Key events
63km to go: The town of Richelieu, of course, was made famous by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642). Have we got anything appropriate in the Guardian online archive? Well, sort of:
64km to go: Happily for those 26 riders, they have managed to get back together with the peloton.
65km to go: There are 26 riders off the back. Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) is the best placed on GC, 33sec down.
66km to go: The break still has 1min 30 sec, but there is also a big split in the peloton, so the crosswind seems to have appeared right on schedule. This split could prove very costly for some of the GC contenders.
68km to go: The peloton speeds through the town of Richelieu. Crosswinds are expected along the route, after a tailwind earlier in the day, so nervousness seems to have increased in the bunch again.
71km to go: Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels Cycling Team), Franziska Koch (Picnic PostNL) and Tota Magalhães (Movistar Team) are the riders in the break. They now have 1min 36sec on the peloton, that contains 142 riders.
By the way, Rebecca Koerner of Uno-X Mobility was the latest rider to abandon, before today’s stage. That makes nine withdrawals in total.
75km to go: The three-rider break now has 1min 20sec. All calm again back in the bunch.
79km to go: Rijnbeek’s lead has crept up again to 47sec and she is about to be joined by Koch and Magalhães. So we do have a three-rider breakaway after all.
Koch is a mere 2min 25sec down in GC, so you would have thought the favourites’ teams would have been happier with the previous three attackers.
80.5km to go: Now Le Mouel is caught. The gap to Rijnbeek has fallen to 35sec.
If the three escapees had been able to join forces, it would have given them a chance of staying away, perhaps until closer to the end of the stage.
Now, it seems like the peloton has slowed yet again. Koch and Tota Magalhães (Movistar Team) have counterattacked and they are trying to bridge to our lone leader.
81km to go: Le Mouel is still out front, between the peloton and Rijnbeek, but Roussel has been swept up by the peloton now.
82km: Although it seems the peloton has suddenly decided this gap needs to be reduced. There is an injection of pace at the front of the bunch and Rijnbeek’s advantage suddenly plunges to 46sec.
83km to go: Maud Rijnbeek has 1min 16sec on the peloton. This is a strong ride.
85km to go: “This Tour de France Femmes is getting bigger every year,” says Iris Slappendel on the TNT Sports motorbike, of the amount of fans that are lining the roads.
88km to go: The average speed has dropped a touch to 48.8km/h, perhaps as the peloton relaxes with a few riders who are no threat on GC having escaped.
Le Mouel is 6min 48sec down on Vos in GC, and Roussel is a whopping 26min 41sec behind.
90km to go: Elyne Roussel (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) is also chasing.
Rijnbeek has 1min 15sec on the peloton, then it’s Celia Le Mouel (25sec behind Rijnbeek), then Roussel (49sec behind).
92km to go: Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels Cycling Team) has managed to escape off the front. She is 44sec ahead of the peloton and 22sec ahead of one pursuer, Celia Le Mouel of Ceratizit Pro Cycling.
Rijnbeek is 12min 54sec down on GC so no threat there.
96km to go: Franziska Koch (Picnic–PostNL) has repeatedly been trying to get away off the front of the peloton. But has been shut down at every turn. She is sixth in the points classification, with 45pts, and perhaps fancies she can force her way into contention for the green jersey.
Attacks have been rife since the start, with Franziska Koch in particular trying several times to get away on her own. 💨
Les attaques fusent depuis le départ, avec notamment Franziska Koch qui a essayé de plusieurs fois de partir seule. 💥#TDFF2025 l #WatchTheFemmes l… pic.twitter.com/mkwAulS39L
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 29, 2025
98km to go: The kilometres are ticking by quickly. It’s an average speed of 48.9km/h, a fast and furious day so far.
On TNT Sports, Matt Stephens asks Marianne Vos: does today’s stage finish suit her? “It’s the Tour de France, so it’s going to be tough and hectic.
“It’s a nice finish, a little rise before we enter the line. It will be fast, it looks like a possible bunch sprint, but you never know what happens during the day.”
Does she feel the extra stress of the Tour? “Obviously there’s a bit of tension. It’s quite nervous in the bunch, especially in the final. Everybody wants to go for it, and I guess today will be the same.”
“I feel good. Happy to be in green,” says Lorena Wiebes, winner of yesterday’s stage. “I’m happy to try again today.”
