As it happened: France take one-two yet again as Le Court salvages yellow at Tour de France Femmes stage 7

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The peloton will compete its third 160km-plus stage at the Tour de France Femmes with stage 7 from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry and a total of 160km

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Bonjour and welcome to our live updates of the seventh stage at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes.

Today's stage begins in Bourg-en-Bresse and travels over a distance of 159.7km with a finish in Chambéry. There are three categorised climbs on the menu today with one category four and two category two climbs. As well as the usual intermediate sprint which takes place in Groslée-Saint-Benoit.

All the riders are getting ready for the stage and signing on with the help of some little friends as Alice Maria Arzuffi (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) gets a helping hand at sign on...

Before looking towards today's stage, lets take a dive back into what was a very intriguing day in the GC fight yesterday...

Onto today, then. And it could be an integral day in the GC fight with plenty of attack points in the final 40 to 30 kilometres. Especially the last climb of the Col du Granier...

The riders are due to roll out for the neutral start in roughly half an hour's time.

The GC changed slightly yesterday with Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) extending her lead and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) among a few others all moving up...

Just 15 minutes until the neutral start.

Will Kim Le Court or Sarah Gigante add another lion or other cuddly toy to the collection on the AG Insurance-Soudal team bus at the end of today?

Its a hot start to the day in Bourg-en-Bresse with 26°c at the start with the heat riding to almost 30°c in Chambéry for the finish.

Neutral start

The official start is due to be given in 5 minutes.

It has been a real mixed bag of a race for UAE Team ADQ. They're down to 4 riders but have a stage win and are looking very good with aggressive tactics...

159.7km to go

No early break has managed to form just yet.

Still no sign of an early break. The peloton are riding at speed with the average being 47.9kph so far.

150km to go

Attack!

Counter attack

Brand and Squiban have a gap of 18" over the chasing peloton.

Brand and Squiban have been caught and the fight to form the break begins again.

140km to go

A large group of riders have a gap on the peloton. It quickly stretches to 18" over the peloton.

This new breakaway's gap has shot out to a minute in no time at all. This looks like it could be the break of the day.

The leading group is made up of 17 riders.

The average speed is starting to drop. It is now shown as being 43kph.

130km to go

Breakaway:

Eline Jansen of VolkerWessels is the best placed rider in the break going into today at 5'40", 17th overall. She is followed by Justine Ghekiere of AG Insurance-Soudal at 7'44" with only Squiban being another rider inside 10 minutes.

The peloton appear to be relatively happy with the breakaway as multiple riders are dropping back to the cars to get bottles and food.

The break is made up of some incredible talents and riders who would be perfect as satellite riders when the climbs start. But will anyone use them as that? And will the gap get large enough for the break for that to be a possibility?

The peloton has let the time gap stretch out to over three minutes.

Multiple teams are leading the peloton but they are mainly led by Liv-AlUla-Jayco who have missed the breakaway.

120km to go

The breakaway are flying along but the peloton have reduced the gap to 2'55".

Peloton split into three groups under the pressure of the pace change.

Crash!

The first hour's average speed was 47.1kph.

Mechanical

110km to go

The temperature has gone up to 28.7°c.

The peloton has stitched itself back together again after splitting.

20km to go until the intermediate sprint in Groslée-Saint-Benoit.

It was Visma-Lease a Bike that really upped the tempo in the peloton and split it into three. However, their pacing didn't close in on the break too much and didn't definitively split the peloton.

Visma-Lease a Bike are keen to close this down with Fenix-Deceuninck and Liv-AlUla-Jayco as they have all missed the move. The gap is now at 2'40".

100km to go

Gap is still stable at 2'40".

Just 10km to the intermediate sprint in Groslée-Saint-Benoit.

The gap goes up again for the first time in a while to 2'50" as the break fight back against the pace being set by Visma-Lease a Bike.

Dygert and Kopecky have upped the pace in the breakaway, which explains the time gain.

Attack

Kopecky and Dygert are caught by the rest of the breakaway again. They have a gap of 2'45" over the peloton.

Abandon

Paladin abandoning leaves 131 riders left in the race.

Mechanical

6km to the intermediate sprint for the break who now have a gap of 3'05" to the peloton.

The break extend their advantage to 3'10" on the peloton.

