Always well placed in the general classification since the start of the Tour de France female 2025, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot took over the yellow jersey at the end of her brilliant victory on the 8th stage this Saturday, after a large number in the Col de la Madeleine. On the eve of the big arrival in Châtel, the Frenchwoman knocked out her competitors.
Christian Prudhomme and Marion Rousse had felt him. “The next winner (of the Tour) will be a Frenchwoman!”, Advanted the directors of the male and female tour in April. A few months later, their prediction is – already – about to come true. On the eve of the arrival of the 2025 female edition, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot put on the yellow jersey after a demonstration during the 8th stage on Saturday, and has 2’37 “in advance on her runner-up, the Australian Sarah Gigante.
“It’s incredible”
A “queen step” that the French has perfectly negotiated tactically. In the peloton, in the company of the favorites, she first passed the first difficulties of the day – the Col de Plainpalais (1st category, 13.2 km at 6.3%) and the Côte de Saint -Georges -d’Hurtières (2nd category, 4.8 km at 5.9%) – under radars. Before accelerating in the last ascent on the program, the formidable Madeleine pass (excluding category, 18.6 km at 8.1%), just over ten kilometers from the finish.
After this first attack which allowed her to distance half Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma, and to find his compatriot Marion Brunel who passed her a relay so that she could rest, “PFP” managed to return to the race head. And the runner of the Visma Lease A Bike team gave a layer to fly to the stage victory and widen the gap with his rivals in the general classification.
“Doing this a year after the games, coming back and winning here on this legendary collar is incredible. (…) This yellow jersey is the dream of a little girl. I haven’t cried yet, but I think it will not be long,” she reacted on France TV.
She gave herself three years to win the Tour
After reaching her ultimate mountain bike quest, the Cross-Country Olympic title at the Paris 2024 Games last summer, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot launched the challenge of returning to road cycling. Already world road champion in 2014 and double French champion (2014, 2015), the 33 -year -old runner had a new announced goal: to win the Tour de France women.
“Pauline is capable of everything. We saw her in Paris-Roubaix women (which she won). (…) She gave herself three years to realize her dream and I believe it,” confided Marion Rousse in April during the presentation of the 2025 edition of the great female loop. Except disaster, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will therefore only need a year to win on the largest road race, in her first participation.
From her big starts a week ago, the Habs stood out by “letting” her teammate Marianne you cross the finish line from the first step in mind. “I was really thoroughly, I did not pretend,” she said, satisfied that “the plan” went perfectly “for its leader.
Three climbs on the program for the last step
But it was she who continued to make a strong impression during these last eight days of racing. It’s very simple: the Frenchman has never left the Top 4 in the general classification since the first evening. “I don’t waste time to general, it was really the goal,” she smiled after the first two stages. Serene and control, “PFP” seems to manage its efforts and even pays the luxury of choosing your moment.
“I tell myself that it is good to avoid all the requests today, to be able to recover properly and to be ready for tomorrow, to start this stage which will be, I think, decisive. (…) My race, it is tomorrow, and that was not the goal to take the yellow jersey today. I am happy with my day, to have kept maximum energy,” she declared on Friday.
And once again, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot responded present for this meeting that she had checked. Long acclaimed on the protocol podium, it only has 124.1 kilometers left – with two 1st category passes and an off -category collar – to be traveled to put an end to the scarcity of the French clan and succeed Bernard Hinault, 40 years later.
