Who will win the 2025 Tour de Romandie Féminin? The favourites for the mountainous three-day race

The Tour de Romandie Féminin soon returns for its fourth anniversary, offering the peloton a three-day stage race from August 15 to 17 in Switzerland.

It delivers the first race on the top-tier calendar since the Tour de France Femmes concluded earlier this month and, after nearly two weeks of reprieve and recovery, many of the same riders return for another mountainous showdown.

With an undulating uphill time trial to Villars-sur-Ollon, a summit at La Tzoumaz and a hilly finale in Aigle, the peloton will tackle 249.69km of racing with 3,356m of elevation gain, making it a short but challenging event.

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Previous winners include Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Demi Vollering, and Lotte Kopecky. The world champion, according to the preliminary start list, is not planning to line up to defend her title – although she is down as a reserve on the provisional list of replacements so it's still an outside chance – and Vollering is also absent from the list of starters. However, plenty of others will certainly be chasing the title instead. Cyclingnews highlights the riders in contention for the overall victory, the underdogs and the potential stage winners at the fourth edition of the Tour de Romandie Féminin.

Juliette Labous and Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez)

Elise Chabbey was a strong force for FDJ-SUEZ at the Tour de France Femmes as the team supported Demi Vollering to a strong second behind overall winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Chabbey won the mountains classification and took home the polkadot jersey. Chabbey has everything in her favour when it comes to breakaways, special classifications, and as a dark horse favourite for the overall classification, especially given that the race is on home soil.

However, it could well be Juliette Labous' turn to shine, with the French rider looking well-placed to get the race off to a good start, having proven her time trial credentials at Vuelta a Burgos Feminas with her second place in the race against the clock. She's also solid climber and strong on the punchier hills, her second place on stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes to Ambert providing a good reminder of that. On top of that, the rider has not once fallen out of the top 10 overall in her three editions, in fact she was just one spot away from the podium in fourth place in 2023 – this could be the season she makes it.

Niamh Fisher-Black and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek)

Lidl-Trek also line up with two potential options in the overall classification with Niamh Fisher-Black and Gaia Realini, both capable of strong performances in the mountains.

Fisher-Black is coming off a powerful showing at the Tour, where she finished third on the queen stage atop the Col de la Madeleine, while also finishing fifth overall in GC. She has become a consistent mountainous stage racer, also winning a stage of the Giro last year and a stage at the Tour de Suisse the year before.

Realini will be somewhat of a wild card as she has not raced since the Baloise Ladies Tour in July, and opted out of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. However, she has proven her strengths in the mountains in previous seasons, too, with podium finishes at the Giro d'Italia, La Vuelta, Tour de Suisse, UAE Tour, and fifth at the Tour de France Femmes.

And with Ellen van Dijk on the roster, the team might even capture the leader's jersey on the opening day time trial.

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal)

Former Romandie champion, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, will undoubtedly be ready to jump into the action, having not competed since the Giro d'Italia after missing selection for the Tour de France Femmes squad. From the sidelines she still threw herself into what turned out to be a huge tour for AG Insurance-Soudal, going all in with her social media analysis and insights, but now it's time to once again make her presence felt on the road.

The South African champion is a strong climber, which she can use on the major ascent to La Tzoumaz, but she is also an experienced tactical racer which could well pay dividends on the hilly final stage. The advantage of not being at the Tour de France Femmes is that Moolman Pasio could also be better rested there some of her rivals.

The same can be said for teammate Urška Žigart, who has been climbing impressively this season. After finishing fifth overall at the Tour de Suisse, Žigart finished ninth overall at her last race, the Giro d'Italia, while teammate Sarah Gigante came third overall after winning two mountain stages. The Slovenian rider also delivered a strong performance on Monte Nerone, where to came seventh, and that bodes well for La Tzoumaz, which is bound to be a crucial juncture in the overall battle.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney stands a good chance of winning the overall title after a strong performance at the Tour de France that saw her finish in third place.

However, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto probably have the strongest team on paper with the likes of Ricarda Bauernfeind, Neve Bradbury and Antonia Niedermaier, along with two support riders in Alice Towers and Anastasiya Kolesava.

It would not surprise anyone if the team also support their younger riders, giving leadership practice to either Bauernfeind, Bradbury or Niedermaier, all of whom have won stages at Grand Tours.

Niedermaier could be the likely candidate to assume a leadership role as part of a late-season stage racing campaign, especially after working so hard for her teammates during the spring and early-summer races, and where she herself finished 5th overall at the Giro.

Maud Oudeman, Rosita Reijnhout and Femke De Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Visma-Lease a Bike will have a few riders to watch for stage wins and the top-10 in the overall classification with Femke De Vries, Rosita Reijnhout, Viktória Chladoňová and Maud Oudeman - a team that is likely to gain ample experience at the Swiss race.

De Vries was instrumental in supporting Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to victory at the Tour de France Femmes, while finishing 20th overall herself. And this season, she has quietly raced into strong performances, notably 16th at Tour de Suisse and 5th at Volta a Catalunya.

Likewise, Oudeman was 12th at Itzulia Women, showing her capacity for hilly stage races, and Reijnhout was 20th at the Giro and 15th at the Tour of Norway, while Chladoňová was 16th at the Giro and 9th in Catalunya, and 8th in Norway.

Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco)

Mavi García turned heads with a stage win at the Tour de France Femmes in the colours of Liv AlUla Jayco, and she will take that confidence into the rest of her season.

She has always been a versatile rider, especially in her bid for breakaway victories, but when put to the test, she can time trial and climb with the best, making the Tour de Romandie the perfect race for her to pursue the overall title.

She has not signed a contract extension or a new contract, yet, for 2026, with her Liv AlUla Jayco deal ending soon, and that might give her even more of an incentive during the final races of this season.

Nienke Vinke (Team Picnic PostNL)

Nienke Vinke recently captured the young rider competition at the Tour de France, where she also finished 19th overall, showing her capacity to stage race and climb in the mountains.

The three-day Tour de Romandie would be the perfect event to try her hand at a leadership role, especially as she has been consistently performing in the top-20 of some of the biggest races on the WorldTour, including 9th overall at the Vuelta, 8th at the Baloise Ladies Tour and 12th at the UAE Tour this year.

Last year, she was 10th overall at the Tour de Romandie and with a year comes more experience, so with a team to support her endeavours watch for Vinke to perform among the GC contenders.