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Tour de France Femmes: Van Vleuten survives final stage to win inaugural race – as it happened

Annemiek van Vleuten survived multiple attacks and bike changes on stage eight to claim a historic Tour de France Femmes win

• 31 Jul 2022 Annemiek van Vleuten wins stage eight, and the 2022 Tour de France Femmes!
• 31 Jul 2022 Preamble

Thank you for reading our coverage of this year’s Tour de France Femmes , and thank you to all of you who got in touch via email or Twitter.

It was heartening to see the appetite for women’s cycling, both from fans out on the road and the many of you who have tuned in to read our live blogs, reports and more. It was a long wait for a proper multi-stage women’s Tour de France , 33 years, but this race looks well set to go from strength to strength.

Now, there is a football match of quite some significance happening at Wembley: join Sarah Rendell for minute-by-minute coverage of England v Germany in the Euro 2022 final right here:

Congratulations to all the riders who finished a gruelling race – and indeed congratulations to all of those who didn’t. Everyone played their part. It was a fantastic performance from Silvia Persico, third on today’s stage, and fifth in GC.

3rd place for Silvia Persico in #tdff last stage 😍 Second podium in this Grande Boucle, sixth top 10 in eight stages, fifth place in GC and best italian athlete of the peloton. So proud of you 😍😍😍😍😍 — Valcar - Travel & Service (@valcar_ts) July 31, 2022

Huge congratulations too to Vollering, Niewiadoma and Labous for finishing second, third and fourth respectively in GC. Vollering was pictured after today’s stage seemingly in tears – perhaps illustrating the sheer amount of effort she put in to try and reel in Van Vleuten today.

Jeremy Whittle reports:

The top five on stage 8:

1) Van Vleuten (Movistar) 3hr 37min 23sec 2) Vollering (SD Worx) +30secs 3) Persico (Valcar Travel & Service) +1min 43secs 4) Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM) +1min 52secs 5) Labous (Team DSM) +1min 56secs

The final top five in GC:

1) Van Vleuten (Movistar) 25hr 55min 44sec 2) Vollering (SD Worx) +3min 48secs 3) Niewiadoma (Canyon/SRAM) +6min 35secs 4) Labous (Team DSM) +7min 28secs 5) Persico (Valcar Travel & Service) +8min

Van Vleuten speaks: “That’s actually a dream that comes true. Winning in yellow on the top ... wow. And it was not an easy stage. It was not an easy week. It’s been a super-big rollercoaster for me, and even today it was not easy. To finish here, solo, it’s the best way.

“I’m super proud to be the first winner of the Tour de France for the women when it’s back on the calendar, in this new version ... wow, I hope it’s a big start, and we can build this event to a bigger event for the women ... I think it’s a milestone to win this first one.

“I think it now can all sink in, and I can finally enjoy it. Yesterday was an unbelievable day but I still wanted to keep the focus ... and now I can finally ... YES! ... go only ice cream and pizza tonight, and celebrate with this team ... tonight I can celebrate without thinking abouut tomorrow.”

The Tour de France Femmes official Twitter chips in with a Van Vleuten video:

🏆 💛 🏆 🇳🇱 @AvVleuten 👑 #TDFF #WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/g2bYeLdYRx — Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 31, 2022

The camera motorbike that was following Van Vleuten toppled over in the closing metres of the race. That may demonstrate how steep that final bit of the climb is.

Hopefully some reaction coming up from Van Vleuten, among others.

Movistar’s social media team, needless to say, have been busy preparing the victory graphic for Twitter:

💛🐐 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄. 🐐💛 @AvVleuten again #MiekItHappen with resounding success atop La Super Planche des Belles Filles as she wins @LeTourFemmes - our 8th Tour de France victory. Incredibly proud of the whole Movistar Team! 🥹🏆 #TDFF | #RodamosJuntos | @Telefonica pic.twitter.com/uFaPlzjk2L — Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) July 31, 2022

Van Vleuten had a massive lead in the GC after yesterday but that was far from a straightforward day. She had four or five bike changes after some mechanical problems and a puncture, and was attacked left, right and centre by rival teams who chose to try and test her rather than admit defeat in the overall race. At one point she had to take it on herself to chase back into contact with the peloton. But she got the job done, and had the strength to accelerate away on the final climb to seal a dominant stage win, and overall win.

Ludwig , who won stage three, makes it to the top. Garcia, who did so much to animate the race, is next to finish.

Persico and Niewiadoma are engaged in a huge battle for third place on the stage ... and Persico takes it!

Annemiek van Vleuten wins stage eight, and the 2022 Tour de France Femmes!

Her rivals simply had no answer. An outstanding al-round performance from the Dutchwoman. Vollering comes home second, and seals second in GC.

500m to go: The severity of the gradients on the upper slopes is quite hard to appreciate on the TV. Anyway, safe to say that the legs of every rider will be screaming in pain ...

Van Vleuten grinds her way up the final few hundred metres of the race!

1km to go: Vollering fights on behind. Niewiadoma powers on behind that. But we are not going to see any movement in the podium places.

1.5km to go: Utter dominance, again, from Van Vleuten. The gap between her and Vollering is now 32secs. She is rounding off this race in style.

She will be joining Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos in winning two stages of this eight-stage race.

The fans are packed along each side of the road, and they are urging Van Vleuten on to glory. It’s nailed on now.

3.3km to go: Vollering of SD Worx, sporting the polka-dot jersey, is doing everything she can to try and close the gap to the incredibly strong Van Vleuten of Movistar, but it seems of little use. In fact the gap grows to 25secs.

At this rate we are not going to see any change in the top three in the GC. Van Vleuten, Vollering and then Niewiadoma will be the order of the top three. Niewiadoma said before the race she was aiming for the podium, so it’s looking likely to be mission accomplished.

