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Tour de France Femmes Daily | Stage 9 | Cédrine Kerbaol pushes right to the end to finish 8th overall

Our team is proud of the way we rallied together at this Tour de France Femmes

August 3, 2025

From the winds of Brittany to the fierce mountains of the Alps, we raced our hearts out over the nine stages of the Tour de France Femmes.

Along the way, we’ve experienced it all: the overwhelming support of the fans in Cédrine’s home region, the tough moments when things didn’t work out, teammates giving everything for one another with an unwavering commitment to push just a little more.

Cédrine’s descending masterclass on stage 7 riveted us. Magdeleine’s climbing abilities hint at big things to come. Alison, Noemi, Letizia, and Henrietta turned themselves inside out, taking pulls on the front of the peloton and leading out Cédrine in key moments to ensure she was well positioned. Losing Kristen on stage 5 was hard but her contributions early in the race encouraged us right to the end.

Seeing the next generations of cyclists lining the road to cheer us on day after day brought us more motivation than you can imagine. We appreciate everyone who came out to support us. It means the world to us to see our sport grow. Thank you.

Hear from each of our riders about their experiences at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes.

Cédrine Kerbaol

I don't love corners with paint, but I still love cycling. We were all very disappointed not to be in the game and able to play for the stage as well as the GC. For sure, the crash was unexpected and made me lose my dream of getting on the podium tonight. Both Mags and I needed a hug at the finish. Mags did everything possible to try to bring me back on the climb. She gave everything and I'm super grateful for that.

I spent the last two hours of the race just trying to chase as much as possible to secure top 10. Of course, that was not ideal, but we tried to fight till the end.

I think we realized a lot of good things during this Tour. I have a wonderful team by my side. I think that in coming years we can do something special.

Day by day, I felt my legs improving and my confidence as well, the confidence that my teammates put in me. Yesterday, I would not say I surprised myself, but I realized I could stay with the best in the world on the climbs. Today, I was determined to try to win. It didn’t happen as we planned.

I'm very determined to come back stronger.

Big thanks to all of the public, because you gave us goosebumps sometimes. I'm really happy to see that women's cycling is developing and so many people are interested in watching us.

Magdeleine Vallieres

 I think we can be super happy with our Tour de France. We didn't finish on the note we wanted, but I think we really need to remember how we rode every day. We had some really good moments with the team. Every day we did really good work. I think we can really be proud of ourselves with everything we did this week.

Alison Jackson

 Everyone prepped so hard for this, which makes it the hardest race because every competitor is so on it. For me, honestly, I'm really proud of how I rode it. I was super sharp when I had to be, and then saved the other days just to be able to do some leadouts and make it to the end. I am really proud of my role. I am really happy riding with this team and doing it all together. It's a hard thing. The staff, the people that make it happen, that made it so easy for us every day, and the fans gave us so much energy. It’s great to be a bike racer.

Noemi Rüegg

My role was basically to support Cédrine for the GC and to do the best I could to be in the finales with her, trying the first few days to not lose any time. Then, the last few days I was trying to support her into the climbs and stay in the game for as long as possible. I had a lot of fun doing that, except for today, to be honest, because we crashed in a very crucial moment and I felt very bad. But, I think overall we can look back on this week with a great smile. We did everything we could. We really committed as a team to our plan and to doing the best we could, and I think that's something we can be really proud of.

As a team, we learned a lot this week, just to how to ride together and how to support each other through the highs and lows. I think that's something I will take with me. It made us stronger even though we didn't have the outcome we wanted. I think next year we will be even stronger.

Letizia Borghesi

The highlight of the week for me was yesterday’s stage, because we worked really well as a team and Cédrine had a really good performance. The team was really happy and we were really confident.

From the beginning of this Tour, the clear goal was the GC. We put a lot of commitment towards that from the first stage to the last one. We really worked well together and tried to help each other, above all during the hard moments. It was not easy. After my crash on stage three, I had to fight a lot and struggle a lot for a couple of days. I'm happy that I finished better and could help the team.

Henrietta Christie

I think the way we believed in each other this week has been something you could only really have dreamed of. Coming into this team, I was like, “Oh, I heard it was really good,” but I didn't expect it to be this good. Cédrine is one of the nicest people I know and she's someone I would work for again and again and again, because she's so wholesome and she lifts everyone up, no matter who it is.

She lifts us up and she goes, “I believe we can do it.” And then you go to the bike race and even if you have no legs, she's like, “We can do it.” And somehow we do it, so it's great fun.

We came to this Tour with a GC ambition and yesterday we were on the cusp of realizing that ambition and Cédrine was like, “No, we can do more.”

I think that made us realize that we can compete for podiums and we are strong enough for this. What we've learned from this week is that we're not really the underdogs anymore. We can race to win, which is something really special.

Carmen Small, sports director

 I think we have to take all the good from today, because today was not what we had planned. That is bike racing. Everything can happen and teams go through the ups and downs of a stage race and sometimes it works out. We win as a team and we lose as a team. And unfortunately today we lost as a team. But we did great teamwork going into the race today. All week, our riders have just been super supportive of each other, sacrificing everything every day for each other and always pushing in the same direction. So, I have to say it was really good race. We saw a lot of good things. It's a new team. We have to remember that we don’t have years and years all together. So, it's a process. We are making steps every race. We will get there.

I really liked the fact that every morning I came down to see the girls and everyone was smiling, ready to go. That encouraged me to be positive. They have such a great attitude. We have a really good group here.

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