The 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be the toughest yet, with four mountain stages and three hilly stages, race organiser ASO has announced.
The route for the fourth edition of the race was unveiled in a presentation inside Paris's Palais des Congrès on Tuesday. It will finish in the Alps with four mountain stages in a row, with two classified as "medium". Notably, there is no time trial.
Next year's race will begin on 26 July in Brittany, the day before the men's Tour de France finishes in Paris, and has been extended to nine stages for the first time.
The fourth TDFF crosses France diagonally from the very west to the very east, taking in the Massif Central and then the Alps at the end of the race. There are over 17,240 metres of elevation across the nine days, with 1,165km raced in total.
The key mountains that will be tackled by the peloton are the Col de la Madeleine on stage eight, 18.6km at 8.1%, which will surely decide the direction of the yellow jersey. On the final stage to Châtel Les Portes du Soleil, both the Col de Joux-Plane and the Col du Corbier will be ridden; 11.6km at 8.5% and 5.9km at 8.5% respectively.
Before that, there is a punchy opening to the Tour in Brittany, with two hilly stages in a row, the perfect playground for the likes of Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime). After that, there is respite for the faster riders, with sprint opportunities on stages three and four, where Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) will hope to replicate her 2024 form which saw her double up in the Netherlands.
Then there is a return to the hills and mountains of the Massif Central, with Clermont-Ferrand featuring again, two years after it hosted the Grand Départ. Stages six and seven are designated as "medium" mountain days, with significant climbing. Stage six will see the Col du Béal (10.2km at 5.6%), the Col du Chansert (6.3km at 5.5%) and the Côte de Valcivières (4.5km at 5.3%) raced, a day surely for the breakaway. Stage seven will feature the Col du Granier (8.9km at 5.4%) as the Tour de France Femmes heads to the Alps once again.
After this, it is time for the high mountains, for the days to the Col de la Madeleine and then Châtel.
The 2024 Tour de France Femmes was won by Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), who clung onto the race lead despite the best efforts of Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), who won the final stage to Alpe d'Huez. The race was decided by just four seconds.