The fifth edition of the Tour de France Femmes is over in what proved to be a nail-biting race that all came down to the very last stage to see Demi Vollering become the first multiple winner of the event since its inception.

It was, however, a close fought battle with the yellow jersey changing hands multiple times throughout the race.

As well as a close fought battle for yellow, the polka dot, green, and white jerseys were up for grabs too, and we were treated to some long range breakaways, thanks in no small part to Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset’s exploits for Uno-X Mobility on stage 3.

The green jersey was a more forgone conclusion, as Lorena Wiebes absolutely dominated the sprints with her usual display of force. Meanwhile, Puck Pieterse added to her young rider win in 2024 by taking home the mountains jersey.

Antonia Niedermaier took home the white jersey as the highest placed rider this year under 24 years of age, ahead of breakout star Paula Blasi.

Despite tensions within the squad, Blasi’s Team UAE L’Imad was the team classification winner, with Elisa Longo Borghini claiming third overall, Blasi 5th, and Dominika Wlodarczyk in 7th, although the UAE squad didn’t take home a single stage win.

In total, six riders took home stage honors across the nine days of racing. Those victories were spread out among just three bike brands, three wheel brands, three tyre brands, and two groupset brands.

Stage-by-stage breakdown: Who won with what?

Bike brands: Who came out on top?

Specialized was the absolute dominant force here, with two thirds of the stages won by its bikes. Of course, the brand sponsors three WorldTour teams, with each one taking at least one stage win, alongside other Pro Teams too. This meant each of these wins was a point for the all-rounder bikes too, as the S-Works Tarmac range – now up to SL9 – has been ‘one bike to rule them all’ since the SL7 launched and Specialized removed the aero-focused Venge from its line-up.

Canyon took home two stages thanks to two of its three sponsored teams; Canyon-SRAM and Movistar. Wins were spread across the Speedmax TT bike and Aeroad aero road bike, with the Ultimate climbing bike seldom being used.

Ridley was the only other brand to take home any spoils with the epic solo breakaway of Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset aboard the very aero focused Noah Fast 3.0 frame.

Every other bike brand in the race failed to win a single stage, or jersey for that matter.

Specialized riders took home yellow and green. Canyon left with polkadot and white. Colnago, the dominant brand in the men’s race, took home the Team Classification, but no individual wins or jerseys.

All-round takes the crown

While the men’s race was a win for the aero frames, the women’s race showed that the all-rounders were the main bike of choice for riders who won stages.

This is biased due to Specialized only having an all-rounder, while Canyon and Ridley both took home honors with full aero bikes. Indeed many teams with the choice of aero and lightweight still opted for aero frames, likely due to it being easier to make aero bikes closer to 6.8kg with the smaller sizes often used across the women’s field than men’s.

Time trial bikes took home one stage win at the TT, but interestingly some road bikes were used for this, or rather road frames converted into time trial bikes.

But the main story was all-rounders winning across hilly stages and sprint stages proving the versatility. Interestingly though the Queen Stage up Mont Ventoux was won aboard an aero bike.

Groupset wars: SRAM keeps the crown

SRAM was the leading groupset brand in the Tour de France Femmes, usurping Shimano from the top-spot, but it was close.

Shimano counted its wins from Demi Vollering and Kimberley Le Court-Pienaar, while SRAM saw wins across a broader spread of riders and teams.

Campagnolo was again notable by its absence, although a reinvigorated groupset line-up could see changes in the future, as the brand is still the only 2×13 speed option available.

Roval steals the show, Zipp and DT Swiss share the scraps

Specialized’s in-house wheel brand, Roval, took the top spot as the wheels are used by the three Specialized-sponsored teams who took home most of the spoils. Winning wheels were a mix of the Rapide CLX III and Sprint CLX wheels.

Zipp took home stage wins with Movistar in the time trial, and Canyon-SRAM on Mont Ventoux, showing some versatility across high speed aero demands and long climbing efforts.

DT Swiss was part of the epic solo breakaway on Stage 3 where aero was pretty much everything to help secure that amazing win.

Triumphant tyres, with a tubeless takeover

A theme has developed, where Specialized and the in-house wheels and tyres were present across all the brand’s bike wins. The latest Turbo Cotton tubeless tyres were used across the entirety of the riders using those bikes to take home most of the stage wins.

Continental remained present with Movistar and Uno-X Mobility using its GP5000 tyres to take home stage wins. Meanwhile Schwalbe muscled in there to get a win with Canyon-SRAM.

Pirelli and Vittoria were absent, despite the strong presence both brands held in the men’s event.

Inner tubes and glued-on tubular tyres have again been missing from the biggest races. Brands have tended towards tubeless across the board now thanks to lower weight and rolling resistance. Additionally, with more lightweight race tyres, tubeless affords micro-punctures to fix mid-ride with limited pressure loss.

Two-by, or not two-by

1x groupsets only took home a single win in this race, and that was just the time trial. Even then, many riders were still using 2x, due to the presence of some hillier sections in that stage. For the rest of the event, 2x was used by most riders.

Part of this may be due to 1x being particularly useful for races where the speeds are significantly higher often across flatter terrain. Looking at the men’s event with stages in excess of 45kph most days, those stages present a perfect opportunity for 1x gearing. Plus there were fewer ‘transitional stages’ in the women’s race so fewer truly flat affairs.

Instead, 2x and the versatility it offers was preferred for the majority of riders at the Tour de France Femmes. It doesn’t look like that is set to change any time soon with the great gear ranges, smaller jumps in gears, and superb shifting afforded across groupset brands.