Tour de France Femmes heads into mountains for 2025

When Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney held off a spectacular chase from Demi Vollering on Alpe d'Huez last summer to win the Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift yellow jersey by four seconds, it was one of the most dramatic days in the recent history of women's cycling.

It is no wonder then that race organisers ASO have added even more mountains to the 2025 edition of the race, which begins this Saturday in Brittany before travelling southwest through the Massif Central to the Alps.

This year's Tour features a record 17,240m of climbing, with three days in the high mountains packed into the final four stages.

It is also the longest edition since the race was brought back in 2022, up to nine stages from eight last summer.

"The level in women's cycling is rising and that's why we have nine stages instead of eight. And nine hard ones," said race director Marion Rousse when the route was unveiled in Paris last October.

The first two stages are typically Breton in style, with barely a stretch of flat road in profiles resembling spring classics which could see general classification action right from the go.

Back-to-back flat stages for the sprinters follow before the road starts trending upwards.

The Col du Beal on stage six is the first major mountain of the race, with the queen stage on day eight finishing atop the highest point of this year's Tour - the 18.6km-long, 2,000m altitude Col de la Madeleine.

And then there's the Col du Joux Plane firmly in the middle of the final day.

After missing out by the narrowest of margins last August, Vollering is the rider with the stand-out pedigree this year and she comes in as the favourite to add to the yellow jersey she won in 2023.

The Dutchwoman, who moved to French outfit FDJ-Suez last winter, already has 10 victories in 2025, four of those general classification wins including the red jersey at the Vuelta Espana.

Vollering skipped the Giro d'Italia to train at altitude in preparation and has the support of a formidable team that includes climbers Evita Muzic - fourth at last year's Tour - Juliette Labous and Elise Chabbey.

The number of strong challengers Vollering will face reflects the growing depth in the sport and narrowing of margins at the top.

Niewiadoma-Phinney returns intent on defending her title with her form trending upwards after a bad crash in the spring hampered her early season, while Elisa Longo Borghini hopes to carry the same legs that saw her win her second Giro title a fortnight ago from Italy straight into France.

Movistar rouleur Marlen Reusser is another who has been trading blows with Vollering through 2025 - finishing a minute behind her in second place at the Vuelta, but beating her to the Tour de Suisse title a few weeks later.

Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot carries French hopes for a home winner.

Ferrand-Prevot has won 15 world titles - although all but one came in off-road disciplines - and has made no secret of the fact that winning yellow is the reason why she has switched back to the road after seven seasons away.

In April she produced a stellar solo display to win Paris-Roubaix and her team manager Rutger Tijssen said this week that she is "completely ready physically and mentally" to do so again at the Tour.

However, Belgian Lotte Kopecky's much-awaited tilt at the yellow jersey has been hit by a back injury which saw her forced to withdraw from the Giro.

Kopecky wore yellow for six stages and finished runner-up in the 2023 Tour without, in her own words, really trying to - and this year has thrown all her focus and preparation into utilising her all-round credentials to contend.

She leads a strong SD Worx-Protime team that also features Anna van der Breggen, who returned to the peloton in January three years after retiring having previously dominated the sport.

The team say both are to target stage wins and take the GC "day to day" but writing either off for yellow is surely a mistake.

Fresh off winning the British road race title less than a month ago in what was the first professional win of her career, Millie Couzens will be wearing her new national champion's jersey as one of four British riders in the race.

Couzens, her Fenix-Deceunick team-mate Flora Perkins and Visma's Imogen Wolff - who at 19 is the youngest rider of the 154 starters in the race - are all making their Tour debuts, while Picnic PostNL rider Pfeiffer Georgi is likely to be eyeing a stage win in the opening days after a crash ended her Tour earlier last summer.

Sprinter Lorena Wiebes remains the fastest rider in the peloton and has the most wins so far in 2025 with 14, but she will face stiff competition from the likes of Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL) and last year's green jersey winner Marianne Vos in the points classification.