Tour de France 2025 **spoilers**

Squiban is 7 mins down, so not in GC contention ( she lost over 6 mins on stage 1 not sure why, then lose nearly 2 mins in stage 2 supporting her team leader who chrashed) her teammate is less than 2 minutes down in 11th, so obviously they will want her to finish as high as possible maybe get top 10 plus Squiban has already exceeded their expectations, she'll be on domestique duties to protect the highest place teammate as would be expected for all teams at this late stage of the race.

My point is that if the team manager her properly in the future she has the potential to contend at GC level. She was never going to contend this year as she was on domestique duty and wouldn't have won the last 2 stages had her leader still been in the race as she'd have had to support her and I know if she was a threat on GC she wouldn't have won either, her role changed mid-race when her leader left and she had excelled since.

Another excellent stage today with plenty drama & unexpected events.

10k left still.

I didn't realise they weren't going up the main route up that the men took last week. I've done both and that way the women took is WAY harder. The main road is quite engineered, one of those ski station roads with a regular gradient, lots of hairpins and good surface. That back road the femmes are on is a much more natural undulating organic road that kicks and changes and bites with really tight and steep sections. It's brutal. Joins the main road at the ski station and does the same 5k ish from there up.

The shorter format helps, if there was another week left, it wouldn't be that interesting as Ferrand-Prévot's lead would likely extend if there was more climbing as she was clearly the strongest climber, and won in a very Pogacar like way. She is definitely a worthy winner.

I think they should have included an ITT stage earlier in the race too, as all that separated the main contenders was bonus seconds before the last two stages, which did make the last 2 days interesting, but, the previous stages were a stalemate between the main contenders.

Overall it was enjoyable and looks like it was a great success, having a home winner helps and she looks like she could win a few more. It's great that the race organisers appear to be supporting the race and giving the girls the full TdeF experience.I hope it's here to stay as it's been a welcome addition since the inaugural race in 2022.

3 weeks would definitely be too long as the gaps would extend for the GC, but, I can see it extending a few more stages with a rest day, possibly two weeks at the most, but, they would need to be careful how much climbing is included. 3 weeks is probably slightly long for the men's race too tbh!

I actually saw some of that documentary, it did seem like they wanted to prove the women couldn't do it, and made it as difficult for them as possible, while looking like they were supporting it. The current version seems to be getting the full support and there does seem to be goodwill towards it and every effort to make it a success, which it appears to be. Also Ferrand-Prévot winning is a massive boost as she was already popular in France, so winning the Tour, especially as France don't have male GC contenders will raise the profile of the TdeFF even more. Vive le TdeFF!

(Avec Swift)