"There are pitfalls on every stage": Tour de France Femmes director warns about the 2026 route

The best female cyclists will head to Switzerland for the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes. Over nine stages in August, the top athletes will clash to find out which one is the queen of the season at the women's variant of Grande Boucle. Continuing in the trend of past seasons when the most symbolic climbs of men's Tour de France have been introduced (Alpe d'Huez in 2024 and Col de la Madeleine in 2025), Mont Ventoux will prepare to host the debut arrival of the biggest women's stage race this year. But there are many more threats on the 2026 route than just the "windy mountain".

"I think if I had to define my route, over these nine days of racing, it's that it's mischievous. There are pitfalls on practically every stage," Tour de France Femmes  director Marion Rousse told L'Équipe at the route presentation in Paris. "There isn't a completely flat stage. Almost every day there's a climb," Rousse said. "It's a Tour de France Femmes that will be very difficult to keep up with mentally. You'll have to be strong because in the final, there is often a series of difficulties."

"When you create the route, you imagine all sorts of scenarios in your head, but then you make your proposal and the riders decide," Rousse said, before highlighting the punchy potential of the Swiss start. "Switzerland also allows us to create routes that are great right from the start, with this first stage arriving in Lausanne and the Côte de Saint-François, which is a first finish for puncheurs."

Rousse also highlights the scenic potential of the race depart in the beautiful landscapes of the Alpine country. "We know that the Tour de France, for both men and women, is also a picture postcard. Switzerland is magnificent and also allows us to return to France very early on."

Moving on to the more decisive phases of the race, Rousse has high expectations for the return of individual time trial "The first big event for the leaders will be the 21km time trial in Dijon. A time trial we haven't seen for two years," Rousse said. "It's true that we often avoid using a time trial, whether for the men's or the women's, because people don't like it as much. The audience is smaller and, above all, it can quickly 'freeze' the general classification."

While not the goal, the time trial could be a way to slow down the progress of this year's winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. At least if the Frenchwoman again arrives in a top climbing shape. "We created this time trial, but also imagined that there would be competitors like Marlen Reusser who could gain time on Demi Vollering and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and that, as a result, they would have to reveal themselves earlier."

Compared to this year's, the 2026 edition shouldn't have as brutal mountain stages, however that doesn't mean that there aren't any true mountain tests. Most will look forward to stage 7 with a finish on Mont Ventoux. "This year, we'll arrive at the summit of Mont Ventoux. Our legendary summit," Rousse said. "Every year, we want to establish and introduce symbols that the girls, the competitors, can add to their list of legendary climbs that have also made history in the men's Tour."

But also the last medium mountain day in Nice could shake up the standings. "Nice, which is between the sea and the mountains, is a great place to have fun with a really unpredictable, really hilly course," Rousse said. "It's a bit like fireworks, and that's what we wanted to reproduce in our Tour de France Femmes. This last stage around Nice, with four ascents of the Col d'Eze, won't have a single metre of flat terrain. The last variation, via the Col du Vinaigrier, is actually a slope of the Col d'Eze, with gradients of over 16%. It's going to be spectacular."