A closer look at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes by Zwift route. There’s a full traverse of France, an extra day of racing and some famous climbs
The first thing to note about Stage 1, is an extra day added. It now spans two full weekends now. The start on Saturday 26 July overlaps with the men’s Tour which is onto Stage 20 by now. This might explain the short distance at 79km so that both races can be broadcast, we’ll see the timing and TV schedules later. This features the Côte de Cadoudal three times, the climb is a staple of the GP du Morbihan race for men and women. Expect big crowds as it’s Brittany in summer, a region where many describe themselves as Breton first, French second and where cycling is surely most popular, it is more racing licences by far than other regions and the local newspapers are full of reports from World Tour transfer gossip to village cyclo-cross.
Stage 2 (110km) and if you’re feeling déjà vu it might be from the opening stages of the 2018 men’s Tour like Stage 5 which featured the cobbled climb to Locronan en route to Quimper. Back then it was sold as a day where the jagged hills of Brittany could blow the peloton to smithereens… only it finished in a sizeable sprint. This time Locronan is cited as “severe” but it’s not really. The finishing loop has some more climbing but the Chemin du Troheir is just a regular country road, enough to test some sprinters but no more.
Stage 3 (162km) and the first day reserved for les sprinteuses. The start is in the small town of La Gacilly which is dominated by Yves Rocher, the beauty products company that controversially initiated the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s one way slide down the Russian judicial system. Bet you didn’t expect to read that in a route preview. It’ll be interesting to see if the company is airbrushed out despite having hotels, restaurants, gardens and factories all around; or if it’s unveiled as a new sponsor? It’s a route that heads to the Loire valley and some of its best wines so look for the peloton passing vineyards of ripening Cabernet franc before finishing close to the banks of the Maine in city of Angers.
Stage 4 (128km) and another day with a likely sprint finish. More Loire valley vineyards at the time and then its south towards Poitiers across land without much to write about although the route passes the Futuroscope theme park which has a long connection to cycling having hosted the men’s Tour start before and also been a sponsor of what is the FDJ-Suez team today, the team’s HQ is just up the road. There’s no full map yet but Poitiers is hillier than you’d imagine and the men have had uphill finishes here, or at least a ramp to derail sprint trains in the finish.
Stage 5 (166km) and Futuroscope features properly at the start and then the hills arrive. There’s more déjà vu as the race goes to Dun-le-Palestel which featured in Paris-Nice in 2022. Just like then, the climb of the “Côte de Peyroux” was downplayed: 2.8km at 5.2% for 2021, here it’s 3.3km at 4.3%. It’s actually the Col de Peyroux as in a mountain pass. More importantly it’s 10km long and has plenty of 6%. Alpine it isn’t though, but it 2021 it asphyxiated many of the pure sprinters. Rather than ride into the small city of Guéret there’s a loop out to tackle the Le Maupuy to add more climbing. The rasping tarmac here has featured in the Tour du Limousin before a surprisingly fast descent to the finish.
Stage 6 (124km, 2,350mV) and the mountains arrive. It’s flat for a short moment after Clermont then it’s across lumpy roads to the Dore valley and Olliergues where soon after the Col du Béal starts. Scene of a ding-dong battle between Chris Froome and Alberto Contador a decade ago, this time it’s a different route up via the Pas de la Croix pass to the Béal but similar in feel as it tracks up through the chestnut woodland on a road that never gets too steep. The race stays amid the forested flanks of the Massif central for two more climbs on narrow roads before dropping into Ambert for the finish.
If the weather’s good then the Alps will be visible soon after the start of Stage 7 (km, 1,880mV+) even if there’s 100km across the plains of the Ain, Rhone and Isère first. The first climb near Saint Franc features as a detour on the way to the Gorges du Guiers vif and adds more climbing. Then it’s the long Col du Granier, 20km in total even if the profile above tries to break it up into more climbs and why not as it’s taken via the gentle western side. Finaly a fast but not wild descent that leads into Chambéry for the finish.
Stage 8 (112km, 3,490mV+) starts straight up Mont Revard to tackle the Col de Plainpalais and then tour the Plateau des Bauges, a land of lush pastures and clanging cowbells before leaving via the Col du Frêne, one of those asymmetric passes which is climbed via the easy side before a descent that’s frêne for frenetic. There are short cuts over the Maurienne valley but race stays on the valley floor before the scenic balcony road to Saint-Georges. The Col Madeleine is a giant, 18.6km at a steep 8.1% making this the decisive summit finish. As ever whisper it but the real height is 1,993m but the label of 2,000m just looks better.
Stage 9 (124km, 2880mV+)and a chance for revenge if someone got the previous day all wrong. It’s downhill out of Megève to the valley floor. The “Côte d’Arâches” is a scenic cliff road on the way to the Flaine ski resort before turning to take a balcony road across. Then comes the fearsome Joux-Plane, where 11.5km at 8.5% is hard enough but the climb somehow conspires to feel harder, probably because the early slopes are steep and irregular. Then comes the toboggan-run descent to Morzine before the main valley road and the hard Col du Corbier which lifts the race over the Abondance valley. From here it’s the main road and so a repeat of last summer’s stopwatch suspense at the last minute seems unlikely but the Joux-Plane is so tough up and down that it could open the stage wide up early on. The finish is Châtel but the route goes through the ski resort and then up and out the other side for a finish in Pré La Joux, the same used for the men in 2022.
The Verdict
A pleasing diagonal shape, from the western most point of Finistère to the Swiss border to tour plenty of France. As a week-long stage race does the women’s race have to mimic the men’s race with flat stages building to result-shaping mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees? Arguably not but it is and with this establishing itself as the prime stage race. Using famous climbs bolsters this, importing “brands” like the Col du Tourmalet and Alpe d’Huez before, now the Madeleine and Joux-Plane. Next year the Galiber or Mont Ventoux?
Sports-wise the Tourmalet in 2023 was seen by some as bold because it could be almost too selective but it worked out well. Come 2024 and Alpe d’Huez was even better with a finale the organisers didn’t dare to script. So hopefully the Madeleine and Joux-Plane deliver too.
Like the men’s route it’s also worth pondering what is not there and the obvious omission is a time trial. Given Demi Vollering won the Rotterdam stage this year, perhaps the absence of the TT is no bad thing, more climbers can be in contention going into the final weekend after which there should be no doubting the winner and the podium order. Vollering ought to be the central pick but her move is one of several changes across the top teams this winter and the reallocation of talent and resources should be interesting to see next season, including at the Tour.