The 2026 Tour de France Femmes begins Saturday in Lausanne, with defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot aiming to retain the yellow jersey. The race, which runs nine stages until 9 August in Nice, includes the first-ever ascent of Mont Ventoux in the women’s event.

Ferrand-Prévot, Olympic mountain-bike champion, dominated last year’s edition with a victory on the Col de la Madeleine and a final weekend that sealed the overall win. Marion Rousse, the race director, said Ferrand-Prévot “will be one of the great favourites for the general classification.” Her challengers include Dutch rider Demi Vollering, the 2023 winner who added the Giro d’Italia to her palmarès in June, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, the 2024 champion who has finished on the podium in every edition since the race’s relaunch.

UAE Team L’IMAD, backed by the wealthiest sponsor in women’s cycling, fields a dual leadership of Paula Blasi, winner of this year’s Vuelta Femenina, and two-time Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini. French contenders include Maëva Squiban, who won two stages last year, and Célia Géry, the under-23 world champion and reigning French road champion. Mexican rider Romina Hinojosa of Lotto-Intermarché Ladies becomes the first Mexican woman to contest the Tour, making her debut in the same week Isaac del Toro reached the podium in the men’s race.

The route covers 1,175 km across nine stages: three flat, three medium-mountain, two high-mountain and a 21 km individual time trial on stage four. The queen stage on 7 August features the Mont Ventoux climb, the highest point of the race, while the final stage in Nice includes four ascents of the Col d’Eze. The opening stage, a 138 km loop around Lausanne, includes three categorised climbs and an uphill finish at the Côte Saint-François. Vincent Lavenu, former long-time manager of the AG2R men’s team, returns to the Tour as head of the new women’s team Ma Petite Entreprise, which is entirely funded by small and medium-sized enterprises.