The gap continues to grow to 3'20" between the break and the peloton.

Intermediate sprint (Groslée-Saint-Benoit)

80km to go

The gap is now out at four minutes between the breakaway and the peloton.

Olympic and world time trial champion, Grace Brown is at the Tour working for Australian TV also with the Cycling Alliance. She is hoping to get the peloton more united as various issues around rider respect bubble up...

It has never been so close at this race after 6 stages!

The gap has slightly reduced to just over 4 minutes after being at 4'18".

British national champion, Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceuninck), leads the peloton for her leaders of Pauliena Rooijakkers and Puck Pieterse.

The gap drops below four minutes again.

Picnic-PostNL and Liv-AlUla-Jayco come to the front of the peloton alongside Fenix-Deceuninck. They are now 3'47" behind the break.

Riders are starting to lose touch at the back of the peloton.

The likes of Valerie Demey (VolkerWessels), Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) have been dropped by the peloton. Roussel looked absolutely empty.

60km to go

The peloton is now led by EF Education-Oatly, FDJ-Suez, Lidl-Trek and Fenix-Deceuninck with Visma-Lease a Bike trying to move up on the narrow roads to join them on the front.

The peloton slow up their pace on the narrow roads as EF Education-Oatly, FDJ-Suez, Lidl-Trek and Fenix-Deceuninck control the pacing.

The gap is going back up towards four minutes again.

The riders have started the first climb of the day, the category 2 climb of Côte de Saint-Franc which is 3.8km at 6.9%. Immdiately, Andersen and Gonzalez are dropped from the break.

Brand has also been dropped from the breakaway.

Another rider distanced by the break, Irish rider Mangan.

50km to go

3km to the top of the climb and a gap of 3'47" between the break and peloton.

Jastrab and Rijnbeek are the next riders to be dropped from the break.

Arzuffi also loses touch with the leaders.

AG Insurance-Soudal lose two riders from the peloton with Isle Pluimers and Shari Bossuyt.

With just over a kilometre from the top Eline Jansen (VolkerWessels) is dropped by the break. The best placed rider in the lead group is distanced.

Van Anrooij is leading the break and setting a very hard tempo leaving just 9 riders in the front.

1km to the top of the first QoM of the day.

QoM (Côte de Saint-Franc)

Keeping cool and hydrated is key, today more than any other as the temperature goes over 30°c.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto) is one of the big favourites for today's stage with a rapid descent to the finish.

Multiple riders dropped from the break have made it back in over the top and have now made the group grow to 13 riders. They have a gap of 4'22" over the peloton.

40km to go

The break are about to start the second climb of the day, the category 4 Côte de Berland which is 1.2km long with an average gradient of 7.2%.

The gap between the peloton and break goes over 5 minutes for the first time today.

500 metres to the top of the Côte de Berland climb.

QoM (Côte de Berland)

Fenix-Deceuninck really turning the screw in the peloton and it is seeing yet more riders go out of the back. It is Christina Schweinberger doing the damange. Dropping Lorena Wiebes among others.

Meijering (Movistar) tried to go on the attack from the back of the break after being at the car but the break drifted across and unintentionally blocked the move.

Attack!

The peloton, led by Fenix-Deceuninck, have cut the break's gap down dramatically. It was over 5 minutes it is now under three minutes.

Attack!

Rijnbeek has maybe 3" of a gap on the chasers.

Chase group look at each other and Rijnbeek increases her gap with 5km to the bottom of the final climb.

Squiban now tries a move in the chase group to force a split but nothing is going yet.

Rijnbeek gets her gap out to 33" over the chasing group with the peloton a further 1'30" behind them.

Schweinberger swings off the front of the peloton and now it is the turn of Yara Kastelijn who takes over for Fenix-Deceuninck on the front of the peloton potentially setting up an attack by Rooijakkers or Pieterse.

Oddly, after all that work from Schweinberger, Kastelijn sits up and it sees Cecile Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM-ZondaCrypto), Riejanne Markue (Lidl-Trek) and Francesca Barale (Picnic-PostNL) come to the front as well.

Attack in chase

Meijering and Edwards have flown across the gap and are almost with Rijnbeek as they're about to start the Col du Granier.

