{"id":40521,"date":"2025-08-01T23:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40521\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T23:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:43:11","slug":"one-of-the-best-climbers-in-the-world-who-is-maeva-squiban-the-sensation-taking-the-tour-de-france-femmes-by-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40521\/","title":{"rendered":"‘One of the best climbers in the world’ – who is Maeva Squiban, the sensation taking the Tour de France Femmes by storm?"},"content":{"rendered":"

She drives her teammates crazy with French rap, loves to attack, descends like a devil and climbs with the best. UAE Team ADQ\u2019s Maeva Squiban has stunned the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift <\/a>with two back-to-back stage wins, emerging as this season\u2019s breakout star.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old \u201cpocket rocket\u201d from Brest, Brittany, has lit up Stages 6 and 7 of women\u2019s cycling\u2019s biggest event with her long-range attacks and fearless style. Her wins weren’t just opportunistic; they were deliberate and confident. An announcement that Maeva Squiban has arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we know who she is now,\u201d said her sports director, Cherie Pridham.<\/p>\n

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Squiban started cycling at 13, after unwrapping a mountain bike on Christmas. She joined her local club in Brittany and quickly stood out. In 2019, she netted a silver medal at the French junior national time trial championships and a win at the Chrono des Nations juniors. The Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime continental team welcomed her as a stagiaire in 2020 and a full-time contract followed in 2021.<\/p>\n

She made her Tour de France Femmes <\/a>avec Zwift debut in 2022, but it ended in heartbreak. A crash on stage 2 left her with a broken sacrum and a long road to recovery. But she came back stronger. In 2024, riding for Ark\u00e9a\u2011B&B Hotels Women, she flirted with the podium, finishing second on stage 7 and placed fifth in the young rider classification.<\/p>\n

UAE scooped her up ahead of the 2025 season on a two-year deal, primarily to support, and learn from, team leader Elisa Longo Borghini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Maeve<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The team lined up at the Tour with high hopes. Longo Borghini had just won her second Giro d\u2019Italia Women<\/a> and was eyeing a yellow jersey to match that of Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s <\/a>on the men\u2019s side of the UAE programme. But it wasn\u2019t meant to be. Illness took Longo Borghini out after stage 2, and two more riders fell sick before the race hit the high mountains. Only four remained standing by stage 6.<\/p>\n

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With GC hopes dashed, the team pivoted. Stage wins became the new mission, and Squiban took her shot on the Col du Chansert.<\/a> Too far down in the overall to be a threat, she was let go. And then she was gone. Soloing for 31 kilometers, Ambert welcomed her in with a deafening road, as she delivered France its first stage victory of the Tour.<\/p>\n

It was a breakout performance. And it lit a fire.<\/p>\n

Pridham talks about Squiban like one would about a young colt: young, full of raw energy, eager to break and run free. By the next morning, she was tugging at the reins again.<\/p>\n

“[I] didn’t quite think it was going to happen today, but Maeve was confident this morning. She said, ‘I want to go from kilometre 0.’ And we were like, ‘OK, but kilometre 0 is a long way’,\u201d Pridham said.<\/p>\n

Nearly 160 kilometres, in fact, but Squiban didn\u2019t hesitate. With a punchy attack from the gun, she made the early selection. And the directors did their best to keep her on a short leash at first.<\/p>\n

“We held her back a little bit,” Pridham revealed. “We knew when she was on the climb, we could let her fly, but it was just about keeping her under control, keeping her rhythm, and [then] letting her do her thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what a thing of beauty it was.<\/p>\n

Squiban stretched her leash to take the QOM points atop the C\u00f4te de Saint-Franc. She did it again on C\u00f4te de Berland. Then, on the day\u2019s biggest challenge, the Col du Granier<\/a>, she was finally unleashed. And she soared.<\/p>\n

None of the breakaway companions could match her on the uphill. And on the descent she delivered a masterclass. With the guts and confidence only seen in compatriot C\u00e9drine Kerbaol<\/a> (EF Education-Oatly), Squiban pushed her Colnago<\/a> to its max, hitting speeds of 90kph while staying in complete control.<\/p>\n

In Chamb\u00e9ry, the crowd thundered, banging on the boards and waving their flags. France now had its third-ever stage win at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and Squiban had delivered two of them in a row.<\/p>\n

Pridham was over the moon. “What a sensation, absolute sensation,” she revelled. “We have one of the best climbers here in the world. Absolutely stunning.”<\/p>\n

Squiban has single-handedly turned the team’s Tour experience around, and the whole team is buzzing.<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t stop dreaming, we just continue in the same vein, and nothing is impossible,” said Pridham.<\/p>\n

Sitting seven minutes down on the GC with two brutal mountain stages ahead<\/a>, for Squiban to take the GC win would take something miraculous at this point. But they’ve got a second card to play. Polish rider Dominika W\u0142odarczyk is sitting in 11th place overall, less than 2 minutes behind yellow-jersey wearer Kim Le Court-Pienaar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I never say never,” said Pridham about a GC victory. “Now we know what we\u2019re capable of doing with Maeve, we need to go back to the drawing board and have a look at how we\u2019ll progress but one day at a time.”<\/p>\n

It’s highly unlikely we’ve seen the last of Squiban this Tour. After today’s point-hunting, she’s now second in the Queen of the Mountains classification<\/a>, behind Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez<\/a>). Wouldn’t a polka dot jersey be a nice momento for her breakout performance?<\/p>\n

It would make for \u201cthe perfect Tour de France,” Squiban admitted. “But it\u2019s not really my goal to be honest. Tomorrow we fight for the GC with Dominika, and that will be more important than the jersey.”<\/p>\n

No matter what happens, UAE Team ADQ’s Tour has been saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speechless, I\u2019m so proud of UAE Team ADQ. If we could go home now we would,\u201d said Pridham.<\/p>\n

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Tour de France Femmes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She drives her teammates crazy with French rap, loves to attack, descends like a devil and climbs with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-40521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}