Tour de France Femmes sprinters – The fastest women in road cycling go head-to-head for a chance at the yellow jersey in opening stages

The 2025 Tour de France Femmes kicks off on Saturday with a hilly Grand Départ in Brittany as the first half of the nine-day race brings the focus onto the fast women.

Sprinters and puncheurs should all be in contention on the opening two stages and two flatter finishes heading east, before the roads angle upwards into the hills and mountains towards the finish in Châtel.

But before the GC contenders do battle on tough Alpine mountains, including the Col du Granier, Col de la Madeleine, and the Col de Joux-Plane, the sprinters will come out to play.

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There may not be a wealth of chances for the fast finishers to do their thing at this year’s Tour de France Femmes. Indeed, the opening day in Plumelec, ending as it does with a 1.7km, 6.2% uphill run, will likely prove too tough for the sprinters.

Stage 2 also features an uphill final kilometre and a hilly run towards Quimper, meaning there’s a slightly higher chance of the sprinters featuring. Stage 3 to Angers and stage 4 to Poitiers should both provide chances for them to battle for the win.

Here’s our comprehensive rundown of those who will be in contention for stage wins during the opening half of the race.

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) wins Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

European champion Lorena Wiebes didn’t win a stage last year, but the Dutchwoman is currently the best sprinter in the peloton. She has 14 wins to her name so far in 2025, 11 of which have come at Women’s WorldTour level.

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Big victories in the spring came at Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem, while she won the inaugural Copenhagen Sprint in June before heading to the Giro d’Italia earlier this month.

In Italy, Wiebes picked up two wins in the race’s two sprint stages to go with the points jersey, and she heads the pack ahead of the start of the Tour de France Femmes, too.

As with many of the other women on the list, the opening day’s finish will likely prove too tough, but stages 3 and 4 will certainly see Wiebes among the leaders at the finish. Given her form this year, don’t be surprised if she wins both.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) wins Trofeo Alfredo-Binda 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Italian sprinter Elisa Balsamo is the second of the ‘big four’ of sprinters at the Tour this year. The 27-year-old will be making her first Grand Tour start of the year and returns to the Tour for the fourth time.

She’s still seeking a win at the Tour, her best result to date being a second place in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges back in 2022. Last July, she took third and fifth places across the opening two stages in the Netherlands.

So far in 2025, she’s been approaching her best, taking five wins through June. A third career title at the Trofeo Binda was followed up by a win at Scheldeprijs, while spring also saw her on the podium at the Classic Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem, and the Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL)

Charlotte Kool (Picnic-PostNL), wearing the red points jersey, sprints to the finish line at Baloise Ladies Tour 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Dutchwoman Charlotte Kool heads into the Tour as one of the fastest sprinters in the world, but with question marks over her form after crashing hard at the Baloise Belgium Tour last week.

Last year, she won two stages at the Tour as her great sprint rival, Lorena Wiebes, struggled. This year, any showdown between the two former teammates will wait on news of Kool’s condition following the heavy collision with a kerb on the final day in Belgium.

She had won the opening stage of the race, her first victory of the season to date. Previously, she had racked up five podium placings across the UAE Tour, Gent-Wevelgem, Scheldeprijs, Tour of Britain, and the Dutch National Championships.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike)

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) celebrates stage 2 victory at La Vuelta Feminina 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

With 257 wins and counting during her long career, no rider in the peloton can look back on a palmarès as long as Marianne Vos. She added two more this year, too, taking two stages and the points jersey at the Vuelta España Feminina.

A strong spring campaign saw her pick up podium places at Milan-San Remo and Brabantse Pijl, while she was also fourth at the Trofeo Binda and Paris-Roubaix, and also took a win at the UCI Gravel World Series in Germany back in May.

Vos rode the Giro d’Italia as well but didn’t win there. Her best result at the Italian Grand Tour earlier this month was a second place behind Wiebes in Monselice.

Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez)

Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) celebrates her overall victory at Tour of Britain Women 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Australian racer Ally Wollaston is another to watch on the flatter stages. She’ll be focussed on assisting Demi Vollering’s GC ambitions on the tougher days but could be in the mix during the first half of the race.

