In his Dictionnaire des idées reçues, an unfinished dictionary book, French writer Gustave Flaubert described Bretons as ‘braves gens, mais entêtés‘ – brave but stubborn people. While the short book lampooned clichés endemic to French society under the Second French Empire, Flaubert’s observations can still somewhat be applied to professional cyclists who hail from the Brittany region. Maeva Squiban, the most recent winner in the 2025 edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, embodies these characteristics to perfection.
The rider from Brest made her attack in the closing kilometres during the toughest stage of this race so far, and the move was a product of both her and her team’s pure, unwavering determination. This race has not granted UAE Team ADQ any favours – in fact, it has thrown challenge after challenge at the Emirati squad. They lost their leader and pre-race favourite, Elisa Longo Borghini, to illness in the early stages of the race, then subsequently said goodbye to two more riders in Eleonora Gasparrini and Karlijn Swinkels as a virus swept through the team. Holding on to motivation with just four riders taking to the start line has not been easy.
“We’ve been hit by injury and illness. We started this morning with four riders, but four mighty riders. We believed in them one hundred percent. We came here for the stages, and we knew that if we found the right moment, we had a nice little plan and I’m delighted for the whole team. We never lose hope,” UAE Team ADQ sports director Cherie Pridham commented a few moments after Squiban took her solo stage victory in Ambert, her eyes glassy with emotion. The British woman’s voice was hoarse from shouting into the race radio for the last hour, encouraging her team’s young French superstar to victory.
“With four riders, we had to be smart. We wanted to make sure that we were in the breakaway to cover the move either by satellites or by opportunity. We told Maeva this morning, if you find an opportunity, you attack. She did that. She took the chance for and to win with such a margin and such a fight, being French here in the Tour de France, it’s incredible. She’s a little powerful climber, she just knows how to ride the climbs. She’s very intelligent,” Pridham continued.
Squiban’s teammate, Dominika Włodarczyk, who finished fifth on the stage from the group of general classification favourites, said that keeping morale high within…