4km to go: Van Vleuten now has nearly 20secs on Vollering. Behind them, Niewiadoma is in a group with Labous, Ludwig, Longo Borghini and Persico, among others.

This is another dominant day from Van Vleuten, and she is climbing towards her second stage win of the race and the yellow jersey. It’s 33 years since the women’s peloton had a Tour de France , and Van Vleuten’s name is going to be on top of the standings this evening.

5km to go: Vollering now tries to bridge across to Van Vleuten. Van Vleuten gets out of the saddle and accelerates again ... she does have time to have a look back over her shoulder to see if anyone is in contact. Vollering has her rival in sight but the gap is growing.

5.5km to go: Scratch that. Garcia comes back, and over the top of Rooijakkers, and she is out front on her own ... but Van Vleuten pumps past her at the front! The yellow jersey, after a stressful day of bike changes and managing attacks from her rivals, leads the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes .

6km to go: Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon/SRAM) has attacked out of the breakaway. She puts in a damaging effort that creates a gap to the rest. Mavi Garcia gives chase, but is visibly struggling to find the power to get back.

6.5km to go: A video here via Le Tour data on Twitter that details the final climb –

The final ascent of the day, and in fact @LeTourFemmes , is La Super Planche des Belles Filles. It should be familiar from Stage 7 of @LeTour where @TamauPogi won in the #MaillotJaune 💛 Will it be victory for the Yellow Jersey today after the 7km, 8.7% climb? #TDFF #TDFFdata pic.twitter.com/LJVO51U0Yf — letourdata (@letourdata) July 31, 2022

8km to go: The breakaway powers towards the foot of the climb, but Trek-Segafredo are doing work to close the gap, and it’s fallen to 38secs.

The group behind consists of 13 riders, according to the live tracker, with Van Vleuten, Vollering, Labous and Longo Borghini all in there.

12km to go: We have less than 5km to race until the foot of the final climb, or at least the official starting point, as the road has already kicked up. Garcia and Brown exchange words at the head of the breakaway group, Brown taking it up at the front.

This final climb will be all about who has managed to conserve the most energy over what has been a punishing week-long race. The escape group has an advantage of a minute, which I reckon is not going to be enough to allow them to fight it out for the stage win with no interference from the chasing pack.

14km to go: García again tries to up the pace at the front of the race, hoping to forge a decisive advantage before the final climb.

We are definitely going to see a big scrap on the final climb, certainly for podium places. Niewiadoma does have a decent cushion of 51secs on the fourth-placed rider, Labous of Team DSM, however.

17km to go: Out on the road, Manon Lloyd gives an informative update from the final climb for Eurosport. She says that some teams have placed not one but two spare bikes in the closing stages of final climb – those will be set up with different gearing that is more suited to the punishing gradients of the higher parts of La Super Planches de Belles Filles. “It’s going to be savage,” Lloyd says.

21km to go: Now, Van Vleuten is pictured riding along serenely on a flat section and having a chat with a rider from a rival team. She suddenly looks far more relaxed with the situation. Does she go for the stage win to underline her dominance, or will she sit back and let others fight it out? I reckon the latter, because she said before today’s stage that yellow is the priority and she is not planning to ‘put on a show’.

She certainly had to toil to get back to the main bunch after those bike problems, though.

22km to go: García attacks from the front group, seeking to make it a more selective bunch of riders by the time they hit the final climb. But her move is reeled in by the other nine riders.

23km to go: The surviving 10 riders in the break:

Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) Paula Patiño (Movistar Team) Elise Chabbey (Canyon/SRAM) Liane Lippert (Team DSM) Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) Yara Kastelijn (Plantur-Pura) Coralie Demay (St-Michel Auber93) Pauliena Rooijakkers (Canyon-SRAM) Leah Thomas (Trek-Segafredo) Grace Brown (FDJ Suez Futuroscope)

27km to go: The group of favourites speeds down the descent, and Van Vleuten is distanced, but only by a couple of seconds. This isn’t going to be nearly enough to make any kind of dent in the Dutchwomen’s overall lead. That said, her rivals are certainly making her work today.

31km to go: Marianne Vos of Jumbo-Visma, in the green jersey, is back in the fourth group on the road. The world champion Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) is also there, which according to the live tracker includes 11 riders. They are over four minutes down on the leaders and about 3min 30secs behind Van Vleuten’s group.

32km to go: Six groups on the road, the last of which is just summiting the Ballon d’Alsace climb now.

33km to go: The riders can start thinking about the final climb, “La Super Planche des Belles Filles”: It’s 7km long, with an average gradient of 8.7%, but it kicks up to 24% in places. As if that wasn’t hard enough, the “Super” bit is the gravel road at the top ...

38km to go: The breakaway – now 10 riders – crests the climb of Ballon d’Alsace. Van Vleuten and the group of favourites are 1min 15secs behind. Santesteban and Christoforou are between those two groups, 38secs behind.

It’s going to take something spectacular for Van Vleuten to be denied here – she is within 40km of overall victory and has over three minutes’ advantage in GC.

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Tour de France Femmes 2024

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift returns for a third year with its first foreign Grand Départ in the Netherlands and a stage to Alpe d'Huez

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Tour de France Femmes

• Dates 12 Aug - 18 Aug
• Race Length 946 kms
• Race Category Elite Women

Updated: January 29, 2024

Everything you need to know about the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2024

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is the biggest stage race in women’s professional cycling, and will take place from August 12 to August 18 in 2024, slightly after the men’s race to accommodate the Paris 2024 Olympics. As the name suggests, the Tour de France Femmes is the women’s version of the world’s most famous cycling race, the Tour de France . Though shorter, at eight stages, it takes in a similar format to the men’s event, featuring sprinting, time trials and decisive mountain stages in the iconic French mountains.

