Ferrand-Prevot aims to repeat Tour de France Femmes win amid strong competition

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot begins the Tour de France Femmes with the goal of defending her 2025 crown, having built her calendar around the race and skipped other events after the Vuelta Femenina. She will ride for Team Visma-Lease a Bike, a squad also built around Marianne Vos, who hopes to challenge for the yellow jersey. Dutch rider Demi Vollering, who has dominated this season with a Giro d'Italia win and multiple one-day classics, is widely seen as the odds-on favourite.

Additional threats include Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, Vuelta winner Paula Blasi, former champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, and seasoned veterans Elisa Longo Borghini and Anna van der Breggen. The tour launches in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday and finishes in Nice, France, on August 9, with a route that includes nearly 19,000 metres of climbing, a Dijon time trial and the first women’s ascent of Mont Ventoux. Race director Marion Rousse described the course as the toughest ever for the women's peloton.