The Tour de France Femmes is set to have its longest edition yet and extend to nine stages in 2025, as revealed at a press conference on Monday in Rennes.
Racing will return to France in next year’s Grand Départ after Rotterdam plays host to the opening three stages of the upcoming race in August, with the Brittany region hosting the opening three days.
Brittany has hosted the Grand Départ of the men's race on seven occasions, with the most recent in 2021 taking in memorable wins and stints in the yellow jersey for Julian Alaphilippe and Mathieu van der Poel.
The news was revealed on the Tour de France Femmes’ X, formerly Twitter, account with details of the start and finish locations in northwest France.
“Brittany will host the Grand Départ of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2025,” read a post from the race.
“A Grand Départ from Vannes before crossing the Finistère the next day, the TDFF2025 will then return to Morbihan for the 3rd stage and a total of 9 stages on the menu for the 2025 edition!”
The race will also return to its July spot on the calendar after the men's Tour de France, moved back in 2024 due to the Paris Olympics.
Editions of the women's Tours de France have been longer than nine stages in their previous forms as the Tour de France Féminin and Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale for example, however, since it has been run as a stage race by the Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), all three editions have been eight stages.
Stage 1 is due to run on Saturday July 26 from the walled town of Vannes to Plumelec, before the second stage kicks off from Brest, home to last year’s best young rider at the Tour de France Femmes Cédrine Kerbaol (CeratizitWNT), to Quimper.
“I have goosebumps thinking about the Grand Départ de Bretagne, it's going to be amazing,” said Kerbaol. “And with a stage starting from Brest, it's incredible.”
Other French stars from the Bretagne region include six-time national time trial champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Human Powered Health), Aude Biannic (Movistar) and Marie Le Net (FDJ-Suez).
A move up to nine stages marks a significant growth of the race after being reluctant to expand too quickly after a successful opening two editions.
“Nine stages for the Tour de France Femmes 2025, it's a strong sign that shows the enthusiasm around the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift and women's sport in general.” said race director Marion Rousse.
“We are on the right track. We go from eight to nine days of racing, but we have to go carefully.”
The 2024 is listed as having 7 stages but only due to the second day taking in stages 2a and 2b in Rotterdam, a 67km road race and 6.3km time trial. It kicks off on August 12 in the Netherlands before heading south for the big finale on August 18 up to Alpe d’Huez.