“It will be the last sprint stage of the Tour, so hopefully I can make it a nice one.”
104km to go: Peloton still together.
“I’m happy because I’m quite OK,” says Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) after yesterday’s crash. “It could be so much worse. Today and I can start, so we’ll see during the stage.
“Yesterday the whole peloton was really stressed … it was a really fast stage and in the final it was really technical … it’s a lot of stress, everyone wants to win one stage, and every GC team wants to stay in the front, so it was quite dangerous.”
“I really trust my teammates for the lead-out, it’s going to be good.”
“My sleep was good. I feel OK,” Vollering said before today’s stage after yesterday’s crash. “It was a hard impact … but the team did some good examinations, and it looks like I don’t have a concussion.
“When I was on the ground, I had some throwback of last year, but luckily this time I didn’t lose time. My team was there with me and I’m really grateful for that.”
110km to go: There are lots of attacks, lots of riders looking to get in the break. But they’ve all been shut down.
115km to go: The peloton, 145 in number, is all together.
The day’s intermediate sprint, at Soudun, comes with 44km to race.
We’ll see plenty of action there, no doubt, and the category-four climb of the Côte de Marigny comes with 29.1km remaining.
The climb is just 0.9km long with an average gradient of 5.4%.
Stage 4 has begun
We’re racing on stage four. Live pictures yet to materialise, but it won’t be long …
Here’s a picture of stage three, featuring a classically beaten-up Citroën 2CV, while we’re waiting.
Points classification: top five before stage four
1) Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) 130pts
2) Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) 112pts
3) Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) 55pts
4) Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) 53pts
5) Katarzyna Niewiadoma Phinney (Canyon/SRAM) 47pts
General classification: top 10 before stage 4
1) Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) 8hr 19min 6sec
2) Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) +6sec
3) Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) +12sec
4) Katarzyna Niewiadoma Phinney (Canyon/SRAM) +16sec
5) Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) +16sec
6) Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) +19sec
7) Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) +21sec
8) Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) +21sec
9) Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +25sec
10) Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) +25sec
Jeremy Whittle has also written about Dave Brailsford, Ineos/Sky and the questions that continue to hang over the troubled team:
“It’s unfortunate,” the UAE Team ADQ director, Cherie Pridham, tells the reporter Matt Stephens of Elisa Longo Borghini’s withdrawal. “She battled through, of course. But riders’ health is more important than the competition … At the end of the day we’ve had a really good season. We came in very bold, hopeful for stages here, and that doesn’t stop.
“We have aspirations to continue to fight, and we will do that. Elisa will be back, we all know what she’s like, and we wish her well in her recovery. We start today with ambitions.”
“Elisa Longo Borghini has stomach issues,” says TNT Sports pundit Dani Rowe of the UAE Team ADQ rider who has abandoned this morning. “Also, a few other teammates have been struggling with sickness overnight.
“The worry is if it’s going to spread to the rest of the team … they’ll do all they can to isolate the riders if they’re not feeling great.”
Jeremy Whittle’s stage three report is here:
Preamble
Demi Vollering of FDJ-Suez will start today’s stage 4 despite a heavy crash on the approach to Angers yesterday. The 2023 Tour de France Femmes champion thus avoids the fate of several other high-profile riders in the first three stages: Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) are among eight riders in the peloton who have abandoned already.
“It’s not normal, the attitude of many teams and many riders. They’re disrespectful. We lose the respect in the last years in men’s and women’s cycling,” said Vollering’s team manager, Stephen Delcourt, after yesterday’s accident. The highly decorated Dutch rider will doubtless be riding through a lot of pain after a heavy impact on her back, knee and glutes yesterday.
The irrepressible Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike), meanwhile, retook the GC lead after yesterday’s stage, won by Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-ProTime). Vos is a mere 6sec ahead second-placed of Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) and 12 sec in front of her own Visma teammate, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, in third place overall. Those narrow gaps will mean plenty of nervousness among the GC teams with the potential for surprise attacks, especially if the wind blows.
Stage four, a 131km trip from Saumur to Poitiers, should be one for the sprinters but the presence of the category-four climb of Côte de Marigny might tempt a few potential escape artists to give it a go. That summit of that solitary categorised climb comes after 101.6km of racing – but the chances are we see a race well controlled by sprinters’ and GC teams alike.
Stage start: 1.45pm UK time / 2.45pm local time
