The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had the Col du Tourmalet, Alpe d\u2019Huez, and the Col du Madeleine.<\/p>\n
And now for the first time ever, it\u2019s got the brutal Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the hardest climb in the history of the Femmes, and it\u2019s poised to blow the race apart on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mont Ventoux is emblematic,\u201d race director Marion Rousse said\u00a0on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not many more beautiful mountains. I think we\u2019ll really write history in women\u2019s cycling there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rousse wasn\u2019t overselling it.<\/p>\n
The so-called G\u00e9ant of Provence<\/em> is perhaps the most feared climb of European road cycling.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a mysterious singular mountain that stands separate from a \u201crange.\u201d The hulking white mound can be seen rising from the horizon for miles.<\/p>\n On Friday\u2019s 7th stage, the Tour de France Femmes will grind to the iconic Ventoux weather station from B\u00e9doin, the hardest of the three possible approaches.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The peloton will arrive at the base of Mont Ventoux on Friday after a 130km warm-up of gently rolling hills.<\/p>\n The next 15.7km will decide the race.<\/p>\n The climb is split into two distinct parts: 8km of remorseless 8-10 percent gradient through woods before a slightly<\/em> shallower top half.<\/p>\n This iconic upper stretch of \u201cmoonscape\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a very iconic climb. The steepest part is in the forest,\u201d Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney said last week before the Tour.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Niewiadoma-Phinney said she expects the Strava QOM to be crushed Friday.<\/p>\n 1:09:29, set by Illi Gardner in May 2025, is the mark to beat.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Having ridden Ventoux from B\u00e9doin a half-dozen times myself, I can attest \u2013 it\u2019s disgusting.<\/p>\n The surface is slow and weather-beaten.<\/p>\n There are barely any tight bends to break the rhythm.<\/p>\n Only a tiny plateau at the symbolic mid-way point of Chalet Reynard offers a few seconds of relief.<\/p>\n Mont Ventoux doesn\u2019t have the 25 percent gradients of the Angliru or the hype-worthy gravel of Finestre. The G\u00e9ant<\/em> stands apart from other queenmaker climbs of women\u2019s racing for its blunt brutality.<\/p>\n The notorious climb has loomed over the Tour de France Femmes since the route was announced, and rightly so.<\/p>\n The stage 7 summit finish will decide the race.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s multi-mountain finale in Nice will be as decisive.<\/p>\n The race for yellow has boiled down to three riders after Thursday\u2019s 6th stage across the Ard\u00e8che.<\/p>\n Marlen Reusser leads Demi Vollering by 12 seconds. Niewiadoma-Phinney is a further 1:15 back in third overall.<\/p>\n Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s title defense unraveled Tuesday and Wednesday. Now at 5:00 from the maillot jaune<\/em>, not even a climbing rout as devastating as her assault on the Madeleine in 2025 will save the Frenchwoman\u2019s GC dream.<\/p>\n Fireworks can be expected to light up the bald G\u00e9ant<\/em> on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n Vollering needs to gap Reusser on the hors categorie<\/em> horror. The Dutchwoman can\u2019t let her yellow jersey hopes rest on the repeat climbs of Col d\u2019Eze on Sunday\u2019s final stage.<\/p>\n Judging by Reusser\u2019s form so far at this race, she\u2019ll be hard to drop Sunday on the shorter climbs on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur.<\/p>\n Reusser is historically the \u201cweakest\u201d climber of the three favorites for Friday\u2019s stage. But if any climb is going to suit this TT powerhouse, it\u2019s the painfully consistent ascent of Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n And Niewiadoma-Phinney?<\/p>\n She\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Vollering will start the day as the favorite for the final yellow jersey \u2013 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.<\/p>\n However, Vollering said after her stage 5 win on Wednesday that she isn\u2019t counting anything out.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m sure it will be a hard battle.<\/p>\n \u201cMarlen is very strong and not a rider you can beat easily. I will try everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to forecast who will take victory on Ventoux.<\/p>\n But what\u2019s certain is that you gotta be sure to tune in and watch it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/mont-ventoux-is-poised-to-blow-apart-the-tour-de-france-femmes\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2225533477.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 6, 2026 10:05AM The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had the Col du Tourmalet, Alpe d\u2019Huez, and the Col du Madeleine. And now for the first time ever, it\u2019s got the brutal Mont Ventoux. It\u2019s the hardest climb in the history of the Femmes, and it\u2019s poised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2083971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2083971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Mont Ventoux: The hardest climb of the Tour de France Femmes<\/h2>\n
![\"Stage](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1ca54.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ventoux-femmes-e1786000519730.jpeg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
The climb that will decide the race<\/h2>\n
![\"Vollering,](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_5534-1200x800.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Vollering favorite to become Queen of Ventoux?<\/h2>\n