Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike) showed her mettle to win Stage 9 on a relentless day of climbing from Praz-sur-Arly to Chatel to claim overall victory at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.  

Ferrand-Prevot becomes the first French rider to win the revamped Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift since its relaunch in 2021.

The last winner of the women’s Tour came in 1989 when Jeannie Longo won the Tour de France Feminin. The wait goes on on the men’s side, with Bernard Hinault the last to triumph 40 years ago in 1985.

The 33-year-old French rider was not even born the last time such a feat was achieved, and this win felt like a particularly seismic moment in not just women’s cycling, but the sport as a whole.

In the lead up to the race, she had not raced for more than 10 weeks following the injury that forced her to abandon the Vuelta. Instead, she took to altitude to prepare for what would go on to become one of the biggest races of her life.

Earlier in the year, she won Paris-Roubaix on her first attempt, in a ride that she claimed to be her training for the Tour. She is now the first person to win the Hell of the North and the Tour in the same year.

picture

Ferrand-Prevot attacks to celebrate Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with Stage 9 win

Video credit: TNT Sports

Ferrand-Prevot had built a 2’37” advantage in the general classification over Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) following Saturday’s queen stage and was the subject of multiple early attacks, but showed the nous of a 15-time world champion to fend those off, bide her time and then add the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to her palmares.

An elite group that contained Ferrand-Prevot, Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon–SRAM zondacrypto) were left to battle it out for the stage win after Team SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen’s ambitious solo bid was reeled in with 32km to go.

And Ferrand-Prevot made her move with 6.5km to go to come out on top of the lead group following an uphill drag to the finish line in Chatel to win Stage 9.

Her solo stage win marked the fourth for a French rider at this year’s race, with Maeva Squiban (UAE ADQ) – 10 years her junior – doubling up with her own solo victories on Stages 6 and 7.

The 2023 champion Vollering and defending champion Niewiadoma-Phinney’s second and third places respectively on the day left them in the same spots in the general classification. Particularly impressive, too, was the fact that the two have now appeared on the GC podium in every edition of the revamped women’s Tour. 

SD Worx-Protime’s Lorena Wiebes took the points classification in addition to her two stage wins, while Swiss rider Elise Chabbey (FDJ) was crowned Queen of the Mountains, and Nienke Vinke (Picnic PostNL) was the best of the young riders. 

picture

‘So much emotion’ – Ferrand-Prevot crowned Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion

Video credit: TNT Sports

Though it was Ferrand-Prevot’s day in the end, Van der Breggen, herself another rider making her comeback to road cycling, held the early intrigue with her solo breakaway from 94km out.

Ferrand-Prevot had found herself distanced following the descent of the first climb, but the tireless work of her Visma team-mates meant she made it back into the peloton before she became involved in a group that broke free from the bunch. 

Dutch rider Van der Breggen reached the summit of the first two climbs, Cote d’Araches-la-Frasse and Col de Joux Plane, solo, but the yellow jersey group closed in ahead of the third. 

After Van der Breggen was caught, and with the front group down to just six riders (Ferrand-Prevot, Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Juliette Labous of FDJ, Dominika Wodarczyk of UAE ADQ and Lidl-Trek’s Niamh Fisher-Black), the battle for the stage win intensified.

The yellow jersey sat calmly in the group while they entered the final 10km and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. 

Vollering was unable to create any distance with her attack, but before long, Ferrand-Prevot went flying from the back of the group.

From then on, she was without company or competition as she rode her way into the history books. 

As a child, she told her mother that she wanted to be a boy so she could ride the Tour de France, and now, on her debut at the Tour de France Femmes aves Zwift, she has been crowned champion.picture

‘My legs hurt’ – Emotional Gigante ‘proud of week’ despite missing out on Tour podium

Video credit: TNT Sports

It was almost as if it was written in the stars from the very beginning, as she wore the No. 51, the same worn by Eddy Merckx on his victorious debut in 1969, and by Luis Ocana (1973), Bernard Thevenet (1975), and Hinault (1978) – but this win, and the weight it carries with it, stands as the cornerstone in a new era of cycling – and most significantly of women’s cycling.

In its fourth edition, the impact of this burgeoning race felt particularly seismic. 

The back-to-back stage wins for young French rider Squiban captured the nation, earning recognition from the country’s President and a rightful front page of L’Equipe. 

Mavi Garcia became the oldest stage winner to date with her solo victory on Stage 2, and the first Spanish rider, and first from her Liv AlUla Jayco team, to win a stage at the women’s Tour in a true display of grit and determination. 

Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) became the first African woman to wear the yellow jersey, and to win a stage.

And yet, one of her most prominent moments was her selfless sacrifice of the most sought-after jersey the sport has to offer to support team-mate Sarah Gigante to earn her second-placed finish on the Queen stage.

Ferrand-Prevot’s team-mate Marianne Vos achieved her 258th road victory on the first stage, which meant that the yellow jersey started and finished in the hands of Visma on their first Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift GC triumph.

At the end of nine gruelling stages, it was Ferrand-Prevot’s Tour, and one that will live long in the memory as a golden moment in sporting history.

Stream top cycling action live on TNT Sports and discovery+