She’s had a breakout 2025 with five wins to date. Those including triumphs at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and the overall title at a Tour of Britain where she didn’t finish outside the top 10. Her latest success came at her most recent race, on stage 1 of the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées.

Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly)

Noemi Ruegg (ED Education-Oatly) wins stage 2 of Tour Down Under (Image credit: Getty Images)

Beyond those biggest four names in women’s sprinting lies a host of other contenders, headed up by Tour Down Under champion Noemi Rüegg. The Swiss rider won on Willunga Hill to secure the overall title there, the biggest win of her career so far.

Since then, the 24-year-old has taken third places at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Milan-San Remo, and the Swiss Nationals.

She’ll be chasing another big win here in France, having finished fifth on a stage last summer. Expect her to be in contention on the harder opening two sprint stages, with her top-end speed perhaps not as high as the likes of Wiebes on stages 3 and 4.

Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ)

Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) at Giro d’Italia Women 2025 (Image credit: Getty Images)

UAE Team ADQ will battle on multiple fronts at the Tour, with Italian Eleonora Gasparrini heading up their sprint threat. She’ll team up with Irishwoman Lara Gillespie, and the pair could form a powerful duo, even if neither has beaten the likes of Wiebes or Balsamo in a head-to-head sprint this season.

Gasparrini has one win to her name in 2025, coming at the GP Morbihan back in May. She’ll find the parcours on the opening stage to her liking, then, with the stage sharing a finish line – the Côte de Cadoudal – with that semi-Classic.

She has put together a string of strong placings during the season, including sixth at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and fourth at Brabantse Pijl, though her best result on home ground at the recent Giro d’Italia was eighth in Trento.

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ)

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) sprinted to third at Danilith Nokere Koerse (Image credit: Getty Images)

24-year-old Lara Gillespie has broken through this season following a series of strong results through March and April. Unlike 2024, where she won the Antwerp Port Epic, she hasn’t yet scored a win this season but will head into July full of confidence.

Her run of results throughout spring saw her on the podium numerous times, with a second place at the Omloop van het Hageland going with third places at Le Samyn, Nokere Koerse, and a stage of the UAE Tour, plus fifth at the Classic Brugge-De Panne and a sixth at Gent-Wevelgem.

Gillespie has one Grand Tour under her belt this season, recording a fourth place on the penultimate stage at the Vuelta España Femenina.

Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceuninck)

Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceuninck) wins British women’s road race (Image credit: SWpix.com / Alex Whitehead)

British road champion Millie Couzens is in a strong vein of form on the back of several top results in the last six weeks. To go with her British title, she also won the under-23 time trial title and also took podium placings at the Dwars door het Hageland and Arenta Classic.

In early June, she took a top 10 overall at the Tour of Britain, too, racing for the British national team. Couzens is still just 21, however, and the Tour is a major step up from her recent outings.

Nonetheless, she should have some freedom to try and score a result where she can during the opening days.

Gladys Verhulst-Wild (AG Insurance-Soudal)

Gladys Verhulst-Wild (AG Insurance – Soudal) (Image credit: Getty Images)

In Gladys Verhulst-Wild, AG Insurance-Soudal have a rider who could be there or thereabouts in the opening days of the race, even if she won’t rank among the top favourites for a stage victory.

The Frenchwoman, joined on the Belgian team by another possible contender in Shari Bossuyt, has been there or thereabouts in several sprint finishes this season, having followed up a fifth and sixth place on stages of the UAE Tour with a fourth at Le Samyn and a top 10 at Gent-Wevelgem.

She hasn’t raced, however, since the Tour of Britain back in early June, where she abandoned on the second day.

Others to watch

The deep field of riders extends well beyond those already named, even if few other fast finishers on the start list are likely to come away with a big win during the opening four days of the Tour.

Uno-X Mobility come with a pair of riders who could feature in Linda Zanetti and Susanne Andersen, while Liv-AlUla-Jayco will rely on Letizia Paternoster.

Elsewhere, look out for former world champion Amalie Dideriksen (Cofidis), Sarah Van Dam (Ceratizit), and Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy), among others.

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