On the eve of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, the usual pre-race bravado has largely been replaced by caution, reflection, and a strong sense of realism from the race’s biggest contenders. As the fourth edition of the race prepares to roll out from Vannes, the mood is more measured than manic, with even the favourites acknowledging just how unpredictable the coming nine days are set to be.
Demi Vollering, winner of the Tour in 2023 and second in both 2022 and 2024, cuts a calm and focused figure. Speaking to reporters, she dismissed any notion of seeking revenge for last year’s narrow loss to Kasia Niewiadoma. “I’m not thinking about revenge. I just really want to win a second Tour and give it everything,” she said. Vollering joins the race in strong form after wins at Strade Bianche, the Vuelta, Itzulia and Catalunya, and will be backed by a powerful French squad at FDJ-Suez. But she also noted how much the peloton has levelled up. “It’s not three favourites anymore. There are six or seven riders who could win this. I have to focus on myself, but the battle is going to be wide open.”
Photo Credit: LaPresseAmong those she mentioned by name was Elisa Longo Borghini. Fresh from defending her Giro title, the Italian has opted for a different approach in France. “The Tour de France has been a little bit my nightmare race,” she said. “In 2023, I abandoned because of an infection. In 2024, I couldn’t even walk five days before the start after a crash.” That painful history means she’s not targeting GC this time. “We’re here hunting stages, not looking at the overall. The pressure is off after the Giro, and I’m really happy to have that mindset.”
Not everyone is feeling so relaxed. Marlen Reusser, runner-up at both the Giro and the Vuelta, should have been one of Vollering’s main threats. Instead, she’s been struck down by illness after eating something bad in the days before the race. “It all came out again,” she admitted on Thursday, describing a rough lead-up marked by vomiting and exhaustion. Her hopes of a GC bid now hang on whether she can recover during the opening stages.
Kasia Niewiadoma, the defending champion, arrives in better shape but also with a clear understanding of how thin the margins can be. “We’ll take it day by day and try to save every little second until the end,” she said. “You can lose or win by just four seconds.” That quote rings particularly loud after her triumph in 2024, when she pipped Vollering by precisely that margin. After another altitude camp and a fresh Polish national title, she believes she’s where she needs to be: “I trained hard, recovered hard. I’m not fully satisfied with my season so far, and maybe that gives me extra motivation.”
A new name in the GC conversation this year is Kim Le Court. The Mauritian national champion and winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège has never ridden a Grand Tour with an eye on the general classification, but AG Insurance-Soudal believe she’s ready to try. “It’s a bit of a turning point for us as a team,” said DS Jolien D’hoore. “We see it as nine one-day races, and Kim has shown she can compete.” Le Court herself remained grounded: “It’s very new. I’m not really looking ahead, just focusing on the first few days.” Teammate Justine Ghekiere, a stage winner and polka dot jersey holder last year, will ride in support. “We’ve got a big goal, and I think Kim can do it,” she said. “If there are mountain points along the way, maybe I go for them, but it’s not about the jersey this year.”
One rider returning to the spotlight is Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. After her spring win at Paris-Roubaix Femmes, she targeted weight loss and altitude training in Tignes in preparation for the Tour. “I’m really at my peak now,” she said confidently. “I can’t go any lighter. I feel ready, but I don’t want to put pressure on myself.” This will be her first Grand Tour in years, and she knows the danger of underestimating the early stages. “You can’t win the Tour in the first two days, but you can definitely lose it,” she warned.
Photo Credit: GettyThat’s a sentiment echoed throughout the peloton, including by SD Worx-Protime’s Lotte Kopecky. The world champion arrives nursing the effects of a back injury sustained at the Giro and has had to abandon any overall ambitions, at least for now. “At the moment, GC isn’t really reachable,” she admitted. “We’ll take it day by day and go for stage wins.” Her teammate Anna van der Breggen, making her Tour debut at 35 after coming out of retirement, was similarly tempered in her expectations. “The level is higher than when I last raced,” she said. “There’s no longer a clear top three. That’s good for the sport. It makes it unpredictable.”
Unpredictability is the theme that threads all these quotes together. Whether it’s Kopecky adjusting her goals, Ferrand-Prévot cautious despite top form, or Vollering acknowledging that her rivals are no longer so few, the picture forming in Vannes is of a peloton braced for the hardest edition yet. As Van der Breggen put it, “What is it like now, before the Tour, that you have no clue who is going to win? That’s a nice feeling, right?”
For those chasing yellow, that mystery may be as exciting as the jersey itself.