Along with the Giro d'Italia Women and the Vuelta Femenina , the Tour de France Femmes is part of the trio of races that make up the women's equivalent Grand Tours, and are the most important stage races on the calendar .

The Tour de France Femmes and its yellow jersey are the domain of the biggest names in the women’s peloton, with Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (SD Worx) winning the first two editions respectively, whilst Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx), Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) have all won stages and worn the famous maillot jaune.

In 2024, the race will head into its third edition, and the next step as ASO look to build a long-lasting and growing race that will be at the centre of women’s cycling for years to come. The biggest step-up for the 2024 edition will be the race’s first foreign Grand Départ, as the Tour heads to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. What will follow will be eight varied stages over seven days of racing, before a climb-heavy finale in the Alps that will decide the third winner of the Tour de France Femmes.

• Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2024 route revealed
• Demi Vollering: I’ve always wanted to ride Alpe d’Huez
• Opinion: The Tour de France Femmes is delivering on its promises of growth
• Where the 2024 Tour de France Femmes will be won
• Tour de France Femmes 2024: can anyone beat Demi Vollering to a second victory?
• Pauline Ferrand-Prévot: I would like to do the Tour de France Femmes one year
• 'I miss the pressure' - Lizzie Deignan targets Tour de France Femmes and Olympic Games

Tour de France Femmes 2024 schedule, past results & previous winners

When is the Tour de France Femmes 2024? The Tour de France Femmes will start on August 12, 2024 and finish on August 18, 2024.

Where does the Tour de France Femmes take place? The Tour de France Femmes will take place primarily in France, but in 2024 the race will start in the Netherlands, its first-ever foreign Grand Départ.

Who won the Tour de France Femmes in 2023? The 2023 race was won by Demi Vollering (SD Worx) ahead of her teammate Lotte Kopecky, and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). Vollering took the lead with a big victory on the Col du Tourmalet.

Who won the first Tour de France Femmes? The first edition of the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 was won by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) after a commanding performance on the mountainous final weekend.

Tour de France Femmes 2024 route: Alpe d'Huez finale awaits after Dutch départ

The route for the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will feature the most famous Alpine climb of them all, Alpe d'Huez, for the first time in its history.

After departing Rotterdam, the Tour de France Femmes' first Grand Départ, the route offers something for everyone with sprint opportunities and a 6.3km-long time trial before a decisive doubleheader in the Alps.

The full route of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was officially revealed on October 25 by race organisers ASO. Taking in three countries over seven days and eight stages, the race has a total distance of 946.3km - the shortest overall route so far in the race's history.

The most eye-catching feature of the route for the 3rd edition of the Tour de France Femmes is the inclusion of Alpe d'Huez, a somewhat logical next step after the first two editions featured the Planche des Belles Filles and Col du Tourmalet as their respective Queen stages.

However, neither offer the test that the Alpe provides. At 13.8km in length and with an average gradient of 8.5% across its 21 famous hairpins, the climb is the perfect place to determine the third owner of Tour de France Femmes' maillot jaune. Stage 8 includes 3,900m of climbing in total, with the Col du Glandon serving as the highest point across the eight stages at 1,924m.

The Tour de France Femmes will culminate atop Alpe d'Huez for the first time

It's not just the final day that will test the climbers though, with four mountain ranges included in the 2024 route: the Ardennes, Vosges, Jura and Alps. Stage 7 on the penultimate day is likely to serve as a perfect warm-up for the Queen stage, leaving the Jura and tackling five categorised climbs on the way to Le Grand-Bornand.

Before the weekend finale in the mountains though, there's Classics-style days and a short time trial to contend with for the riders.

A Dutch Grand Départ in Rotterdam, the largest port city in the world, will offer sprint opportunities from the get-go, provided crosswinds from the North Sea don't blow the race apart. A split stage on day two features a short individual time trial in the afternoon, much less decisive than last year's final day TT though. At 6.3km and tackled on wide, non-technical roads, it will be a stage for the specialists to flourish.

Leaving the Netherlands behind on stage 4, the race will enter the north of France via Belgium, with a Classics-style 122km stage from Valkenburg to Liège swamped in history. The Cauberg, Geulhemmerberg and two ascents of the Bemmelerberg are tackled early on before some of Liège-Bastogne-Liège's most iconic climbs are thrown into the mix for good measure too. Mont-Theux, the Côte de la Redoute, the Côte des Forges and the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons all feature before a downhill finish in Liège.

With this mixture of Classics-style and high mountains stages, the 2024 Tour de France Femmes is spoiling us in terms of entertainment. What it lacks in length being 14km shorter than the 2023 edition and 67km less than the inaugural route, it makes up for in diversity with opportunities for just about any rider, whether that be on the cobbles of the Ardennes or the steep slopes of Alpe d'Huez.

Who are the riders to watch at the Tour de France Femmes 2024?

As the biggest stage race on the women’s calendar, the Tour de France Femmes is the race that everyone wants to go to, and as a result we can expect a star-studded list of all the very best riders to line up in Rotterdam next August. Some will be just happy to start, but others will be targeting stage wins, a jersey, or the overall.

Atop the list of riders to watch will most certainly be defending overall champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx). In the absence of 2022 winner Annemiek van Vleuten, Vollering will be the only former winner of the race in the bunch, and will have her eyes set firmly on a second-consecutive victory. With easily the best stage racing pedigree of the current pros, and the world’s best team surrounding her, it’s not hard to imagine that the Dutchwoman will pull that feat off.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Demi Vollering improved on her second place in 2022 to win the 2023 Tour de France Femmes

Hoping to improve on her back-to-back third-place finishes will be Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), who looks likely to be one of Vollering’s main rivals. The Polish rider excelled on the Tourmalet stage of the 2023 race, and is the kind of rider who can be there on the climbs but also - crucially - be aggressive on the punchier stages, which is important when it comes to winning a week-long race such as the Tour.

