France has tasted the joy of yellow belonging to one of its own and it wants to experience it again. The route of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift doesn’t just appear to have been subtly pieced together with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in mind, but unashamedly plotted with the Visma-Lease a Bike star at the forefront of the race organisers’ thoughts.
ASO, the promoters of the Grande Boucle, can’t guarantee the winner of its races – there are crashes, illnesses, inclement weather, simply better bike riders who throw a spanner in the works – but it can craft, tailor and design a route to a rider of its preference. It’s hard to not to look at the nine days of the 2026 Femmes and come to the conclusion that Ferrand-Prévot’s success this past August weighed heavily on the route planners. And why wouldn’t it have? After being starved for decades of a French winner, the country wants to enter a period of dominance.
What is PFP good at? Well, everything. She’s won world titles in four disciplines and won the Tour just four months after winning Paris-Roubaix. But what is she really, really good at? She proved this year that she’s superior in the high mountains and especially on climbs which last for over an hour, blowing her rivals apart on the Col de la Madeleine. So next year ASO has gone for something not quite as long (15.7km compared to 18.6km), but just as tough (another HC ascent) and almost as high (1,910m compared to 1,991m). Replacing the Madeleine for the queen stage is the Bald Mountain – the mythical, iconic Mont Ventoux. If 2025’s result is to be the barometer by which all predictions ought to be based off, Ferrand-Prévot will expect to repeat her obliteration. Demi Vollering will have words about that – and Kasia Niewiadoma and Sarah Gigante, too – but they might be shouting into the void.
Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma and Sarah Gigante tried to keep Ferrand-Prévot on a leash during the 2025 Tour, but the Frenchwoman was too strong.
Another thing Ferrand-Prévot is exceptional at is descending; she is the greatest mountain biker of her generation, perhaps of all time. Stage nine goes up and over the Col d’Èze once, twice, thrice and then a further fourth time, with the denouement to the week’s racing being a tricky downhill into Nice. Ferrand-Prévot flies uphill, and cascades down them; she’ll be loving the prospect of such a finale.
Where could she slip up? There are four punchy stages – "mischievous," is how the Tour are calling them – days where riders from Marianne Vos to Kim Le Court can expect to be in contention and will already be circling as big opportunities to take stage victories, but Ferrand-Prévot demonstrated just a few months ago that she’s adept at managing those types of stages too. Indeed, on stage one into Plumelec, she finished third behind teammate Vos. Classics-esque courses suit her as well as the big mountains.
The one unknown is Ferrand-Prévot’s time trialling. Since she returned to the road 12 months ago, she hasn’t ridden one single race against the clock. This is the territory of Marlen Reusser, a discipline that Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini have also made advantages in in the past. Very probably, Ferrand-Prévot will thrive, and at the very least she’ll almost certainly hold her own. But it is a question mark. Of the nine days of racing that awaits the peloton, stage four’s 21km time trial from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon is the one day where her competitors can do a little bit more than dream; they can eyeball an opportunity.
Ferrand-Prévot won the 2025 Tour by 3:42.
Of course, the race isn’t only about the battle to dethrone Ferrand-Prévot and return France to its default state of wishful onlooker, applauding riders of other countries for winning its race. There are two all-but guaranteed stages for the sprinters, possibly three or four that could go their way depending on how they’re raced; or, better said, two guaranteed stages for Lorena Wiebes. Charlotte Kool, now of Fenix-Deceuninck, and Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek will hope to deny Wiebes, but the SD Worx sensation will likely be the overwhelming favourite to add to her Tour stage win tally which already totals five; no one else has won more than her in the modern incarnation of the race. Her first opportunity will be in Geneva on stage two, the second of three stages being held in neighbouring Switzerland.
Who else will like the look of the race route? Wiebes teammate Lotte Kopecky. The two-time world champion struggled for form after winning the Tour of Flanders again in the spring, but providing she can get back to her previous standards, there are plenty of stages where she could excel, including stage one in Lausanne where she’ll be among the favourites for the the race’s first yellow jersey wearer. If Kopecky is truly back at her best, as well as assisting Wiebes’s leadout, she may even mount a push for the overall title.
An awful lot can happen between now and next August – sport is full of uncertainties and circumstances that derail the best laid plans – but at the time of the route announcement it’s Ferrand-Prévot who will be most bullish and most confident about her chances come next summer. ASO certainly has done its very best to ensure France is celebrating again.
