The 2025 cycling season was packed with highlights. To end the calendar year on a positive note, several editors from WielerFlits and RIDE Magazine share their personal highlights from the past season. What did they experience themselves? Which moment was special because they were working on site? Today, the story of reporter Julian Dubbeld.
For me, the past cycling year will forever be remembered as the year I got to ‘debut’ as a reporter at the Tour de France Femmes. After more than a year on the couch due to burnout, my trip to France was a confirmation that I’m back ‘on the road’. But that’s not the only reason the Tour de France Femmes was special to me.
Thanks in part to the Tour, 2025 was the year I truly became convinced of the strength of women’s cycling. The individual stories, accessibility, and emotions make women’s cycling pure and authentic.
Fans are also beginning to recognize that beauty more and more: once again, millions more people watched the women’s Tour than a year earlier, while in France during the Tour de France Femmes there were moments of frenzy after Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour victory. Some even told me that in terms of crowds at the départ villages and the ville d'arrivées the women’s Tour is not much behind the men’s Tour.
I believe it immediately: at the FDJ-Suez and Visma | Lease a Bike team buses, hundreds of people lined up every day, while in Guéret I saw tens of thousands of French people setting off fireworks after Kim Le Court won a stage and reclaimed the yellow jersey.
2024: Le Grand Départ in Rotterdam
Several moments in women’s cycling touched me deeply last year, but to be complete I first have to go back to August 12, 2024, when the riders were introduced at Museumpark in Rotterdam during the Grand Départ. Secretly, it was my dream to experience that Tour start as a reporter (in my own region), but at the time of the Tour start I could only manage two or three hours a day at most due to my burnout. Barely. But I had to be there for the Tour start. Even if it meant going as a fan, and so I stood there.
The tears of Demi Vollering I saw there will stay with me forever. People will probably call her a crybaby or fake, but for me the tears hit home. Those tears contained all the battles women’s cycling has had to fight over the past decades, but also the pride in how far women’s cycling has come. And above all: they were real. With every tear, more young girls were inspired.
And with every tear, Vollering became even more the star of women’s cycling. She is, I would even dare say, the first superstar of women’s cycling. It’s no coincidence that Nike and Polestar entered partnerships last winter with the Dutch rider from FDJ-Suez. Vollering embodies the story of women’s cycling and, together with her partner Jan, knows how to commercialize that story. In that way, Vollering is a guide for the women’s sport of the future.
🥲 | Demi Vollering becomes emotional during the team presentation at the Tour de France Femmes: "I grew up as a farmer’s girl. Today we go through the Westland. I’m very proud to represent the people there who work so hard." #tdff2024 pic.twitter.com/ZFzsboEtRy
— Rijnmond Sport (@RijnmondSport) August 12, 2024
2025: Reusser in the Giro, Gigante in the Tour
In the shadow of Vollering lie the most beautiful stories just waiting to be discovered in women’s racing, if you look closely enough. If 2024 was Vollering’s year for me, then 2025 was the year of Marlen Reusser and Sarah Gigante. Reusser in the Giro d'Italia, Gigante in the Tour de France.
In September 2024, no one would have dared place a bet on Reusser when she tearfully spoke the following words on Swiss national TV: “Im moment bin ich chronisch krank”, referring to the long COVID that had sidelined her for months by that point.
That she was able to win the Trofeo Palma Femenina just 3.5 months later caused a lot of surprise on all sides. The win in Mallorca was only the beginning for the Swiss rider, who would later emerge as Vollering’s main competitor for the Tour de France Femmes. However, due to food poisoning, she had to abandon during the opening stage.
I spoke with Reusser twice in 2025. The first time was online via Google Meet in February, the second time before the Tour de France Femmes. But my cycling moment does not come from either of these interviews. It comes from stage eight of the Giro Women, when Reusser lost the leader’s jersey on Monte Nerone to Elisa Longo Borghini. The Swiss rider was inconsolable afterwards, but then received support from an unexpected source: Antonia Niedermaier.
The images of the two spread worldwide afterwards – Reusser’s Instagram post addressed to Niedermaier was heartwarming.
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To go back finally to the Tour de France Femmes; there, Gigante embodied the strength of women’s cycling. How she made millions of people empathize with her within one week is something I have never experienced before. By extensively speaking with every individual media outlet with a big smile, she conquered many hearts in many countries. I myself spoke with Gigante for almost half an hour (!) during the twelve days I was in France. Unprecedented, for someone trying to win the Tour de France Femmes.
After her collapse in the final stage to Châtel, the Australian also showed vulnerability. Gigante stared ahead crying for minutes. While thousands of French fans were celebrating Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s overall victory, it was eerily quiet around the Australian. Goosebumps, I got. Some colleagues were even watching Gigante with tears in their eyes.
Maybe it was also partly because Gigante had spoken to those colleagues so cheerfully in the days before. In retrospect, for me it’s the moment of the Tour, and maybe of the whole cycling year. Few female athletes have conveyed their emotions so profoundly.
Sarah Gigante completely in shock and crying after losing her podium spot in the Tour de France Femmes. Even journalists were crying. pic.twitter.com/9Qj2zdEXW7
— Julian Dubbeld (@Julian_Dubbeld) August 3, 2025
For me, 2025 was the year that women’s sports are celebrated even more with all their beautiful stories. Ideally, I would have written stories about every rider who started the Tour de France Femmes, but a person only has two hands. So next year, I’ll give it another try. Hopefully, many more wonderful stories will be told in 2026!
- Julian Dubbeld, reporter WielerFlits
photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
