Key events
130km to go: Nikola Noskova (Cofidis) has bridged to the breakaway. A three-rider group is more potent … The gap has 25sec and the peloton behind looks happy with it. Three riders is manageable: but now more attacks start off the front of the bunch.
132km to go: Two riders out front: Maud Rijnbeek (Volkerwessels) and Idoia Eraso Lasa (Laboral-Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi).
Lars Boom, FDJ-Suez DS, speaks with Matt Stephens on TNT Sports: “The last climb is hard enough, it’s not going to be a full-on sprint … we will see what happens in the final.”
You may remember Boom from such races the mens’ Tour de France in 2014:
135km to go: There was a brief ceasefire among the peloton but now the attacks have started again. A rider from Volkerwessels is out front.
Racing on Tour de France Femmes stage one!
Off they go. Attacks from the start.
We’ve got 500m to the end of the neutralised sector. There will be a large amount of nervous energy in that peloton.
Lotte Kopecky, of SD Worx-ProTime, is asked on TNT Sports: What’s the vibe like in the team?
“The vibe? The vibe is good … it’s a hard finish today. Not easy. We have a ‘Plan A’. We’ll see how it goes.”
Will there be stage opportunities for her? “It’s hard to say beforehand. So much can happen. I hope during the race I find my good legs, and there are some opportunities.”
Kim Le Court of AG Insurance–Soudal has a chat: “We’re excited. Really good to be here.
“My legs still need to wake up a bit. Today is going to be a good test … we have big goals for today, but we’ll take it day by day, still nine days to go … we are here to do something great.”
Still 4km to go in the neutralised section. The commentators were speculating if the pure sprinters like Lorena Wiebes will still be in touch after the closing category-four climb … We’ll find out in due course. Whoever fancies a tilt at the KOM jersey will be trying to get in the break.
The riders are on the road, the neutralised start has begun. They’ve got 7km to ride before the flag waves and hostilities officially commence.
“I am super-excited to race Mont Ventoux,” adds Ferrand-Prévot. “I did a lot of recon. I did my homework, and I’m ready to go.”
“It was a child’s dream,” Ferrand-Prévot says of winning the Tour last year.
“When I was young, I wanted to be a boy, to do the Tour de France. It was something I was dreaming of … but I never expected to be able to do it.
“I would put the Olympics and the Tour de France win at the same level. If I would have stopped my career without trying to do the Tour, it may have been a strange feeling later, so I am happy that I took the decision to continue my career on a road bike.”
Next Friday is definitely a date for the diary. Stage seven finishes atop Mont Ventoux.
It’s a 146.8km trip from La Voulte-sur-Rhône to the summit of the Giant of Provence. A lot of riders will lose the race there, as well as the time trial on Monday.
“Absolutely brutal,” is the assessment of Dani Rowe, a pundit for TNT Sports, of this year’s parcours.
“There is 19,000m of elevation. Not one easy day. These riders will have to stay focused every day.
“Even today’s stage is a punchy finish. GC riders will be nervous about losing time.”
Jeremy Whittle
French pulses were set racing by Pauline-Ferrand Prévot’s win in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, but the pragmatic choice of favourite for this year’s race, which begins in Lausanne on Saturday, is Demi Vollering.
The 29-year old Dutch rider, leader of the FDJ United-Suez team and the first €1m athlete in women’s racing, combines outstanding results – this year she completed a grand slam of all three of Europe’s Grand Tours – with an outspoken personality.
Preamble
The Tour de France Femmes, since relaunching and rebranding in 2022, has had four different winners: Anniemiek van Vleuten, Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and, most recently, the home favourite Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Hence it is a more exciting business than the men’s event, where the general classification has been sewn up by the relentless Tadej Pogacar in recent years.
But like so much women’s sport, the TdF Femmes increasingly stands alone, growing in popularity and stature every year and attracting more fans to the beautiful sport of cycling. Vollering, whose Giro win earlier in the season sealed the set of all three grand tours, is the favourite to win the nine-stage race – but French fans would dearly love to see Ferrand-Prévot finish in yellow again.
There is one individual time trial, two mountain stages, three classified as flat and three hilly. Whoever tops the GC in Nice next Sunday will have undergone a thorough examination of their all-round ability. Today’s stage one, a 138km loop in and out of Lausanne, includes four categorised climbs – plenty of incentive for breakaway hopefuls but also one the sprinters’ teams will be aiming to control.
Neutralised start: 14.15 CET/13.15 BST.
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