Stage 8 | Bicycling's Tour de France Femmes Daily Coverage - video Dailymotion

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Bicycling recaps stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes 2025.

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00:00Hello, everyone. Bicycling here with Tour de France Femmes of X Zwift Stage 8 coverage.

00:05I'm Molly Herford. That's Bobby Lee. And okay, you know what? We promised there would be fireworks

00:11on the Queen's stage today and it delivered. Bobby, what was the point where you were just like,

00:18oh, this is now, this is big. This is a move. Yeah, you saw Pauline Farron-Prévaux hit out

00:26and there was just no one. It looked like she was just doing her own bike ride and no one,

00:33everyone else was powerless to respond. And when the terrain is so extreme and the hill,

00:37the climbing is so tough, it pulls team tactics out of the equation. And all you can, all the

00:43riders can do is just do their own, they can ride their own race. And so that was, everything was

00:50laid there and we saw today who had it. And the cycling fan in me likes, I really enjoy watching

01:00the tactical nuance. And so part of me watches a big climb like that, that pulls all the tactical

01:05nuance out of the equation and feels a little bit disappointing. But at the same time, we're

01:09watching phenomenal performances where either you can do it or you can't, right? And that's the thing

01:15about sport is on the day, are you good enough? Did you prepare? Did it work? And yes, here it did.

01:21For sure. Yeah. So we're talking about the Col de la Madelon and it's where the race finished.

01:26It's one of the most iconic Tour de France climbs. It's a like nearly 20 kilometer climb. It takes about

01:3250 minutes. It is a long drag race to the top. And actually I'm going to argue there were tactics,

01:40but like a week's worth of tactics that came into play there, right? Like Pauline Fran Prevost has been

01:45very tucked in. Like yes, on stage one, she had like one moment where she sprinted at the finish.

01:53Her teammate Vos ended, Mariana Vos ended up getting the win. Pauline was super happy. And then after

01:58that, you really just saw her tucked away, tucked back in the peloton, covering Demi Voller and covering

02:03Cassio Nui-Doma, just keeping an eye on what they were up to. So I think this was like

02:09the team's plan kind of all along was like, can we keep PFP safe so that she has the chance to go

02:16for it? And obviously then it comes down to just like brute power, but she also was so smart. She

02:23was covering Sarah Gigante, who was riding for Ageing Insurance Sudol. Kim LaCourte, her teammate,

02:29was in yellow. Kim gave Sarah a really great kind of lead into the climb, stayed with her as long as

02:34she could, and then gave Gigante her chance to go. And Sarah Gigante is one of the best climbers in

02:39the world. So, you know, PFP, you know, spotted that, went right on her wheel. And you could see

02:47though, right from the beginning of that, that attack, Sarah Gigante is going as hard as she can.

02:53She is grimacing. She is breathing hard. And then you look at Pauline's face and it looks like

02:57Pauline is nose breathing. Yeah. That's the part that I just have so much, so much trouble

03:03understanding when it's so hard for everyone. And then just watching an athlete who's, you know,

03:08clearly done the homework, done everything right, and just knocks it out of the freaking part on the

03:14biggest day of the tour. Yeah. And I mean, she had said in interviews that this was really

03:18less a year about winning the tour overall and more about setting up to win it maybe next year,

03:26maybe even the year after. But I think after today's performance, she's going to be up, you

03:30know, over two minutes in the GC. She's moving into the yellow jersey again, perfectly timed to

03:36move into the yellow jersey. While we like to see a bit more of a GC battle in the earlier days,

03:42just because it is more interesting in some, some respects, this race has been so tactically

03:47brilliant on the part of all of the GC contenders. And they were all thinking towards today.

03:52They were like, there's no chance that Demi Volleryn, Cassie Annui-Odoma, Paulina Roikers,

03:56they were all thinking today's the day to go. They just couldn't compete with PFP.

04:04Yeah. And you mentioned doing our homework and in mountain biking, it's typical for

04:08for riders to spend a lot of time learning every single line, every turn, every rock, every route.

04:13And in an interview prior to today's stage, PFP said she did the same thing on that, on that climb.

04:18She spent a lot, she didn't just go ride the climb to see it. She learned the turn, she learned the

04:23layout, she learned, internalized the entire climb. And that makes such a difference. Just knowing

04:29where it's steep, where it lets off, what the turns feel like, having that visual idea of knowing in

04:35your brain what's coming around it. That kind of attention to detail at this level of sport makes

04:41such a big difference. Definitely. And I would love to just be in the team buses of Demi Volleryn,

04:47because I'm so curious if they anticipated a move like this from PFP, if they considered

04:54her a true, is she going to come down to the last days with us? And whoops, if they didn't

05:01think she was, sorely, sorely mistaken. I'm so excited to see tomorrow. I think it's going

05:06to be real hard to take the jersey away from PFP at this point, but we still have a whole

05:12other stage of racing. We've got a couple big climbs coming, so anything could happen.

05:17Yeah. I mean, I think as with the men's tour, the more exciting battle is going to be lower down

05:24on the, for the lower podium spots. But yeah, an HD climb, a category one climb, not an easy drag

05:31into the finish. So if someone does make a mistake, if someone is feeling a little flat coming off of

05:37today's stage, something could change tomorrow. I don't see the top step changing, but we'll find

05:45out in 24 hours. Either way, it's going to be fireworks for sure. So make sure you tune back

05:49in. And of course, before that, catch up on all of the past stages, and we'll see you on the final stage.

Stage 8 | Bicycling's Tour de France Femmes Daily Coverage

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