Tour de France Femmes 2025 stage 8 preview – Col de la Madeleine 'out of my comfort zone, but it's out of everyone's comfort zone'

This is the stage everyone has been waiting for in the fourth edition of the rebooted Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Up until now, the GC battle has been in warm-up mode but now that we have reached stage 8, it is game on

The second last day of racing will start in Chambéry and finish in Saint-François-Longchamp atop the hors catégorie-ranked Col de Madeleine (18.6km at 8.1%), plus the 112km stage also features the Col de Plainpalais (13.2km at 6.3%), and Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières (4.8km at 5.9%) along the way..

The finish line at Col de la Madeleine will bring the peloton to 2,000 metres of elevation and the highest point of the Tour de France Femmes. It will also be the longest of the big climbs that have featured in the rebooted Tour de France Femmes, considerably steeper and longer than both the Alpe d'Huez and the Col de la Tourmalet.

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"It's really difficult to say what's going to happen, we really don't know," said Carmen Small, sports director at EF Education-Oatly, who have Cédrine Kerbaol sitting in seventh overall at 1:14 from race leader Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal).

"We haven't had this long of a climb in the Tour before, and after so many hard stages, I think we'll see some explosions – hopefully not us."

There is plenty at stake from the prestige of a queen stage win, to the unfolding of the GC battle. This is the stage where big chunks of time could be lost, or made up, on a climb that will seriously test the stamina of even those riders who have been gleefully awaiting its arrival.

"I've ridden Col du Madeleine and, I'm not sure if that's a good thing," chuckled Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek). "It's out of my comfort zone, but it's out of everyone's comfort zone. It's super long, it goes to altitude and has a nice, steep start, so I will look forward to this, yes."

For a rider like Fisher-Black, who has shed time through the earlier stages, and is now nearly four minutes down, the day will be all about the stage. For many others it is also about yellow and the podium.

Currently, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) is second overall at 26 seconds back while defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto) is at 30 seconds and Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) just a another second back.

It is then Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) in fifth and Pauliena Roojakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) at 35 seconds in sixth. It is then Kerbaol and Gigante in eighth at 1:14. In fact, the entire top 10 is within 1:35 in which has set the scene for a tight but unpredictable battle for the overall.

With so many teams in contention, it will be interesting to see who takes control.

"I would say it's all up to FDJ," said AG Insurance-Soudal sport director Jolien d'Hoore. "Yeah, they have the strongest team. Demi's the big favourite. So, yeah, it's up to them. We will follow and see what we can do."

There may be other ideas around the peloton, however, given the powerful position the Belgian team holds, with Le Court in yellow and Gigante in eighth and clearly carrying good form. Her third overall in the Giro d'Italia Women and two decisive climbing stage wins along the way have made her foes wary.

"I think it's an extremely hard race tomorrow and an extremely hard day. I expect, really, that Gigante is going to hurt the rest of the peloton," said SD Worx-Protime team manager Danny Stam.

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Mountains

• Col de Plainpalais (13.2km at 6.3%), 13.3km
• Côte de Saint-Georges-d'Hurtières (4.8km at 5.9%), 73.9km
• Col de la Madeleine (18.6km at 8.1%), 111.9km

Sprints

• Châteauneuf, 56.7km

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