It was the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes with a lot of climbing, and the main climb, Joux Plane, being in the middle of the stage.
Tour de France Femmes stage 9 2025 profile
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot had a massive gap to her GC rivals thanks to her performance on Col de la Madeleine on stage 8, with Sarah Gigante being the closest, at 2:37 min behind. Previous Tour de France winners Demi Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma were more than 3 minutes back. With Joux Plane in the middle of the stage, it offered some tactical opportunities if one of the favourites cracked or lost contact with the GC group, or for using satellite riders afterward in the valley.
Châtel Les Portes du Soleil – France – cycling – cyclisme – radsport – wielrennen – Juliette Labous (FRA – FDJ – SUEZ) – Niewiadoma Katarzyna (POL / Team CANYON//SRAM) – Fisher-Black Niamh (NZL / Team Lidl – Trek) pictured during Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – stage – 9 from Praz-sur-Arly to Châtel Les Portes du Soleil (124.KM) 03-08-20225 – Photo: Rafa Gomez/SCA/Cor Vos © 2025
On Joux Plane, nothing much happened as every GC favourite stayed together. Sarah Gigante and Demi Vollering were offensive on the climb, as they needed to gain time on GC, Gigante especially needed a buffer for the technical descent to stay with the leaders. The GC group of Gigante, Vollering, Ferrand-Prevot, Fisher-Black, Wlodarczyk, and Niewiadoma did Joux Plane in 42:45 min with 4.87–4.89 ᵉW/kg. Juliette Labous lost nine seconds but came back, while Anna van der Breggen paced the entire climb solo, having gained a gap before Joux Plane and being in the lead.
Everything changed on the descent when Gigante was dropped. With Labous and Vollering in the group and other riders pacing in the valley, the Australian had zero chance of closing the one-minute gap. On Col du Corbier, not much changed as the GC favourites stayed together, with Gigante losing more than 2 minutes.
In the last 6 kilometres of the stage, Ferrand-Prevot went solo and won her second Tour de France stage, becoming the first Frenchwoman to do so. Gigante lost more than 3 minutes to her rivals and dropped from 2nd to 6th in GC. With perfect preparation, she might be a candidate to win in the future due to her climbing abilities. Vollering and Niewiadoma finished on the podium for the fourth consecutive time, with there being four different winners each year: Van Vleuten, Vollering, Niewiadoma, and Ferrand-Prevot.
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