Updated October 25, 2026 12:59PM
It lacks high altitude climbs but the route of next year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift does something the men’s event doesn’t do.
Maintain suspense right until the end.
The profiles of both races were unveiled Thursday in Paris by organizer ASO. Something that was immediately apparent was that the expected contest between Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas and others runs the risk of fizzling out days before the conclusion in Paris.
This year stage 20 saw the riders duke it out to the summit of Alpe d’Huez, facing one of the Tour’s most notorious climbs on two successive days.
Pogačar was sufficiently far ahead by then to have the yellow jersey sewn up, but the battle for the podium still raged. Isaac del Toro ultimately distanced Seixas close to the finish and seal third overall.
Next summer? There is a danger of an anti-climax, with the last big mountain battle coming on stage 18’s summit finish at Saint Larry Soulan. The following stage does offer three climbs yet the highest of those, the Col de Soudet, is just 1540 meters above sea level and tops out 65km from the finish.
It is followed by the final categorized climb of the race, the Col de Marie Blanque. It’s a well-known peak, but while it is steep it is just 7.7km in duration and summits a full 18.5km from the finish line.
That’s not exactly a showdown, and the issue is compounded with a sprinters’ day out on stage 20 and a Montmartre-enhanced concluder in Paris which will offer good racing, but may well see the GC neutralized again.
All together, there is a danger the men’s Tour de France could end with a whimper, not a bang.
Fortunately, the same can’t be said of the Tour de France Femmes.
What the Femmes gets right every year
The Femmes race debuted in 2022 and has offered some of the best competition in pro cycling. Just consider the 2024 edition, which was every bit as much a cliffhanger as the conclusion of the men’s 1989 Tour.
Kasia Niewiadoma started the day in yellow, was dropped on the Col du Glandon, but fought all the way to the summit of Alpe d’Huez to win by just five seconds overall.
That was even closer than the classic 1989 showdown where Greg LeMond overhauled Laurent Fignon by eight seconds.
Last year’s race saw Pauline Ferrand Prétot stamp her authority all over the event, easily dropping her rivals in the mountains on the final two days. And while the Frenchwoman did have a 2:37 minute lead going into the final stage, the fact that it was a summit finish meant that there was—theoretically at least—the possibility that Vollering and others could turn things around.
The drama continued this summer when Vollering and Niewiadoma went into the hilly concluder in Nice a mere eight seconds apart.
It was, once again, a nailbiter, and left the outcome undecided right until the finale.
That kind of suspense will continue next summer, thanks to another well thought out route design. The race will again build steadily towards a crescendo, maintaining suspense in a way that the men’s Tour likely won’t.
In trying to avoid another Tadej Pogačar domination, the organizers have neutered things in a way that could backfire.
The Femmes course design avoids that problem. It’s not quite perfect, but it should be very entertaining.
Ratcheting up the suspense
As detailed by Velo’s Andy Hood this week, the Femmes route will begin in Leeds and offers three days of high-stakes racing on British soil. Day one heads to Manchester and takes in 85.7km of rolling terrain. Stage two crams nearly 3000 altitude meters of punchy racing into a 154.4km route to Sheffield, while stage three will be a tricky 18km team time trial in London.
That nervous start will be followed by three complicated transition stages on French soil, to Calais, Magnanville and Bourges respectively. Those offer something for the sprinters, but also for the attackers. Stage 5 in particular could be a puncheurs’ delight, with series of short, steep climbs in the final hour and a half of racing.
The GC battle really comes into focus on the final three stages. Stage 7 is almost completely flat for the first 100km but then concludes with a summit finish to the top of La Loge des Gardes. Sure, the final climb is just 6.7km but it is preceded by a tricky uphill approach which should see some very nervous racing.
Stage 8 is continuously up and down. It does lack a summit finish but 3000 meters of altitude gain en route to Clermont-Ferrand will lead to a lot of tension, particularly if time gaps are tight.
The big decider is stage nine’s summit finish to the top of the Puy de Dôme. The climb is an iconic one, most famous for a literal shoulder to shoulder battle between Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor in 1964.
Those slopes were closed to the Tour for many years but made a return to the men’s race in 2023, when Michael Woods won and Tadej Pogačar dropped Jonas Vingegaard, only to lose out overall.
It’s not as long or as tough as other iconic mountains in cycling but everything in the race builds towards this big showdown.
It should be another gripping finale to the Tour de France Femmes, guaranteeing GC suspense right to the closing minutes. It’s something the men’s race should aspire to too yet, next year at least, almost certainly won’t.
That’s a shame for the men’s Tour. At least the Femmes will keep everyone guessing right until the end.