Date: Thursday, July 31
Distance: 124km
Start location: Clermont-Ferrand
Finish location: Ambert
Start time: 14:00 CEST
Finish time: 17:33 CEST (approx.)
Stage six of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift takes riders from the volcanic heart of France in Clermont-Ferrand toward Ambert across 124km through the Massif Central — a region famed for its rugged landscapes and rich volcanic heritage. Clermont-Ferrand itself is built from dark volcanic stone. Since 2018, the city has been listed as a "tectonic hotspot" on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Despite its location on the Limagne plain, it’s surrounded by hills and is dominated by the ancient Puy de Dôme volcano, not only a famous Tour climb but also a major scientific and cultural landmark that once hosted meteorological experiments and still draws visitors for its panoramic tramway ride. The Auvergne area is a famous area for cheeses, including Saint-Nectaire, Cantal and Bleu d'Auvergne. As the race heads east towards Ambert, the local delicacy is Fourme d'Ambert, a soft blue cheese dating back to Roman times.
A rolling start to the stage with two categorised climbs makes way to a proper mountain finale, with the route’s three final categorised climbs concentrated in the final 44 km — starting with the Col du Béal (10.2km, 5.6%), followed by the Col du Chansert (6.3 km, 5.5%), and capped off by the Côte de Valcivières (4.5km, 5.3%). These back-to-back ascents will set up the stage for general classification contenders to test their legs. The finale features a long descent into Ambert’s historic centre, with narrow medieval streets lined by crowds ready to race for vital seconds.
The stage marks the Tour’s first true mountain day — riders will climb approximately 2,350m in total. The final climb will be summited with around 12km to go means a well-timed attack could succeed before the descent, or it could draw together a select, reduced bunch for a tactical sprint.
Contenders
The first medium mountain test of this Tour is a challenging one and as such only a strong climber will have a chance. Therefore, the biggest GC contenders will all fancy their chances. The profile of the stage also would favours a breakaway win but it would need to contain some of the best climbers to stay out in front.
Defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto) always performs well over this kind of terrain, as can last year's second-place finisher Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez).
The yellow and stage five winner Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) is in the form of her life and could make it two stage wins in the space of two days. She finished first from a select group to Guéret, including a Niewiadoma and Vollering, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and her teammate Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal).
Vollering's FDJ-Suez teammates Évita Muzic and Juliette Labous are also contenders as they will hope to survive long into the stage to be there for their leader. Another teammate Elise Chabbey will be looking to keep her lead in the QOM competition
Other contenders include the strong descenders Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education - Oatly) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck). Riders looking to get in a breakaway to claim the stage could include Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM-Zondacrypto), Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic-PostNL) stage two winner Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco).
Prediction
We think Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will use her descending skills and use the final descent into Ambert to claim the stage.
