Tour de France Women: Winners, History and the 2027 Race

The Tour de France women's race, officially the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, is the most prestigious stage race in women's road cycling. Since its relaunch in 2022 it has been run every summer by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the company behind the men's Tour, and it has quickly become the race that defines a rider's season. Five editions in, it has produced four different champions, the closest finish in Tour history and its first double winner. Here is how the race came to exist, who has won it, and what to expect when it heads to Britain in 2027.

A women's Tour de France is not a new idea, but for decades it struggled to survive. The first attempt came in October 1955, a five-day stage race in Normandy won by Millie Robinson, an Irish-born rider from the Isle of Man. It was a one-off. The idea returned in 1984 with the Tour de France Féminin, an 18-stage race held in July. American Marianne Martin won it by three minutes and 17 seconds, with Heleen Hage of the Netherlands and fellow American Deborah Shumway completing the podium. France's Jeannie Longo later won three editions in a row, in 1987, 1988 and 1989.

The women's race then changed names several times, running as the Tour of the EEC Women, the Tour Cycliste Féminin and the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale. The last of those races took place in 2009. From 2014 to 2021, ASO staged La Course by Le Tour de France, a one- or two-day event whose first edition was held on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Riders and campaigners argued that a single day was no substitute for a proper stage race, and in 2022 the organisers finally brought back a full multi-stage Tour for women.

The modern era has belonged to a small group of riders. Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands won the 2022 relaunch for Movistar, finishing 3 minutes 48 seconds ahead of her compatriot Demi Vollering. Vollering won in 2023 for SD Worx, 3 minutes 3 seconds clear of Lotte Kopecky. In 2024 Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Canyon//SRAM beat Vollering by just four seconds, the smallest winning margin in the history of the Tour de France, men's or women's. In 2025 France's Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won for Visma–Lease a Bike by 3 minutes 42 seconds, with Vollering second for the third time.

The 2026 edition, the fifth of the modern race, ran from 1 to 9 August over nine stages and 1,174.7 km, starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, and finishing in Nice. Ferrand-Prévot's title defence never took off. She lost time in the stage 4 time trial and on the hilly stages, sat 14th overall after Mont Ventoux, and did not start stage 8 after falling ill. Swiss rider Marlen Reusser won that time trial into Dijon by four seconds from Lieke Nooijen and spent time in yellow, before Niewiadoma-Phinney, as she now races, won the queen stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux and took the lead.

Vollering turned the race around in the final weekend. On stage 8 she attacked late and descended into Nice to take yellow by eight seconds. The final day climbed the Col d'Èze four times. On the last ascent Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked first, but Vollering followed, then went clear 800 metres from the summit and rode alone to the stage win in the yellow jersey. Reusser, third overall at the start of the day, was dropped on the second ascent and crashed on the descent, losing her podium place to Elisa Longo Borghini.

Vollering won overall in 30 hours 54 minutes 51 seconds for FDJ United–Suez, 1 minute 18 seconds ahead of Niewiadoma-Phinney and 4 minutes 19 seconds ahead of Longo Borghini. She became the first rider to win the modern Tour de France Femmes twice, and she has now finished first or second in all five editions: two wins and three second places. Lorena Wiebes won the green points jersey with 181 points, Puck Pieterse took the polka-dot mountains jersey, and Antonia Niedermaier, fourth overall, was the best young rider.

The 2027 race starts in Great Britain with three stages from Friday 30 July, in the same summer that the men's Tour also begins in Britain. Stage 1 runs 85.7 km from Leeds to Manchester over three short climbs, including the Côte de Meltham (3.2 km at 8.2%). Stage 2 crosses the Peak District from Manchester to Sheffield with almost 3,000 metres of climbing, taking in Winnats Pass and Snake Pass; race director Marion Rousse says there is not one single flat kilometre. Stage 3 on Sunday 1 August is a team time trial of about 18 km around central London, finishing on The Mall. It will be the first team time trial in the race's history, although the exact London course is still to be confirmed.

For anyone following the Tour de France women's race next summer, the questions are clear. Can Vollering defend a title for the first time, can Niewiadoma-Phinney win a second Tour, and how will the favourites cope with steep British climbs and a team time trial before the race reaches France? The 2027 edition will be the sixth of the modern Tour de France Femmes, and on the evidence of the first five, the margins at the top are likely to stay small.