Onto the final climb of the day, the Col du Granier, 8.9km long with an average gradient of 5.4% as Meijering and Edwards catch Rijnbeek. 30" back to the chasing group and just over 2 minutes to the peloton.

Rijnbeek, Edwards and Meijering have 28" on the chasers with a gap of 2'20" to the peloton.

Rijnbeek has been dropped by Meijering and Edwards. In the chase group, multiple riders are losing touch as Arzuffi, Kopecky, Le Mouel, Jansen and Jastrab are dropped from the chase group.

Squiban, Van Anrooij and Dygert go clear with Ghekiere but the Belgian champion loses touch.

Squiban jumps across to Meijering and Edwards dropping Van Anrooij and Dygert who are trying to pace their way across the gap.

5km from the top of the climb. Van Anrooij and Dygert make it back across to Squiban, Meijering and Edwards.

Kastelijn comes back to the front of the peloton for Rooijakkers and Pieterse as they look to make it hard for their rivals yet again. The peloton are now 2'29" down on the break.

Attack!

20km to go

The peloton is splitting to pieces with the likes of Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) dropped.

Kastelijn is really upping the pace.

Yellow jersey dropped!

Rooijakkers goes to the front of the GC group with Le Court losing a lot of ground.

Attack in break

Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Julie Bego (Cofidis) have also been dropped by the GC group.

GC group:

Squiban is about to go over the top of the climb and taking 5 points and will go into joint second in the QoM standings.

Vollering goes to the front of the GC group.

QoM (Col du Granier)

Vollering is really turning the screw in the GC group but everyone can follow. Labous takes over.

Attack!

Vollering is really pushing hard with Niewiadoma-Phinney and Ferrand-Prevot following her. This is an extremely fast descent on very technical roads down to Chambéry.

Gigante losing touch with the peloton on the descent but she has Ghekiere with her to try and help her stay in contact.

Vollering sends Labous to the front of the as she wasn't getting any gap on her rivals. Le Court has closed the gap further to 17" now.

10km to go

Kopecky makes it back to the GC group with an extremely impressive descent by her.

Kerbaol has got back into the GC group as well with a, perhaps unsurprisingly, amazing descent.

Le Net, on Le Court's wheel, radioing her temmates in the GC group to say that yellow jersey is coming back.

5km to go

Van Anrooij, Edwards and Meijering are closing the gap to Squiban but it is at 57", is it too little too late?

Kim Le Court makes it back to the GC group again! They will not take yellow from her today.

Attack

Niewiadoma-Phinney is trying to join Kerbaol on this descent as they both attack the GC group.

Flamme Rouge

Kerbaol is absolutely flying on the descent. She has gapped everyone else and looks like she will finally be taking time on her rivals.

Kerbaol has caught Meijering and is about to catch Van Anrooij and Edwards.

500 metres to go for Squiban.

Maeva Squiban of UAE Team ADQ wins stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025. Her second win in as many days.

Cedrine Kerbaol of EF Education-Oatly takes second and makes it the second day in a row where France take first and second on the day! Ruth Edwards of Human Powered Health pipped to third.

Stage 7 top 10

GC after stage 7

CyclingNews is the place to be for all the reactions, quotes, analysis and more on the Tour de France Femmes and beyond. The perfect place to start is with our post race report which is linked just below...

What an incredible two days for Maeva Squiban. She is now up to 16th in GC and join 2nd in the QoM standings with Silke Smulders (Liv-AlUla-Jayco).

Despite some drama on the Col du Granier, Kim Le Court managed to put in what she described as "the descent of my life" to get back into the GC group and to keep yellow going into the Queen Stage tomorrow.

Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) keeps her polka dot jersey for another day but sees a fresh challenge for the jersey by Maeva Squiban as the Bretagne star moves into joint second in the QoM standings.

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) keeps her 30 point lead over Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the green points jersey classification with Kim Le Court 75 points off her lead.

One jersey does see a change though as Nienke Vinke (Picnic-PostNL) snatches white from Julie Bego (Cofidis).

And, of course, Maeva Squiban was awardd the most combative rider award for a second day in a row.

Tomorrow's stage starts in today's finishing town of Chambéry with a route of 111.9km on the menu and a summit finish on the Col de la Madeleine, a high category climb 18.6km long with a brutal average gradient of 8.1%. This is likely going to be the race deciding stage.

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