Stage 4 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes from Saumur to Poitiers covered fast, flat terrain with a single categorised climb and a highly technical finish. It featured a prolonged breakaway, intermittent crashes, strong positioning battles, and a tense final lead-out that set up Lorena Wiebes for back-to-back stage wins.
The day began at high speed, with several attempts to form a breakaway. Franziska Koch, already one of the race’s most aggressive riders, was particularly active in the early skirmishes. She launched several attacks, one of which saw her gain a short-lived gap before being reeled in. The bunch stayed largely intact for the first 30km.
Eventually, Maud Rijnbeek of VolkerWessels managed to escape off the front around the 92km to go mark. She built a lead of over a minute, but was soon joined in stages by Celia Le Mouel, Elyne Roussel, and finally, by Koch and Ana Vitoria Magalhães. This reshaped the break into a more cohesive unit, though not all attackers were able to bridge successfully. Roussel and Berteau were caught, while Rijnbeek remained in front with Koch and Magalhães eventually forming the day’s main breakaway.
Photo Credit: A.S.O./Thomas MaheuxKoch and Magalhães proved the most committed duo, distancing Rijnbeek with around 60km remaining. The peloton, meanwhile, remained relatively calm despite some nervousness over possible crosswinds. The first real splits began forming around 65km to go when gusts increased to around 30kph. A group of 26 riders, including Cedrine Kerbaol, Sarah Gigante, and Ane Santesteban, lost contact with the bunch briefly, but eventually made their way back.
At the intermediate sprint in Soudun with 44km to go, Koch and Magalhães passed through uncontested to take maximum points. Wiebes won the reduced bunch sprint behind for 3rd, with Vos right on her wheel. Shortly after, the race hit the Côte de Marigny, a short 900m climb at 5.4%. Magalhães claimed the QoM points ahead of Koch.
The peloton became increasingly organised in the final 30km, with SD Worx-Protime, Picnic-PostNL, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, FDJ-Suez and Canyon SRAM all moving up. The chasing effort was visibly upped by Demi Vollering and her FDJ-Suez teammates. Blanka Vas took over pacing for SD Worx-Protime as the gap dropped steadily from over a minute to just 35 seconds by 10km to go. Riders like Christina Schweinberger and Femke Gerritse suffered mechanicals during this period, while Kristen Faulkner crashed for the second time on the stage.
Photo Credit: A.S.O./Thomas MaheuxAt 5km to go, Koch and Magalhães were still dangling 4 seconds ahead, but their time was up. They were absorbed just before the flamme rouge, having worked tirelessly for over 50km out front. Franziska Koch was later awarded the day’s most combative rider – her second such award of the race.
The finale was chaotic. SD Worx-Protime initially lost position around 3km to go as Human Powered Health and Team Visma | Lease a Bike surged to the front, but regained control with Anna van der Breggen pulling hard, followed by Kopecky and Wiebes. Kim Le Court led briefly, followed by Vos and Wiebes tracking each other closely.
With 500 metres to go, Wiebes launched her sprint. It was almost derailed when there wasn’t much space between Vos and Dygert, but both Wiebes and Vos found the gap and surged forward when Dygert launched. Wiebes had the speed advantage, holding off Vos by half a bike length. Lara Gillespie secured third, finishing clear of the rest of the field.
The stage ended with Wiebes winning her second stage in a row, while Vos retained the yellow jersey after another consistently strong finish. The tricky run-in had seen crashes, splits and constant movement, but it was another controlled and clinical performance from SD Worx-Protime in the final 2km that made the difference.
2025 Tour de France Femmes Stage 4 result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: Getty
