Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won stage 9 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift solo, securing a historic overall victory for Visma-Lease a Bike and for France.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) took second from a chasing group of three, 20 seconds behind Ferrand-Prévot, with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) third. Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) finished fourth on the stage, 10 seconds ahead of Dominika Włodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ), which saw them both move up into the top five overall.
Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) was distanced on the descent off the HC Col de Joux-Plane mid-stage and slipped down to sixth in the general classification, allowing Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney to move up. Vollering finished the nine-stage race second overall, 3:42 down on Ferrand-Prévot, while Niewiadoma-Phinney ended the race in third at 4:09.
[race_result id=15687 stage_id=85995 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=15687 stage_id=85995 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
How it happened
- There were, without a doubt, riders in the peloton hoping for an easy start to the stage, but their wish would not be fulfilled. They'll have to take it up with SD Worx-Protime, who were so determined to make the race a challenge that they tried to send three riders off the front at once.
- The pace was so hard that with 92 km to go, the peloton had shattered, leaving only 14 riders, including Ferrand-Prévot, Gigante, Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering. Almost a minute ahead of them, Van der Breggen attempted an Annemiek van Vleuten-esque attack. The composition of the group meant that Vollering had two teammates, Niewiadoma-Phinney had one, but both Gigante and Ferrand-Prévot were isolated.
- With 74 km remaining, in the valley between the Cat 1 and HC climbs, a large group regained contact with the yellow jersey group. Their strength in numbers didn't last long, because as soon as the peloton reached Col de Joux Plane, it shattered once more.
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