In three editions so far of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, no rider has won the race twice. First, there was Annemiek van Vleuten, then Demi Vollering, and this year, Kasia Niewiadoma, who clung to the yellow jersey by a thread on Alpe d’Huez.
Should Niewiadoma defend her title next summer, she’ll make history as the first woman to do so since the race’s reboot. It’s her “big goal”, she said, and after Tuesday’s route announcement, one for which she is now particularly excited.
Next year’s fourth edition of the race will be its toughest and longest yet. Now taking place over nine stages, up from eight, the course stretches across 1,165km, rising to a crescendo in the Alps, with the climbs of the Col de la Madeleine and the Col de la Joux Plane.
“It’s a goal to bring the yellow jersey home again,” said Niewiadoma. “My big goal is to become a woman who wins the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift twice in a row, and I’m in the best position right now to make that happen in 2025. The final general classification can unfold at any point but the final three stages will be decisive for the overall.”
For the 30-year-old’s Canyon-SRAM team, the desire to win again is the same.
“It’s something very special, something very unique,” team manager Ronny Lauke told Cycling Weekly. “To be honest, when you have experienced what this yellow jersey does to a team, and the attention it raises, the emotions all staff members go through, you want to have it again.
“It’s the biggest race, the biggest global brand in our sport. When you go away as a winner, you have the most prestigious colour on your shoulders. The yellow does something to the people involved in a team. Everybody would like to have it again. We are not shy of saying we aim for the highest and the best, so we’re going for this. I think we have a good group of talent that we can confidently say we want to win it again.”
Lauke’s first impressions of next year’s route are that it is “well balanced” and will “offer a very interesting bike race”.
“Kasia is very optimistic. She likes the route. So therefore I have confidence,” he said. “Now it’s up to us to do the necessary homework and identify the right group for this event, so we are competitive and an uncomfortable opponent, the most uncomfortable opponent that anyone can ask for.”
Niewiadoma’s winning margin this August was the narrowest in the race’s three-year history, just four seconds separating her and Vollering. The victory crowned the Polish rider’s biggest to date, coming after a long dry spell between 2019 and 2023.
“With the Gravel World Championships in 2023, she eventually won her rainbow jersey, which, in my opinion, she deserved a lot. That was a turning point for her that also helped her to approach the 2024 season in a different way,” Lauke said.
“Many doubts were erased that she carried within her, and she was more confident about herself, about what she can achieve. I got to know her when she was 24 years of age. Now, a few years later, I can say that she has definitely matured as a very mature woman, with a very mature approach to her goals.”
Between now and the end of winter, Niewiadoma and her Canyon-SRAM team-mates will rest, train on Zwift, and travel to team camps in December and January. Then the season will start, with the biggest mark on the calendar against the Tour de France Femmes, scheduled to begin on 26 July in Brittany.
“I think, overall, there’s a lot of curiosity around what a longer race will bring,” Lauke said. “I think it looks like it will offer some drama, some smiles, some tears, everything that a stage race can offer. We will try to be as prepared as best as possible, and the riders will enjoy it.”