Who will win the 2024 Tour de France Femmes?

Demi Vollering

Katarzyna Niewiadoma

Juliette Labous

Elisa Longo Borghini

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig

Marta Cavalli

Mavi Garcia

Outside of the riders who already have wins and podium finishes under their belt, there is a big group of riders who will be hoping to step onto the Tour podium for the first time in 2024. FDJ-SUEZ will have Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Marta Cavalli to choose between, Jayco-AlUla will look to new arrival Mavi García to chase the overall, whilst dsm-firmenich will be counting on home favourite Juliette Labous, who often shines in stage races.

As a team, Lidl-Trek have perhaps the most options: will Giro d’Italia Donne podium finisher Gaia Realini make her debut? Could Elisa Longo Borghini make a proper attempt at the overall? Or will proven climber Amanda Spratt be their leader? With plenty of strength and options for stage wins too, the American team will be hoping to challenge SD Worx and Demi Vollering’s grip on this race.

Which teams are racing the Tour de France Femmes 2024?

The 2024 Tour de France Femmes will see all 15 Women’s WorldTour teams line up for the start in the Netherlands, plus the two highest-ranked Continental teams , and a selection of five other Continental teams, most likely including several French squads.

• dsm-firmenich
• Canyon-SRAM
• UAE Team ADQ
• Jumbo-Visma
• Jayco-AlUla
• Fenix-Deceuninck
• Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling
• AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step
• Israel Premier Tech Roland
• Human Powered Health
• Cofidis (TBC)
• Tashkent City (TBC)
• EF Education-Cannondale (TBC)
• Lifeplus-Wahoo (TBC)
• Arkéa Pro Cycling (TBC)
• St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 (TBC)
• Team Coop-Hitec Products (TBC)

Tour de France Femmes jerseys

The jersey winners at the 2023 Tour de France Femmes

The special jerseys and classifications at the women’s Tour de France are exactly the same as the ones on offer at the men’s race, bar a slight change in eligibility for the young riders’ jersey.

Yellow jersey (maillot jaune) - the iconic Tour de France yellow jersey is given to the overall leader of the general classification, the rider who has completed the stages so far in the shortest time possible.

Polka dot jersey (maillot à pois) - the polka dot jersey is awarded to the leader of the Queen of the Mountains competition. Rather than time, this competition is based on points, with varying tallies of points available for the first rider to the summit of each categorised climb on the route.

Green jersey (maillot vert) - the green jersey denotes the sprint competition, and is once again decided on points, with scoring available at the finishes of stages and intermediate sprints, with the finishes of flat stages carrying the bulk of the points.

White jersey (maillot blanc) - the white jersey goes to the best young rider in the general classification. At the Tour de France Femmes, a young rider is defined as those 23 and under.

What happened in the Tour de France Femmes 2023?

The Tour de France Femmes 2023 was won by Demi Vollering, who took the yellow jersey from her teammate Lotte Kopecky by winning the climactic Col du Tourmalet stage, after Kopecky had put in an impressive performance to lead the race up until that point.

After taking nearly two minutes on the Tourmalet, all Vollering had to do was defend that lead on the final-day time trial around Pau, and she duly did, finishing behind stage winner and teammate Marlen Reusser to secure her win and upgrade her second-place finish from 2022.

Though the likes of Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes did win stages, the race will also be remembered for the string of underdog wins that defined the middle of week. Young riders Yara Kastelijn and Ricarda Bauernfeind both took maiden WorldTour wins in France with impressive solo performances, whilst a spirited breakaway ride from Emma Norsgaard saw her hold off the peloton on the line to win the sixth stage.

To explore all the results, highlights and stories from the 2023 Tour de France Femmes, head over to our race home.

Tour de France Femmes history

With how prestigious the race already is, it’s easy to forget that the Tour de France Femmes avec Femmes is only two years old. Added to the calendar in 2022 after much clamour for a women’s Tour de France, the race was announced in 2021, and the first edition took place the following summer, with a sophomore, stepped-up edition coming in 2023.

Prior to the Tour de France Femmes, ASO’s offering for the women’s peloton was La Course by Le Tour, though even this was a recent invention. La Course was launched in 2014 after a campaign by Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley, Chrissie Wellington and Kathryn Bertine, and was originally a circuit race around the Champs-Élysées on the final day of the men’s Tour, though later editions were held in the mountains and elsewhere, during the men’s race. It was meant to evolve gradually into a proper stage race, but this didn’t really happen, bar one attempt at a two-day event 2017.

Perhaps fittingly, Marianne Vos won the first edition of La Course

However, the history of the women’s Tour de France goes back much further than the ASO’s involvement. We can find examples of women’s Tours de France as far back as the 1950s, and several editions of the Tour de France Féminin were held in the 1980s. These 80s races featured hard courses, often tackling most of the same stages and climbs that the men’s race did, making them long and difficult - truly Grand Tours. These races struggled to survive, though - especially once they were banned from using the ‘Tour de France’ name - and through the 90s and 2000s, races like the Route de France and the Tour de l’Ardèche were the closest the women’s peloton had to a French Grand Tour.

Read more: Tour de France Femmes: A brief history of the events which paved the way

Previous winners of the Tour de France Femmes

2023 Demi Vollering (SD Worx) 2022 Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar)

La Course by Le Tour winners

2021 Demi Vollering (SD Worx) 2020 Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) 2019 Marianne Vos (CCC Liv) 2018 Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) 2017 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott) 2016 Chloe Hosking (Wiggle High5) 2015 Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) 2014 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv)

Explore more about the 2024 Tour de France Femmes by clicking on the route, startlist and standings tabs up above.

