Tour de France Femmes 2025: Route and stages of the women's Tour de France
Tour de France Femmes 2025 - the most important facts in brief
- Date: 26.07. - 03.08.2025
- 1168.6 kilometres in total, 18,125 vertical metres in total
- 4th edition
- 9 stages
- 2 flat stages
- 3 hilly stages
- 2 low mountain stages
- 2 high mountain stages, including one mountain finish
All stages of the 2025 Women's Tour de France at a glance
Stage 1, Saturday, 26 July | Vannes - Plumelec | 78.8 kilometres | 1140 vertical metres
The Tour de France Femmes 2025 begins with a short but crisp start. The Côte de Cadoudal is almost a mini mountain finish. It's nothing for the sprinters, it's more about the first seconds for the overall classification.
Stage 2, Sunday, 27 July | Brest - Quimper | 110.4 kilometres | 2030 vertical metres
And it continues in exactly the same way. The 2nd stage also offers a number of tough climbs right up to the finish. After the ups and downs throughout the day, a mass arrival is not necessarily to be expected in Quimpeur either.
Stage 3, Monday, 28 July | La Gacilly - Angers | 163.5 kilometres | 1320 vertical metres
No mercy for the sprinters? The arrival in Angers looks predestined for a bunch sprint. But the finish is slightly uphill again. There have been easier sprint finals at the Tour.
Stage 4, Tuesday, 29 July | Saumur - Poitiers | 130.7 kilometres | 780 vertical metres
Probably the last chance for the sprinters at the Tour de France Femmes 2025. Stage 4 is likely to be the easiest of the race, and that also applies to the finale in Poitiers.
Stage 5, Wednesday, 30 July | Chasseneul-du-Poitou (Futuroscope) - Guéret | 165.8 kilometres | 2070 vertical metres
From the halfway point onwards, the day's profile climbs slightly. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but the climb to Le Maupuy around six kilometres before the finish should prevent a mass arrival. Stage 5, the longest of the tour, could be one for the breakaways.
Stage 6, Thursday, 31 July | Clermont-Ferrand - Ambert | 123.7 kilometres | 2475 vertical metres
Clermont-Ferrand was the starting point of the 2nd Tour de France Femmes in 2023. Now it heralds the second, difficult half of the tour. In the Massif Central, there are likely to be large gaps for the first time on the ten-kilometre Col du Béal. After that, it's a rollercoaster ride towards the finish. Sounds like an arrival for a larger group.
Stage 7, Friday, 1 August | Bourg-en-Bresse - Chambéry | 159.7 kilometres | 1950 metres elevation gain
The stage profile is similar to that of the previous day. First flat, then undulating. With the difference that the summit of the Col du Granier is only reached 17 kilometres before the finish. The rest of the day is downhill. The winners here are those who can ride downhill as well as uphill.
Stage 8, Saturday, 2 August | Chambéry - Saint François Longchamp (Col de la Madeleine) | 111.9 kilometres | 3540 vertical metres
The penultimate day is the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2025, with a long climb at the start of the day and an even longer one in the finale. It goes up the Col de la Madeleine. Not a legendary mountain like the Tourmalet or Alpe d'Huez, but still a real monster in terms of difficulty. The preliminary decision is made at an altitude of just under 2000 metres.
Stage 9, Sunday, 3 August | Praz-sur-Arly - Châtel Les Portes du Soleil | 124.1 kilometres | 2820 vertical metres
The final stage is too difficult to be just an exhibition race for the woman in yellow who shone at Madeleine. Just when the women's Tour de France is turning into a second-by-second thriller like last year. First the Col de Joux-Plane awaits, then it's up to the ski resort of Les Portes du Soleil on the Swiss border to Châtel. Another almost 20 kilometres uphill will decide the overall victory.
