Yellow jersey winner Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) will aim to become the first woman to win back-to-back titles at the new version of the women's Tour de France, an event that heads into its fourth edition as the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2025.
Organisers ASO announced the official route of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes at the Palais des Congrès in Paris this week. Niewiadoma said she was disappointed that there was no time trialling included in the nine-day race, to be held from July 26 to August 3, she approved of the 'balanced' route offered across flat, hilly and mountainous stages.
"It’s nice to see the diversity of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route. There are a lot of opportunities for different types of riders. I believe the first stage can suit our team quite well, looking at the little uphill finish, and we can be excited to aim for the first yellow jersey of the Tour with one of my teammates," Niewiadoma said.
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The fourth edition of the race will take new heights with nine stages, making it the longest edition since the rebirth of the event, and it will cross 1,165km with a total elevation gain of 17,240 metres.
The race will begin with a Grand Départ in Brittany. There will be two flat stages, three hilly stages, two medium-mountain stages and then finish with two back-to-back high-mountain stages. There is no time trial in this year's event, while the previous two editions saw a time trial in Pau and a time trial in Rotterdam.
The peloton will tackle the Col de Madeleine, the highest mountain of the race, on stage 8 and the next day's stage 9 will pass the famed Col de Joux Plane with a mountaintop finale at Châtel Châtel Les Portes du Soleil, where the overall champion will be crowned.
"Overall, I was guessing that we might have had longer and harder stages every day but instead, there is a mix. Jokingly, I’m a little sad not to see a team time trial, as I was somehow expecting and looking forward to that. But the Col du Madeleine will make us suffer enough, so the earlier short stages might balance things out. I like the 2025 course overall," Niewiadoma said.
Niewiadoma won the 2024 Tour de France holding off runner-up Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) by just four seconds on the final stage 8 atop Alpe d'Huez to secure the yellow jersey.
Niewiadoma felt that, given the new route, she was in a good position to win the title for a second year in a row, especially given the mountainous finale.
"I’m excited to see the course and understand what to work on. It’s a goal to bring the yellow jersey home again," she said.
"My big goal is to become a woman who wins the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift twice in a row, and I’m in the best position right now to make that happen in 2025. The final general classification can unfold at any point but the final three stages will be decisive for the overall."