Latest News

1 Fire and hearts: EF Education-Cannondale are going to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

2 Full list of 22 teams announced for 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

3 Lotte Kopecky prioritises Olympic Games, will skip Tour de France Femmes

4 'Winning is different' – Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig aiming at more than just consistency in 2024

5 Veronica Ewers: I’m definitely my harshest critic

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Check Out the Route for the 2023 Tour de France Femmes

There will be eight stages and the route includes a trip up the Col du Tourmalet on penultimate day along with a time trial on the final stage.

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The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift returns on July 23, 2023 with eight stages, including a time trial as the finale to the race.

The 2023 edition will feature the same amount of stages as the inaugural 2022 race . In total, 2023 will be 77km shorter than last year, but next year’s longest stage at 177km is a bit longer than the longest stage in 2022 (175.6km).

“I’m very stoked that Tour de France Femmes received such great support and attention in 2022 when it all started,” says Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) who finished fourth in the 2022 edition . “It’s very promising for the future and for the next generations of young riders pursuing their dreams. As everyone knows, there is something special about the race that nobody can explain. It’s the atmosphere, the course, the organization, the fans, and above all excitement that we share amongst each other.”

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What is the route of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes?

The race covers three regions in Southern France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, crossing two mountain ranges in the process. The highest point—the Tourmalet pass—will be the end of the mountain stage.

If the race plays out similar to last year, with a sprinter and tactical rider like Marianne Vos dominating the flat and hilly stages, the final mountain and time trial stages could be big shakeups for the overall standings.

The stages include:

• July 23 - Flat - Clermont-Ferrand to Clermont-Ferrand - 124km
• July 24 - Hilly - Clermont-Ferrand to Mauriac - 148km
• July 25 - Flat - Collonges la Rouge to Montignac Lascaux - 147km
• July 26 - Hilly - Cahors to Rodez - 177km
• July 27 - Flat - Onet le Chateau to Albi - 126km
• July 28 - Flat - Albi to Blagnac - 122km
• July 29 - Mountain - Lannemezan to Tourmalet Bagneres de Bigorre - 90km
• July 30 - Time Trial - Pau to Pau - 22km

As with last year’s race, there will be a daily coverage in the U.S. on Peacock .

In terms of prize money, we’re still not quite at equal payouts. For the women, a total of €250,000 will be awarded across the different stage, jersey and team competitions, including €50,000 to the winner of the final general classification according to ASO. (By comparison, ASO’s Tour de France men’s race boasts "a total of around 2.3 million euros will be awarded to the teams and riders, including 500,000 euros to the winner of the final individual general classification.")

However, it’s important to remember that while it feels slow , progress truly is being made—and racers are excited. “The first edition of TdFF was everything I expected it to be and so much more," says Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (SD-Worx). “ I’ve been watching the TdF from the sofa for many years and dreaming of racing it, but I didn’t quite comprehend how big it really was, until I experienced it first hand for myself. It was mind blowing being part of the inaugural event and seeing the attention it attracted from far and wide, and in real life with all the people out supporting on the roads…I have never experience anything like it in women’s cycling and I’m super excited for next years edition. For me, it was a massive disappointment not to have finished due to illness , so I feel like I have unfinished business and I’m more motivated that ever to win that iconic yellow jersey.”

“The Tour de France Femmes in 2022 was bigger than I expected. The attention, the media coverage, the fans along the side of roads. And the racing was fantastic," says Elise Chabbey of Canyon//SRAM . “That makes me believe that 2023 will be even bigger.”

Molly writes about cycling, nutrition and training, with an emphasis on women in sport. Her new middle-grade series, Shred Girls, debuts with Rodale Kids/Random House in 2019 with "Lindsay's Joyride." Her other books include "Mud, Snow and Cyclocross," "Saddle, Sore" and "Fuel Your Ride." Her work has been published in magazines like Bicycling, Outside and Nylon. She co-hosts The Consummate Athlete Podcast.

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Stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes live - 07/30/2023

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The Tour de France Femmes’ Long and Winding Road: A brief history of the women’s Tour de France

On Sunday morning, the peloton will roll out of Clermont-Ferrand for start of the second edition of the relaunched Tour de France Femmes. After the roaring success of the 2022 Tour Femmes, in terms of both the racing and the fervent roadside and television audience (recent data revealed that the race reached a cumulative audience of over 23 million people), expectations are high for an event that is already, just twelve months into its renaissance, an integral part of the women’s cycling calendar.

Not that the Tour de France Femmes is resting on its laurels, however. The 2023 edition appears keen to cast off the shackles of its association with the all-encompassing Tour Hommes – the Paris start, a kind of symbolic ‘handover’ from the men’s race, is already gone, replaced by some tough opening days in the Massif Central: a decision informed, race director Marion Rousse says, partly by a desire for the race to assert its independence, and partly to put together an interesting sporting test.

The groundbreaking narrative of the Tour de France Femmes – rhetoric commonly used throughout 2022’s ‘inaugural’ edition – continues at pace this year. The 2023 Tour de France Femmes, according to the official record, is again one of firsts. A first start away from Paris, a first venture in the Pyrenees (with a summit finish atop the iconic Col du Tourmalet, no less), and a first decisive final day time trial in Pau.

Because, if you were reading the official Tour preview, you’d be fooled into thinking – with the exception of one or two casual references to the 1980s – that everything began in 2022.

> History maker: Peerless Annemiek van Vleuten wins first edition of relaunched Tour de France Femmes

But the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (to give it its full title), as all those who fought to secure a stable, successful Tour de France for female riders will attest, forms part of a long history, one even more circuitous and taxing than the route the riders will face through the middle and south of France over the next eight days.

