How the Brutal Mont Ventoux Will Blow Open the GC Battle at the Tour de France Femmes

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had the Col du Tourmalet, Alpe d’Huez, and the Col du Madeleine.

And now for the first time ever, it’s got the brutal Mont Ventoux.

It’s the hardest climb in the history of the Femmes, and it’s poised to blow the race apart on Friday.

“The Mont Ventoux is emblematic,” race director Marion Rousse said on Wednesday.

“There are not many more beautiful mountains. I think we’ll really write history in women’s cycling there.”

Rousse wasn’t overselling it.

The so-called Géant of Provence is perhaps the most feared climb of European road cycling.

It’s a mysterious singular mountain that stands separate from a “range.” The hulking white mound can be seen rising from the horizon for miles.

On Friday’s 7th stage, the Tour de France Femmes will grind to the iconic Ventoux weather station from Bédoin, the hardest of the three possible approaches.

Officials confirmed Wednesday that despite previous wildfire concerns, the 147km stage through the vineyards of Provence will go ahead as planned. However, several sections will be restricted to fans.

Mont Ventoux: The hardest climb of the Tour de France Femmes

The peloton will arrive at the base of Mont Ventoux on Friday after a 130km warm-up of gently rolling hills.

The next 15.7km will decide the race.

The climb is split into two distinct parts: 8km of remorseless 8-10 percent gradient through woods before a slightly shallower top half.

This iconic upper stretch of “moonscape” is prone to being blasted by wind and baked by sun. The bald summit tortures riders with a view of the weather station far before they reach the 1,900-meter peak.

“It’s definitely a very iconic climb. The steepest part is in the forest,” Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney said last week before the Tour.

“I don’t believe anyone will be waiting until the final Ks to make the actual decisive move. I think, even watching the guys race, we can expect a hard start and then survival to the top.”

Niewiadoma-Phinney said she expects the Strava QOM to be crushed Friday.

1:09:29, set by Illi Gardner in May 2025, is the mark to beat.

Having ridden Ventoux from Bédoin a half-dozen times myself, I can attest – it’s disgusting.

The surface is slow and weather-beaten.

There are barely any tight bends to break the rhythm.

Only a tiny plateau at the symbolic mid-way point of Chalet Reynard offers a few seconds of relief.

The climb that will decide the race

Mont Ventoux doesn’t have the 25 percent gradients of the Angliru or the hype-worthy gravel of Finestre. The Géant stands apart from other queenmaker climbs of women’s racing for its blunt brutality.

The notorious climb has loomed over the Tour de France Femmes since the route was announced, and rightly so.

The stage 7 summit finish will decide the race.

The gaps at the top will be multiple times greater than those the peloton might see on stages 8 or 9 this weekend. Not even Sunday’s multi-mountain finale in Nice will be as decisive.

The race for yellow has boiled down to three riders after Thursday’s 6th stage across the Ardèche.

Marlen Reusser leads Demi Vollering by 12 seconds. Niewiadoma-Phinney is a further 1:15 back in third overall.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s title defense unraveled Tuesday and Wednesday. Now at 5:00 from the maillot jaune, not even a climbing rout as devastating as her assault on the Madeleine in 2025 will save the Frenchwoman’s GC dream.

Vollering favorite to become Queen of Ventoux?

Fireworks can be expected to light up the bald Géant on Friday afternoon.

Vollering needs to gap Reusser on the hors categorie horror. The Dutchwoman can’t let her yellow jersey hopes rest on the repeat climbs of Col d’Eze on Sunday’s final stage.

Judging by Reusser’s form so far at this race, she’ll be hard to drop Sunday on the shorter climbs on the Côte d’Azur.

Reusser is historically the “weakest” climber of the three favorites for Friday’s stage. But if any climb is going to suit this TT powerhouse, it’s the painfully consistent ascent of Mont Ventoux.

And Niewiadoma-Phinney?

She’s got a lot of ground to make up on the two leaders. Brace for a trademark swashbuckling attack from the purest climber of the GC big-3.

Vollering will start the day as the favorite for the final yellow jersey – and she looks well placed to take it on Ventoux. The FDJ-Suez superstar put 56 seconds into Reusser on the 17km Colle Dell Finestre at the Giro Women in June and is racing supreme this week in France.

However, Vollering said after her stage 5 win on Wednesday that she isn’t counting anything out.

“I already won a Tour, Kasia as well. Marlen is the one who never won a Tour yet, so she has to work for it as well,” she said. “I’m sure it will be a hard battle.

“Marlen is very strong and not a rider you can beat easily. I will try everything,” she said.

It’s hard to forecast who will take victory on Ventoux.

But what’s certain is that you gotta be sure to tune in and watch it.