The best route so far? The Tour de France Femmes holds out the promise of surprise and the possibility that the yellow jersey could change several times along the way, including the final day in Nice.
Copying the men’s trend for lucrative foreign starts Stage 1 begins in Lausanne, Switzerland on 1 August, the Swiss national holiday. Expect crowds and impeccable tarmac, and if the sun is shining, knock-out views before an uphill finish. The finish is two-thirds of the climb used when the men visited in 2022 and Wout van Aert beat Michael Matthews and Tadej Pogačar and more selective than the stats suggest, think a staircase with steep ramps with flat sections in between, more than sufficient to thwart Lorena Wiebes.
Stage 2 could out of the Tour de Romandie and indeed the final 50km are the same as the women’s Romandie stage to Geneva. This course has its climbs the first ones could see dropped riders already but a sprint on the shore of Lake Léman looks likely especially given there are few other chances.
Stage 3 takes the Tour to France via the Col de la Faucille, a pass that can claim to have inspired art from literature to painting via the likes of Ruskin, Wordsworth, Spyri and Rousseau but usually because they tackled it the other way, riding a horse and cart over the ridge to suddenly leave woodland behind and find the land drop away before them to give a view of Lake Léman and the Alps beyond. The riders do it the hard way with this climb that’s Alpine in style and then enter the Jura woodland on the home roads of Juliette Labous and Evita Muzic. It’s a flat finish with a big road to Poligny and already the last chance for a sprint finish
Stage 4 is a 21km time trial on the wine roads of Gevrey Chambertin but all different to the men’s TT here in 2024. The climb to Marsannay-la-Côte has its hairpins but it’s a wide road and a steady climb, probably sufficient to stay in an aero tuck before the finish in Dijon. The likes of Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering must be relieved to see this as it gives them an advantage over the pure climbers.
Stage 5 is more than a hilly day with 2,850m of vertical gain in 140km and if you’re ever in the area with a bike and time to spare then this route is a good thing to copy. Note how there are too many mountain passes along the way to give points away. Most of the time the gradients are what the Italians call pedalabile, “pedalable” but Mont Brouilly awaits before the finish with parts that can be as quick to walk as to ride.
Stage 6 is another mid-mountain day with 2,650m of vertical gain in the Ardèche with its rasping roads and if someone can get in the breakaway for two days running then they’ve got a good chance to build up a lead in the mountains competition.
Stage 7 looks all about the Mont Ventoux summit finish but the day has 3,565m of vertical gain meaning more than the half the climbing happens on the way. The difficulty could be compounded if the wind gets up. The summit finish needs little introduction but it’s the first time the women tackle it, ticking off all the great climbs having done the Tourmalet, Alpe d’Huez and last year the Madeleine and Joux-Plane. It all helps weave the women’s version into the shared legends.
Stage 8 looks like a transition stage out of Paris-Nice with the start in Sisteron. It’s possible to design a much harder route that ducks and dives around the Var valley in the second half but there’s been enough climbing already. The pure sprinteuses will still find this hard given the two late climbs on the approach to Nice including the Col de la Baisse above Colomars.
Stage 9 and more borrowed roads from Paris-Nice and all the better for it. For the men the final day has settled down a bit as the roads are familiar and there’s a settled way to race the stage but for the women this isn’t the case. Plus the “Corniche Cliffhanger” of March is abbreviated with laps between nice and Eze. The final time up goes via the stinging Chemin des Vinaigriers before the glam finish on the Nice sea front.
Summary
The hardest and most complete Tour de France Femmes so far? The climbing total of 18,795m is a record for the reprised race and there’s a decent time trial and a major summit finish. This would be easier to argue if there was a second Alpine-style stage between Mont Ventoux and Nice but that would mean spicing up Stage 8 and possibly watering down Stage 9. The yellow jersey is likely to change shoulders several times along the way and there’s every chance it does so on the final day which is probably just what the organisers want.
The addition of a time trial is welcome given the lack of one, and the impact of that, this year. Every grand tour should have one
I wonder when they’ll bring pavé/gravel into the mix..
Ventoux, lumpy transition stages, Nice finish, good length ITT…I like everything about this route, but nothing moreso than the fact that Inrng has covered it!
My only disappointment is that I thought the race was due to extend to 10 days in 2026. Or have I misremembered?