The long, hard fight

Because rather than a historic first, last year’s “inaugural” Tour de France Femmes was something of a rebirth, the culmination of a long fight to get something back, not gain something new.

The first women’s Tour de France was, in fact, held almost seven decades ago, in 1955. The race was the brainchild of journalist and sometime-team manager Jean Leulliot, who organised the infamous Circuit de France stage race in 1942 with the collaboration of the Nazis, and was the race director, and then owner, of Paris-Nice.

The inaugural Tour de France Féminin – only the second women’s stage race of its kind, after the Circuit Feminin Lyonnais-Auvergne was held earlier that year, in July – took place over five days in Normandy in September and October 1955.

It was won by Irish-born Isle of Man rider Millie Robinson, the winner of the Lyonnais-Auvergne race two months previously, who secured her historic (and largely forgotten) success via a late attack into Elbeuf on stage four and a dominant time trial performance – unsurprisingly, for someone from this part of the world – the following day.

However, despite the race’s apparent success, Leulliot quickly abandoned his experiment after just one edition.

Almost three decades later, in 1984, the idea was eventually revived by the Tour’s co-organiser Félix Lévitan. This time, the event much more closely resembled the men’s race and could properly be described, in the modern parlance, as a ‘grand tour’, and one which actually took the riders on a tour of France.

Two-time Tour Féminin winner Maria Canins climbs the Col d'Izoard during the 1986 race

The 1984 edition, held in the same summer as the inaugural women’s road race at the Olympic Games, took place over 18 days, with the women riding shortened versions of the men’s stages, including the iconic Alpine and Pyrenean passes such as the brutal Col de Joux Plane, earlier in the day.

That first-ever Tour de France Féminin, won by American Marianne Martin (two years before Greg LeMond became the country’s first male winner), kickstarted what was arguably the first ever golden age of women’s cycling.

Running concurrently with the men’s race meant that the pioneering women’s peloton were greeted by the same huge crowds, on the same iconic roads, while images of three-time winner Jeannie Longo – who enjoyed a brilliant rivalry with Italian double winner Maria Canins – on the final podium in Paris alongside Stephen Roche and LeMond, are embedded in the psyche of cycling fans of a certain vintage.

However, despite its links to the men’s event, the Tour de France Féminin retained an amateur-style, hard-scrabble feel, and was barely promoted beyond those taking part and the people they passed on the roadside. The ‘grand tour’ aspect of the race was also increasingly diluted as interest struggled to ignite – by 1989, it had been reduced to an 11-day race and was almost 300km shorter than its 1984 equivalent.

Following that 1989 edition, won once again by the dominant rider of her generation Longo, incoming Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc scrapped the race, citing the commercial and financial concerns of running a race with limited media coverage and sponsorship (Leblanc missing the irony, clearly, of who was responsible for drumming up that interest).

Even more crucially, Leblanc and organisers ASO prevented other aspiring race planners from using the Tour de France trademark, ridding subsequent attempts at a women’s grand tour in France, such as the initial Tour of the EEC (first won in 1990 by four-time world champion Catherine Marshal) of much-needed legitimacy and exposure.

The trademark issue became a persistent thorn in the side for the event’s eventual successor, Pierre Boué’s Tour Cycliste Féminin (which later became known in 1998 as the Grande Boucle Féminine, after ASO complained, predictably, about the previous name).

Despite featuring long and tough stages, and some of France’s most iconic climbs (the 1995 edition included a finish on Alpe d’Huez) the Grande Boucle struggled to draw in sponsors and was dogged by organisational difficulties such as poor accommodation and unpaid prize money. The two-week race was missing from the calendar in 2004, and returned in a much-shortened format the following year.

The final edition of the Grande Boucle in 2009, won by Emma Pooley (the third British triumph in four years following Nicole Cooke’s successes in 2006 and 2007) was only four stages and 306.5km-long, prompting Pooley to memorably describe it as “more of a Petite Boucle”.

Not that there was anything “petite” about the riders’ performances, however. The first of Cooke’s back-to-back wins, in 2006, saw the future Olympic and world champion ride away solo in the yellow jersey on Mont Ventoux – a poignant site for British cycling – to secure a dominant victory.

Nevertheless, the demise of the Grande Boucle acted as a catalyst for a rethink – for a women’s Tour de France to be successful and sustainable, it had to have the backing of, you guessed it, the Tour de France.

In the late 2000s, a campaign was launched by pro cyclist, film maker, and writer Kathryn Bertine, who was later joined by Pooley, the sport’s new superstar Marianne Vos, and triathlete Chrissie Wellington, to convince Tour organisers ASO to put their weight behind a real women’s Tour de France.

Lizzie Deignan outsprints Marianne Vos at the 2020 La Course

In 2014, the Tour organisers finally relented, to some degree, and came up with La Course by Le Tour de France. Originally held as a crit-style race around Paris on the same day as the final stage of the men’s race, the organisers then tinkered with a few mid-race experiments, while never expanding the event beyond two days.

Though La Course, and especially its first three years on the Champs-Élysées, felt at times like more of a concession than a statement of intent, a bolted-on afterthought rather than a sustainable plan for future growth, it nevertheless galvanised Bertine, Pooley, and Vos’s campaign for a proper, stable stage race under the Tour de France umbrella.

And with some scintillating racing to boot, especially once the race ventured beyond Paris – Annemiek van Vleuten’s stunning, last-ditch duel with Anna van der Breggen in the Alps in 2018 the undoubted highlight of the race’s tenure – even ASO couldn’t resist the hand of history, as well as the expectations of a sport and an audience that was fast outgrowing races seemingly more akin to amuse-bouches or petit fours than the full tasting menu of a grand tour.

