Attacking in the yellow jersey she had conquered on the Col de la Madeleine the day before, Ferrand-Prévot raced up the climb through the ski resort of Châtel, leaving the other favourites in the front group behind and riding to the finish in Châtel Pré la Joux for another solo victory.
The 33-year-old Frenchwoman who had only returned from mountainbiking to road racing this season became the first French winner of a Tour since Catherine Marsal in the 1990 Tour de la CEE féminin, Jeannie Longo in the Tour de France féminin in 1987, 1988, and 1989, and 40 years after Bernard Hinault's victory in the 1985 men's Tour de France.
At 20 seconds behind, Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) took second place, also moving up to second overall after Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) was dropped on the descent from the Col de Joux Plane.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) finished third on the stage and in the general classification.
“This morning, I told my DS, 'I want to try to win in yellow'. It wasn’t easy, quite a tactical race, and at the end, I told myself, ‘let’s see how I feel on the last climb’. I attacked, and I didn’t think that I could win that way. I really gave it my all until the last metres, so I didn’t have time to savour it all, but I’m so happy to be able to win this stage and the general classification,” said Ferrand-Prévot after her victory.
The stage began with a scary moment for the yellow jersey and her team when she lost contact with the peloton on the opening descent, forcing Visma-Lease a Bike to chase hard to close the gap.
“I made a mistake at the start of the race. Someone left a gap on the first descent, and suddenly I was dropped. My teammates did a massive effort to bring me back. I felt the pressure of wearing the yellow jersey a little, but it served as a good lesson for me. After that, I said, ‘OK, now I have to stay in front’,” Ferrand-Prévot explained.
Following a very select racing calendar and only training for two months ahead of the Tour paid off for the Frenchwoman, who was the dominant rider of the last two stages.
“It may have looked easy, but it was the result of a lot of work. I think I have really set the bar this year on how to prepare for the Tour. I have made a lot of sacrifices. I thought about that yesterday, and I talked about it this morning with my teammates. This victory shows that it was worth it,” Ferrand-Prévot finished.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot accepts the final yellow jersey and the overall title at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes infront of massive crowds at Châtel (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The 124.1km stage from Praz-sur-Arly to Châtel Les Portes du Soleil started with a descent, and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) was one of the first riders to attack, together with her teammate Femke Gerritse. They were joined by Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) and another SD Worx-Protime rider, Lotte Kopecky, and the four riders were about 20 seconds ahead of the peloton after the descent.
Ferrand-Prévot and Gigante had both lost contact in the descent, and their teams worked hard to bring them back while FDJ-Suez were pulling in the peloton to make that task as hard as possible.
After 25km, the dropped riders were back, but the fast started had spelled the end for the early break. Undeterred, Van der Breggen attacked again and again on the first half of the first-category Côte d’Arâches-la-Frasse, finally getting away halfway up the 6km climb. At the top, Van der Breggen was a minute ahead of a group of only 15 riders that included most GC contenders.
Anna van der Breggen in the breakaway on stage 9 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Several groups of dropped riders returned on the descent and in the valley, and Van der Breggen increased her lead to 2:05 minutes over a peloton of about 50 riders at the intermediate sprint in Morillon with 74.6km to go.
FDJ-Suez and AG Insurance-Soudal reduced this to 1:46 minutes at the bottom of the Col de Joux Plane, but Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) slid out in the turn onto the climb, taking down her teammate Cédrine Kerbaol and Niewiadoma-Phinney as well. While the Pole was quickly back in the peloton, Kerbaol needed longer to get going again and soon was 40 seconds behind the other GC riders.
Up front, Van der Breggen was slowly losing ground while AG Insurance-Soudal led out Gigante. Only nine riders were left in the group of GC contenders, and two immediately lost contact when Gigante made her move, leaving only Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Vollering, Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), and Dominika Włodarczyk with the Australian climber.
Demi Vollering leading the selection on stage 9 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
When Gigante took the pressure off the pedals, Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) came back from behind and went on the attack right away but was closed down by Labous. The second half of the climb saw several changes in pace in the group of favourites as Gigante and Włodarczyk tried without success to get away and Labous took the lead in between.
One kilometre from the top, Vollering launched an attack that dropped Labous and Włodarczyk, and another dig just before the mountain sprint put Gigante on a small gap to Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Fisher-Black, and Ferrand-Prévot. Van der Breggen had a 45-second advantage over this group while Kerbaol had lost another two minutes on the climb, cresting the pass 2:45 minutes behind the other GC contenders. In the end, she would lose over nine minutes and drop from fifth to eighth place overall.
Włodarczyk, Labous, and Gigante came back to the four GC favourites on the plateau at the top, but when Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked on the descent, Gigante lost contact again. Chasing on her own, she would not see the others again until the finish.
Anna van der Breggen solo on stage 9 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
At the bottom of the Col du Corbier with 34.8km to go, Van der Breggen was only 20 seconds ahead of her six chasers and would be caught 33.3km from the finish before quickly dropping back. At the top of the climb, Gigante was 2:14 minutes behind the front group and had dropped off the overall podium.
The time gaps only increased further on the descent and the slightly-uphill valley road to Châtel where Labous did the lion’s share of the work, and Gigante would eventually fall to sixth place overall, being leapfrogged by Fisher-Black and Włodarczyk.
Sarah Gigante chasing the favourites on the final stage 9 at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Vollering attacked the front group out of the third of the five hairpins of the steep Route de la Béchigne through Châtel but could not get away. Instead, Ferrand-Prévot made her move right after the fourth hairpin and over the top, increasing her gap to a few seconds before throwing herself into the 2km downhill.
The yellow jersey started the 4km final climb 10 seconds ahead of Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney, and Fisher-Black and increased this to 20 seconds on the finish line. Vollering sprinted away on the finishing straight to take three seconds on Niewiadoma-Phinney and Fisher-Black, confirming her runner-up spot in the general classification.
The green points jersey was won by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), winner of stages 3 and 4, while Élise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) won the polka-dot mountain jersey after having worn it since stage 1. Nienke Vinke (Picnic PostNL), 19th overall, won the white U23 jersey while FDJ-Suez took the team classification. Maëva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), winner of stages 6 and 7, won the overall combativity award.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wins stage 9 and the overall title at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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