"To win like this, in yellow, on the final stage..." - Emotional Pauline Ferrand-Prévot completes dream return to the road at 2025 Tour de France Femmes

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot didn’t just win the 2025 Tour de France Femmes — she owned it. On the final stage to Châtel Les Portes du Soleil, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider lit up the race with a searing solo attack to seal the overall title and a second consecutive stage victory, ending France’s long wait for a home winner in yellow.

“I told my team manager this morning I wanted to win in yellow,” Ferrand-Prévot admitted in her post-stage interview with the assembled media at the finish line. “So I attacked on the final climb — and thankfully, I managed to hold on!”

It was the sort of statement performance the sport had long expected from the French superstar, and she delivered with panache.

After eight days of racing, the 33-year-old finally delivered the moment French cycling had been waiting for: a home winner of the Maillot Jaune at the Tour de France Femmes. And she didn’t just defend her lead — she did it in style, with a stage win to seal the general classification.

Ferrand-Prévot admitted that the pressure of wearing yellow took its toll earlier in the day. “At the start, I was too far back and got caught behind a split on a descent,” she said. “I think it was the pressure of the jersey. But once I made it back to the front, I knew I had to stay alert and ride smart.”

Her instincts served her well. When Demi Vollering accelerated with 7km to go, Ferrand-Prévot didn’t panic. As the pace settled, she launched a perfectly timed counterattack — the kind that doesn’t wait for approval from teammates or directors. It was a rider with total belief in herself, racing with freedom. “I’m so happy to have made this dream come true,” she said. “It’s hard to describe what it means to win like this, in yellow, on the final stage.”

In a career defined by world titles across disciplines — mountain bike, cyclocross, road — Ferrand-Prévot now has something she’s long chased: a defining victory on home soil, in the most iconic jersey of all. And she earned it the only way she knows how: by going on the attack.