In June 2021, ASO announced that a new women’s eight-day stage race, the Tour de France Femmes, would take place the week after the following year’s men’s race. A Tour de France for women was finally, after decades of struggle and frustrations, back.

And, it’s safe to say, the women’s peloton certainly made the most of the opportunity during a frenetic, exhilarating week on the fan-packed roads of France last year.

Stage four’s foray onto gravel brought drama and chaos, while Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig’s brilliant, come-from-behind sprint in Épernay – after a torrid opening few days for the Dane’s FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope team – reinforced her position as one of the sport’s darlings and its most entertaining interviewee.

Meanwhile, Annemiek van Vleuten’s stunning success in the Vosges mountains, after a battle with illness earlier in the week, provided the race with an inspiring, if ultimately predictable, climax.

But it was the success of the greatest rider of all time, Marianne Vos, that perfectly encapsulated what was a week-long celebration of women’s cycling. Vos’s two stage wins and five days in the yellow jersey proved not only fitting for a rider who has given the sport so much during her long, storied career, but for women’s cycling itself.

This was a case of cycling’s most iconic rider finally gracing the stage she has deserved for almost two decades. Vos fought long and hard for her moment at the Tour, and she deserved every second of it.

For one of the riders who took part in last year’s relaunched race, British road race champion Pfeiffer Georgi, the 2022 Tour de France Femmes was a “massive moment” for women’s cycling.

“It was a really amazing atmosphere,” the DSM rider told the road.cc Podcast . “We started on the Champs-Élysées and had our team presentation in front of the Eiffel Tower. The crowds were insane.

“Everyone had this feeling that it was a massive moment for women’s cycling. We waited a long time to have the race back, and just the support and the excitement of the racing every day, there was so much to fight for. And I felt very lucky to compete in the first edition of this new format.”

Of course, while we all got carried away with the euphoria of a fourth week of racing in July, the Tour Femmes isn’t perfect, and we should be cautious when evaluating what essentially amounts to a spot of late-stage band wagoning by ASO.

First, inequality still strikes at the heart of the relaunched women’s Tour. For starters, can an eight-day race really be defined as a ‘grand tour’? And even if there are plans in place to eventually expand the race to two, or even three, weeks, money remains an ever-present issue: Van Vleuten received €50,000 in prize money for her career-defining triumph, a tenth of what her male equivalent Jonas Vingegaard earned for winning the men’s Tour.

Despite the efforts of other race organisers, such as Flanders Classics – who this year began to offer equal prize money across its stable of one-day races – that chasm remains painfully intact for this year’s Tours de France.

Another measure of the gulf between how ASO views its male and female events lies most glaringly in the lack of line-to-line television coverage for the Tour Femmes. While the Tour Hommes has been graced with ‘every kilometre counts’ coverage for well over a decade now, the Tour Femmes more closely resembles the mid-2000s approach to watching a bike race on TV.

Last year, arguably the defining moment of the entire race came when Van Vleuten blew the field to shreds on the Petit Ballon, the first of stage seven’s three mammoth climbs – it’s just a shame no-one was able to see it, as the television cameras had yet to start rolling.

“I would love to see more TV coverage,” says Georgi. “I think that’s one of the most important things at the moment. People find our racing exciting, they want to watch it, and when it’s there, they do watch it. Some of the women’s classics have more viewers than the men’s.

“The interest and excitement are there, that’s where it all begins. That’s where people see it, that’s where sponsors get their products and name shown. TV coverage is the catalyst for everything, and getting our racing and love for the sport out there more.”

Reflecting on the impact of the Tour Femmes on women’s cycling, the 22-year-old continued: “The Tour is the pinnacle of cycling. And people who don’t know cycling always ask ‘have you raced it?’ I think everyone is so happy to say yes, we finally have it on our calendar.

“The first edition was eight stages, and I can see that growing over the years. It’s nice that it’s after the men’s Tour too, so the focus is on us. The crowds that came out, not just in Paris, but La Planche des Belles Filles was one of the craziest experiences I’ve had.

“It felt like I was on the Tour I’ve always watched on TV.”

It’s clear that women’s cycling, which experienced a great leap forward in terms of the quality of its races and the levels of professionalisation in the period between the last Grande Boucle in 2009 and the ‘inaugural’ Tour Femmes in 2022, deserves it place on cycling’s biggest stage.

It’s now up to ASO to make sure that the curtain doesn’t fall again.

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Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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Tour de France Femmes 2022 route revealed

All the key details from the route, race map, and rider reactions from Paris

The route for the Tour de France Femmes was announced on Thursday in a press event in Paris, with the eight-stage race presented by Tour de France organisers ASO. The men's Tour de France was announced at the same presentation. 

The Tour de France Femmes takes in 1,029 kilometres and includes back-to-back mountain stages, two stages for the puncheurs, a stage packed with gravel sectors, and four flat stages that could either end in bunch sprints or breakaway wins. 

The route presentation at the Palais des Congrès was attended by a 3,000-strong crowd, including women's WorldTour teams and riders. The first-time event will start in Paris on July 24, 2022, and conclude on July 31 with a mountain stage atop La Planche des Belles Filles.

The route was presented by Marion Rousse, who was recently appointed as the director of Tour de France Femmes, and ASO's Christian Prudhomme. Zwift has come on board as title sponsors of the race.

The previous incarnation of the women's Tour de France ended in 1989, and while ASO has gone on to organise women's one-day races like La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course, and the inaugural Paris-Roubaix (in 2021), the women's peloton had not been included as part of the official Tour de France for the past 30 years.

"The challenge hasn't been to create a race but to create a race that lasts, one that will be sustainable and with us in 100 years," said Prudhomme.

