Racing
Tour de France Femmes Daily | Stage 8 | Cédrine Kerbaol climbs into top five on GC
Huge pull from teammate Magdeleine Vallieres leads Cédrine to sixth place on Tour’s queen stage
August 2, 2025
Cédrine Kerbaol raced into the top five on GC at the Tour de France Femmes thanks to a huge pull from her teammate Magdeleine Vallieres on the Col de la Madeleine.
Cédrine crossed the finish line at the summit of the iconic Alpine col in sixth place and is now fifth overall in the race for the yellow jersey, less than a minute back from the podium with one stage left to race.
Tomorrow, Cédrine will give everything to honor her teammates’ efforts. They did a tremendous job for her today.
Magdeleine Vallieres’s role in the stage was especially decisive for Cédrine.
Mags broke away on the first climb of the day, the 13.3-km Col de Plainpalais, soon after the start in Chambéry. With 111.9 kilometers of Alpine racing in front of her before the summit finish on the Col de la Madeleine, she did just enough in the 15-woman break to keep the group rolling, while saving her strength to help Cédrine on the final ascent.
Back in the peloton, Henrietta Christie, Noemi Rüegg, and Letizia Borghesi dug deep to get over the first mountain so they could help Cédrine stay out of the wind and ahead of splits on the rolling roads down in the valley. They made it and escorted Cédrine all the way to the base of the Col de la Madeleine, where the race for the general classification kicked off.
As riders ahead of her in the overall ranking faded, Cédrine hung tough, grinding her way up the legendary 18.9-km col. She had a difficult moment on the steepest slopes and almost found herself alone.
Then Mags appeared. The Québécoise climber forced her way far up the climb, so she could help Cédrine as late in the race as possible. When she heard that Cédrine was in trouble, she dropped back and then did a huge turn to bring Cédrine back to the group in front of her.
Cédrine found her a rhythm and rode with that group all the way to the top. She keeps rising in the GC rankings. How high can she climb tomorrow on the Tour de France Femmes final stage, from Praz-sur-Arly over the Col du Joux-Plane and Col du Corbier to Châtel Les Portes du Soleil?
Read our riders’ thoughts from the finish of stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes.
Cédrine Kerbaol
The team was amazing. We had a plan. It didn’t work, but Mags went in front, so she could help me on the flatter section on the climb and thanks to her we could come back to the other girls. She was amazing. It was so crazy. The climb was like a TT, so I liked it.
Magdeleine Vallieres
I knew not to work too much, so I made sure not to do too many pulls, because I wanted to be sure I could help in the finale. I also knew I had to do a little bit so that the group would keep working a bit. It worked out perfectly, so that I could be with Cédrine on the climb at the end. I was really glad that I could help her. I could hear that they were coming and I was like, “Oh, my legs, I don’t know if I can really help,” so then I slowed down so I could recover and do one last effort to help get get back to the group. And then I just died.