A stellar 2025 for the biggest and best of women's cycling yet - Comeback exploits by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Anna van der Breggen and more teams spread the wealth

Was 2025 the best year for women's cycling yet? It's a question with an answer which is hard to quantify, but it certainly felt like it.

It was a season that had something for everyone. There were several surprise winners and plenty of break-through performances, historical wins, record viewing figures, and, in modest amounts at least, dominant rides.

There was also a more equitable feel to the peloton after a series of big transfers over the winter, with big star riders now more evenly spread around rather than clustering among several teams – as is the case in men's cycling.

The dispersal of talent from SD Worx-Protime (Demi Vollering to FDJ-SUEZ, Marlen Reusser to Movistar and Niamh Fisher-Black to Lidl-Trek) played a major part in ensuring that, while Elisa Longo Borghini switched to UAE Team ADQ and two big names - Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Anna van der Breggen - made their returns.

All in all, the women's peloton was deeper and top talent was spread among numerous teams, resulting in competitive lineups and exciting racing.

Early season surprises and Classics tension

The season got off to a strong start with new faces atop the podium, rather than domination by the same list of strong riders.

At the curtain-raising Tour Down Under, there were breakthrough performances during the week in Australia as Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) and Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco) topped the podium, the best Women's WorldTour results of their young careers.

The opening of the European top-level cycling season also saw new names taking the honours as the day-long breakaway triumphed over the Classics favourites at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, with Lotte Claes (Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women) beating Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal) to take a shock victory.

At the biggest Classics of the spring, there was a different winner in almost every race, with no single rider laying her claim to be the outright queen of the spring.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) put in the standout performance of the season with her 19km solo ride to take her first major road victory in a decade at Paris-Roubaix. It was – finally – a home winner for France to savour, and there would be much more to come for both her and her home fans.

Earlier in the spring, there was a mentor-protégé showdown in Siena as Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) dispatched the returning-from-retirement Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) on the uphill finish in Strade Bianche to take her big victory of the spring.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) continued her dominance at the Trofeo Binda, while at the inaugural edition of Milan-San Remo Donne (the big addition to the women's calendar this season) she sped to one of three big Classics wins of the spring and her fifth of 25 for the year – more on that below.

World champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) endured a touch of the curse of the rainbow stripes in 2025, suffering from back pain through the summer, but she squeezed in a home win at the Tour of Flanders before things fell apart, with the race concluding with a thrilling four-woman sprint finish.

The Ardennes Classics also brought excitement, too, with a different winner in every race. Perhaps not the winners we might have expected, however it was Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) at Amstel Gold Race, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) at La Flèche Wallonne and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) winning a thriller at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Again, new names atop the podium are only a good thing for the sport as a whole, demonstrating the strength in depth across the peloton.

Exciting GC racing and the biggest Tour de France Femmes yet

The top-level stage racing season began with an ominous pair of victories delivered by Vollering at La Vuelta Femenina and Itzulia Women. The Dutchwoman had a new team, FDJ-SUEZ, behind her, with the likes of Elise Chabbey and Evita Muzic lined up in support of her various GC ambitions throughout the season, and it looked like she'd be very hard to beat as she added the Volta a Catalunya to her tally in June.

Vollering wouldn't have things all her own way, however, as former teammate and fellow SD Worx escapee Marlen Reusser came out on top later that month at the Tour de Suisse. For Reusser, the new team leader at Movistar following Annemiek van Vleuten's retirement a year ago, the freedom of new surroundings and new responsibilities clearly paid dividends with wins at the Vuelta a Burgos, podiums at the Vuelta Femenina and Giro Donne, and world and European time trial titles.

Once a superteam, SD Worx-Protime were reduced to bit-part players throughout stage racing season, with several of their star names having made team switches over the winter. Kopecky's back issue didn't help, of course, and the team were left with Van der Breggen's Vuelta podium as their top result of the three Grand Tours.

The year's main event came in late July with the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes, and, with Paris-Roubaix, the French fans had a home winner to celebrate as Ferrand-Prévot made history in a number of ways, including becoming the first woman to win French cycling's biggest races.

Crowds packed the roadside of the race to witness one of their own race to glory once again, but the fans weren't just watching at the roadside, either. A collective audience of 25.7 million watched the race on television in France, making it the most-watched edition to date, up seven million on 2024. A reported per-stage viewership of 2.7 million was half a million viewers higher than in previous editions, too.

Home success would have played no small part in those boosted viewing figures, with Ferrand-Prévot soaring to a famous overall victory while breakthrough rider of the summer Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) broke away to take two big stage victories.

The final day of the race, which saw Ferrand-Prévot go solo into Châtel to crown her win, brought an audience of 4.4 million in France, a massive 41.2% audience share nationally.

There was a sense that the 2025 Tour de France Femmes was the biggest edition of the race yet, and as the Tour takes a step forward, so does cycling as a whole. Women's cycling is certainly still on the rise.

A historical sprinting performance to savour

While the battle for Classics supremacy and stage race victories looked to be more even than ever, the sprints were dominated by one woman. Hey, not everything can be an equal battle.

With 25 wins, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) swept almost all before her during her most dominant year on the bike yet. The Dutchwoman had the likes of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), Balsamo and Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Deceuninck) for competition throughout the season, but she comprehensively came out on top.

What we witnessed from Wiebes during the year was a display of sprinting unmatched in recent cycling history as the 26-year-old sped to win after win – including Milan-San Remo, Gent-Wevelgem, four stages across the Giro Donne and Tour de France Femmes (including both points jerseys), plus a staggering five stages and the overall at the Simac Ladies Tour. She even out-sprinted Vos for the UCI Gravel World Championship to complete her season.

As noted above, there was no lack of competition for Wiebes during the season, but she was in the form of her life and a sight to behold in full flight. Sometimes, during such a run of performances, you just have to savour the display of talent and form. Who knows when we might see it again?