could have been better if they had started from the QOM instead so that Joux Plane had been the first climb. Still, there will be some tired legs already and the pace hasn't dropped completely yet.
 
Why would it seem obvious that Joux Plane should be the first climb?

I think if they had the legs, someone other than Van der Breggen would have been more likely to keep pushing the pace after the first descent if there was only 80 km left rather than 100. The descent from Arâches-la-Frasse is of course easier than the other one, so it is very much possible that we wouldn't have got a start like this in my scenario.
 
I think if they had the legs, someone other than Van der Breggen would have been more likely to keep pushing the pace after the first descent if there was only 80 km left rather than 100.
Well, Van der Breggen would have attacked a lot on Joux Plane and there would only be the GC riders left to push the pace so I wouldn‘t be as optimistic. The same could still happen on Joux Plane anyway.
 
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