Cooke's Mont Ventoux masterclass and a Côte d'Azur classic – A history of the Tour de France Femmes' key climbs

In the town of Bedoin, there’s a buzz in the air. Lots of holidaymakers have flocked to the area to sample the best of Provence, be it the local Beaumes-de-Venise Muscat wine, the Festival in Avignon, or hiking in the nearby mountains.

Of course, the main draw here is the cycling, with the 1,910m-high Mont Ventoux dominating the patchwork of mountains, gorges, and towns such as Carpentras, Malaucène, and Sault.

This corner of the Vaucluse departement has a long history of riders making the pilgrimage up The Giant of Provence – be it British riders honouring the memory of Tom Simpson, who passed away on this mountain in 1967, or others wanting to compare themselves to the King and Queen of the Mountains holders: 53 minutes 47 seconds for Tadej Pogacar and 1 hour 10 minutes for Illi Gardner. But why go up it just once? With three different routes up to its telecommunications tower, you could try them all in one day and earn the literally crazy accolade of joining the Club des Cinglés. History was made when 30-year-old Belgian duathlete Delphine Thirifays completed the Cingles challenge on five consecutive days, setting a record of 15 ascents across that timeframe.

On Friday, August 7, the professional women’s peloton will make their own history when Stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift passes up this climb for the first time since the race's revival. This Queen stage will be decisive during the nine-day race. Whilst it may not necessarily determine the winner, the stage could prove the undoing of some of the race's GC contenders – its relentless 7.5% gradient over 21.5km through barren limestone terrain full of foreboding might just ruin riders not at their best.

Historic Heroes

This is a road that definitely has to be respected as it can strike some cruel blows. Tom Simpson, one of only two competitors to pass away in the history of the Tour de France, met his maker just 1km from the summit in 1967. Three years later, when Eddy Merckx won at the summit of the moonscape, he needed to receive oxygen, such was the effort he had put in. Just a couple of weeks ago, a Polish amateur rider on holiday in the area was airlifted to Avignon hospital after suffering a heart attack while riding up. Luckily, he was rescued by an off-duty paramedic who raised the alarm and provided first aid.

Mont Ventoux has been included in the men’s Tour de France 18 times, with nine of those occasions being the finish line of a road race, and two occasions the end of a time trial. It first appeared in La Grande Boucle in 1951 when Lucien Lazarides was the first rider to crest the mountain during the stage from Montpellier to Avignon, after the peloton approached from Malaucène. Although Lazarides had held a good lead, he was eventually caught and finished sixth behind the winner, compatriot Louison Bobet, with Gino Bartali and Raphael Geminiani coming home fourth and fifth respectively. Fausto Coppi also took part in the race, but was not on form and was grieving over the death of his brother.

Throughout its 75-year history, Mont Ventoux has been the stage for some eventful moments in bike racing. When Mont Ventoux was the stage of the amateur ride known as L’Etape du Tour in 2000, half of the riders failed to finish the race as the organisers were forced to close the upper section of the road when torrential rain fell. The temperature plummeted from over 30℃ at the foot of the climb to barely above zero at the summit.

Who can also forget the viral moment in the 2016 Tour de France when pictures were broadcast around the world of the yellow jersey wearer, Chris Froome, running up the climb with no bike after colliding with a motorcycle on an especially crowded portion of the slope following the closure of the road a few miles short of the summit!

A Leaf out of Nicole’s Book

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift director Marion Rousse predicts a gutsy show from Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a bid to win the Queen stage this year. However, a fired-up Demi Vollering (FDJ-United SUEZ) will be keen to spar in this return match after being dropped by the reigning champion on the Col de la Madeleine last year. Vollering has been seen training on the Giant of Provence in the last couple of months. Also seen training on the roads surrounding the mythical mountain recently have been fellow GC contenders Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance Soudal) and Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney (Canyon//SRAM), both of whom stopped at the local cycling café Pista Cycling, whose co-owner, Canadian cycling enthusiast Vicky Carbonneau, will be especially cheering on her VIP customers.

