Lidl-Trek wrapped up the 2025 edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Niamh Fisher-Black fourth on the final stage and fifth in the General Classification
We entered the Tour de France Femmes with a dual mission – target the sprint stages with Elisa Balsamo while throwing support behind Niamh Fisher-Black once hitting the mountains. With experienced riders like Lucinda Brand, Emma Norsgaard and Lauretta Hanson, we had strong cover across all terrain.
It’s safe to say that luck wasn’t on our side in the early stages in Brittany. Elisa Balsamo was well positioned on stage 2 inside the last km before getting boxed in and wasn’t able to launch her sprint. A crash on stage 3 in the last 4 km’s ruined any chance of a result into Poitiers while another crash early on stage 5 unfortunately put an end to her TDFF. It wasn’t just bad luck for Elisa either, a puncture for Fisher-Black in the final km’s of stage 6 saw her lose a large chunk of time in the GC.
Despite losing Elisa, the women rallied together and switched their focus to breakaway opportunities. 2022’s white jersey winner, Shirin Van Anrooij, knew stage 7’s profile had ‘breakaway going all the way’ written all over it. She made sure she was there and after a valiant effort, crossed the line in 4th place. This set the tone for the remaining 2 stages.
Stage 8 saw the riders face the iconic Col de la Madeleine. On paper, it was a day that suited our young climber and sitting 15th on GC meant there was a possibility she would be allowed get in the days breakaway. Niamh jumped on the first climb of the day and rode across to Riejanne Markus who helped get Niamh to the foot of la Madeleine with as big an advantage as possible ahead of the main GC group. Niamh settled into her rhythm and in the end, it was only the GC favourites of Ferrand-Prevot and Gigante that could better our climber who crossed the line in third.
The ninth and final stage into Châtel saw Niamh continue to climb with the best and arrived at the summit finish in fourth place and moving up to fifth in the overall General Classification. A breakthrough Grand Tour for our Kiwi climber!
Before the start of the race, I had some good ambitions. I wasn’t necessarily looking at the GC but I just wanted to see what I could do. Unfortunately we had some bad luck and didn’t all have the best of days this week but I really happy because two days ago I really didn’t think id finish the Tour de France Femmes in fifth on GC. It was all day on the pedals everyday and I really like when races are raced like this.