The route of the Tour de France Femmes 2025 in detail
When the A.S.O. presented the route of the 4th Tour de France Femmes, it spoke of a great diagonal through the country. In 2025, the Tour de France Femmes will not leave its home country. After the already officially announced Grand Depart in Brittany the route heads roughly south-east. After nine stages, the race ends in the Alps, more precisely in Châtel on the border with Switzerland, not far from Lake Geneva. 1169 kilometres will have been completed. Never before have there been so many kilometres in a Tour de Ftrance Femmes. This includes 18,125 metres in altitude. For the first time, the men's and women's Tour de France will overlap, with the Tour de France pure on the programme on 26 and 27 July.
Hardly any space for the sprinters despite extra time
However, at least some of the women are likely to get that "Morbihan" feeling. Because in the last two years, the one-day race on the Côte de Cadoudal, named after the French department, also ended in Plumelec. With Grace Brown and Silvia Persico, the winners were riders with a strong mountain pedigree, while the absolute sprint elite deliberately avoided the race.
It also remains to be seen how many sprinters will take part in the Tour de France Femmes 2025. Although the race has been extended to nine stages, one more than last year, there is not much to play for the fast women. There are opportunities on the 3rd and 4th stages in Angers and Poitiers - there shouldn't be much more than that. Because the second stage from Brest to Quimpeur is similar to the first: lots of poisonous climbs and a steep finale. These are not real mountain finishes, but you can gain a few seconds here with a good attack.
Mid-mountain stages with long climbs
However, the decision as to who will succeed Kasia Niewiadoma as Tour winner - or whether the Polish rider will be able to defend her title - will be made elsewhere. As in the previous year, the Tour will not be seen in the Pyrenees. It will once again head straight for the Alps through the Massif Central. But even the low mountain range is quite a challenge. After Clermont-Ferrand, where stage 6 begins, becomes the first city in which the Tour de France Femmes stops for the second time after the Grand Départ 2023, it will be really tough on this day. This is because the Col du Béal is the first 10-kilometre climb of the tour.
The Col du Granier is of a similar calibre the following day. A little shorter, a little less steep - but directly in the stage finale. Because it's all downhill to the finish in Chambery. For around 18 kilometres. So the hope here lies above all in good weather, because this descent will certainly be taken with a lot of risk.
Preliminary decision at the Col de la Madeleine
Because the royal stage awaits the next day. Over 112 kilometres, 3540 metres in altitude await. Because it will be an extremely tough section, the Tour organisation has completely dispensed with transfers. The stage begins where the previous one ended: in Chambery at the foot of the Alps. It's uphill right at the start. 13.2 kilometres to the Col de Plainpalais, which also has a gradient of 6.3 per cent. The middle section is quieter before the climb to the Col de la Madeleine awaits from La Chambre. 18.6 kilometres with a gradient of more than eight per cent have to be mastered here.
The giant may not have the name of the Col du Tourmalet or Alpe d'Huez, but the sporting challenge is certainly on a par. It is the decisive climb of the Tour de France Femmes 2025 and also the roof of the Tour - albeit not quite at 2000 metres, as the A.S.O. rounds up to bring a few more superlatives into play, but actually at 1993 metres above sea level. Just over a week earlier, the men also ride over the Madeleine on the 18th stage - but for them it is only a stopover.
Nasty finale on the final day
For the women, on the other hand, at least the preliminary decision for yellow will be made at Madeleine. However, it is too early to choose the overall winner of the Tour 2025 here. Because small gaps or a weak phase can also make the final day really hot again. After the stage starts in Praz-sur-Arly, the summit of the Col de Joux-Plane is reached exactly halfway through the 124-kilometre day. The mountain is steep and unrhythmic. Just right for a long desperate effort, which could also be the beginning of another fairytale in the women's Tour de France.
The remaining kilometres to Châtel in the French-Swiss ski resort of Portes du Soleil take you via Morzine and the Col du Corbier through the Abondance Valley. The finale could hardly be nastier. Because another 20 kilometres of ascent await. Hardly steep, but still difficult enough to really overestimate yourself after a long tour. Or to mobilise your last reserves and ride into the yellow jersey.