Whoever is looking to win this stage may want to take a leaf out of Nicole Cooke’s book. It was practically 20 years ago, when the World and Olympic Champion used Mont Ventoux as the stage to make her move during a previous incarnation of the women’s Tour de France. On June 30, 2006, stage 4 from Valreas to L’Isle sur la Sorgue of the La Grande Boucle Feminine, the British rider attacked at the foot of the climb, just outside Malaucène and the then 23-year-old rode with true grit. Determined to put in an impressive ride, despite the blistering heat, she dropped the field and soloed to victory with a 4-minute margin over the second-placed rider Maryline Salvetat.

Cooke amassed enough time to win the overall GC and became the first British rider to go over Mont Ventoux in the yellow jersey.

And Historic Heroines

More recently, Marta Cavalli won the only women’s edition of the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge in 2022. This was a 100km race from Vaison-la-Romaine, which included 2,800m of climbing and culminated in the 24km climb to the summit of Ventoux from Sault.

After catching the two-woman breakaway featuring Rachel Neylan and Neve Bradbury, the Italian and her then FDJ teammates, alongside other contenders, worked together to set a relentless pace over the 5% gradients. At Chalet Reynard, the group was fractured when Morgane Coston attacked, only to be caught by Cavalli, who counterattacked 2.5 km from the summit to cross the finish line over 40 seconds ahead of eventual podium finishers Clara Koppenburg and Evita Muzic.

Also within this era, the organisers of the 2016 Tour de L’Ardeche ran the route further South of where the race normally goes, and the riders were treated to a stage from L’Isle sur La Sorgue to Mont Ventoux via Bedoin. That stage was won by Anna Kiesenhofer, a future Olympic Champion, ahead of Flavia Oliveira, and French veteran Edwige Pittel. Despite her victory, it wasn’t quite enough to get the overall victory of the one-week stage race, and it was the Brazilian, Oliveira, who came out on top on GC.

So although August 7 will be the first time that Mont Ventoux is featured in the newly incarnated Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, this iconic climb between the Alpes and the mouth of the River Rhone has been the setting for other battles in women’s cycling in the past.

Let’s not forget that Mont Ventoux featured in the virtual version of the Tour de France Femmes, organised by Zwift during lockdown, and it was Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG-Insurance Soudal) who took the top step just ahead of Sarah Gigante, who has since become her teammate.

La Grande Boucle Féminine had stages that regularly visited this corner of France during its editions in the mid-1990s, with the likes of Fabiana Luperini being one of the strongest climbers of the day, taking victories on those slopes.

While Mont Ventoux is the headline-grabbing climb in this year’s Tour de France Femmes route, it is worth keeping an eye on other climbs that could make or break a rider’s designs on the overall standings or polka dot glory.

Èze and the rest

The final stage in Nice will involve four ascents of the Col d'Èze, a regular feature in the men’s Paris-Nice race, notably climbed via the classic observatory route. Col d'Èze was where Lizzie Deignan launched her attack during La Course in 2020 and sprinted to victory just ahead of Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Demi Vollering.

However, on Sunday, August 9, this side of the climb will be crested three times so the riders may wish to attack a little later – notably on the fourth and final ascent to Èze, which will be a more brutal challenge. This side of Èze, known as Les Quatre Chemins with an average 7.6% gradient but with ramps of around 16%, will be a real sting in the tail for the riders. It will be new for the women’s peloton, and is still relatively new for the men’s bunch.

Notably, Col de Quatre Chemins was included in the final stage of the 2024 men’s Tour de France and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) used it as the launch pad for his resounding victory over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). It was also included in the edition of Paris-Nice earlier that year when Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took victory.

Although this year’s Tour de France Femmes has a record 1,175km and 18,795m of climbing, it is light on big headline climbs and is packed with third and fourth category kickers.

In the earlier part of the race, when the peloton rolls through Switzerland, the route will pass over climbs which have featured in Swiss stage races over the years. For instance, the Côte de la Villars le Comte, near Fribourg and the Côte Saint Francois into Lausanne have featured in the Tour de Romandie, notably in the inaugural edition in 2022 where Lianne Lippert (Movistar) and Evita Muzic were particularly active.

After Geneva, in the Jura mountains will be the 11km Col de la Faucille. This 6.3% climb has been a regular feature in the men's Tour de France since 1951, but has not been included in a Grand Tour recently. The last time the Tour raced there was in 2004. So this could be a chance for the women’s peloton to put it back on the map.

Whatever happens in the race, the women’s peloton of the Tour de France avec Zwift will continue to make history as their petites reines wend their way around La Grande Boucle.