"Women's cycling has evolved year after year, and it's an honour to be part of it," said Rousse. "For the first edition, we had to visit symbolic locations," she added. They will start in the City of Light. From the foot of the Eiffel Tower to the Champs-Élysées, now part of the Tour’s mythology. They will climb the Ballon d’Alsace, which in 1905 became the first recognised pass to feature in the ‘grande randonnée’ so cherished by Tour founder Henri Desgrange and at the top of which stands a memorial recalling the exploit of its first conqueror, René Pottier. They will reach the finale of eight days of confrontation at the highest point of La Planche des Belles Filles, where the conquest of the yellow jersey has conferred upon the Vosges massif cycling’s highest distinction." The race begins with an 82km stage around Paris, starting at the Eiffel Tower and finishing on the iconic Champs Elysées with a stage that is highly likely to end in a sprint before the first yellow jersey of the race is crowned.

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Stage 2 heads from Meaux to Provins with a 135km race that could see the overall lead change after a false-flat climb to the finish. 

The following stage sees the race venture into more climber-friendly terrain with five categorized ascents coming before the final uphill finish at Epernay. The riders will tackle the finish line climb twice during the 133km stage, with the 12 per cent pitches of the Côte de Mutigny sandwiched between the Epernay finish.

Stage 4 is likely to be decisive in the race for the yellow jersey with six climbs and four sections of unpaved roads in the last 60km as the peloton venture from Troyes to Bar-sur-Aube over a 126km stage. 

Stage 5 from Bar-le-Duc to Saint-die-des-Vosges is the longest stage of the race with 175km of undulating roads, and three climbs before a likely reduced bunch sprint.

Stage 6 (128km) from Saint-die-des-Vosges to Rosheim should be finely balanced between the sprinters and a breakaway, with a flat finish coming after four categorized climbs. The final ascent of the Côte de Boersch, with pitches of over six per cent, could provide the perfect launchpad for a flurry of attacks. The final two days will decide the race with back-to-back mountain finishes. The first of the two stages will see the peloton tackle three major ascents, including the Grand Ballon - 13.5km at 6.7 per cent - before a downhill run to the line in Le Markstein. The stage also includes the ascents of the Petit Ballon (9,3 km, 8,1 per cent) and Col du Platzerwasel (7,1 km, 8,3 per cent) and will be one of the toughest stages of the entire race. The final stage, however, is the queen stage, and sees the riders head out from Lure and head towards La Super Planche des Belles Filles. The 123km stage takes in two major climbs before reaching the key finale and the iconic ascent to the finish.

The 7km climb to Super Planche des Belles Filles has pitches over 20 per cent, finishing on the gravel section beyond the standard summit, which first featured in the men's Tour in 2019. 

It will decide the final outcome of the race and the first winner of the Tour de France Femmes . "From the foundation of the past and present of the Tour de France, the riders at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, will write their own history, adding the tomorrow in the form of the white roads, the stony sectors on the Champagne hillsides which the men’s peloton will perhaps tackle one day," added. Rousse. "This new race will thrive on its own and will maintain the intense focus that the Tour always receives through the course of another week of intense battle. Designed to hold a permanent place on the racing calendar, to produce and perpetuate exploits and deep emotions of its own, this new summer event will receive undivided attention as well as support from the Tour’s major and historic partners."

"The champions will also feel the same way, knowing that this race will become the highlight of their season. And for one hundred seasons to come. And even more if they wish. Above and beyond these wishes for every success, there lies a well-considered desire that owes nothing to the times, an intention to open up a new era in universality. An era that will extend and enrich the legend... of the Tours!"

Tour de France Femmes 2022 stages

Stage 1: Tour Eiffel - Champs Elysees 82km Stage 2: Meaux - Provins 135km Stage 3: Reims - Epernay 133km Stage 4: Troyes - Bar-sur-Aube 126km Stage 5: Bar-le-Duc - Saint-die-des-Vosges 175km Stage 6: Saint-die-des-Vosges - Rosheim 128km Stage 7: Selestat - Le Markstein 127km Stage 8: Lure - La Super Planche des Belles Filles 123km

🤩The 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗲 #𝗧𝗗𝗙𝗙 avec @𝗚𝗼𝗭𝘄𝗶𝗳𝘁!🤩 Voici 𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗹 du #𝗧𝗗𝗙𝗙 avec 𝗭𝘄𝗶𝗳𝘁 ! pic.twitter.com/3Qms6zgoCv October 14, 2021

Tour de France Femmes 2022 route video

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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.

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Tour de France Femmes 2023

Top 10 Tour de France Femmes 2023 1. Demi Vollering 2. Lotte Kopecky + 3.03 3. Kasia Niewiadoma s.t. 4. Annemiek van Vleuten + 3.59 5. Juliette Labous + 4.48 6. Ashleigh Moolman + 5.21 7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig + 9.09 8. Ane Santesteban + 9.36 9. Ricarda Bauernfeind + 9.56 10. Amanda Spratt + 10.14

Read about the route and the start list of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes.

Please click on the links in below schema for race reports/results and in-depth information on the individual stages.

Tour de France Femmes 2023 stages

Tour de france femmes 2023: route & profiles.

Click on the images to zoom

Tour de France Femmes 2023: Reusser wins ITT, Vollering takes final GC

Tour de France Femmes 2023: Start times ITT

Tour de France Femmes 2023: Vollering solos into yellow on Tourmalet

Tour de France Femmes 2023: Norsgaard wins from the breakaway, Kopecky still leader

Tour de France Femmes 2023: Bauernfeind solos to victory, Kopecky still in yellow

2023 Edition

• Stage winners
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Tour Culture

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• KEY FIGURES
• Sporting stakes
• Maillot Jaune Collection
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2023 Rankings after stage 8

• General ranking
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