This year for the first time since the Tour de France Femmes was revived in 2022, it will have no overlap date-wise with the men's equivalent event, and that's mainly due to the ongoing growth of the women's race, says director Marion Rousse.
This summer, the Tour de France Femmes will begin in Lausanne on Saturday August 1, six days after the men's race has ended in Paris, and it will finish in Nice on Sunday August 9.
That's in stark contrast to last July, when – just like there had been since 2022 – there was an overlap between the two, with the 2025 Tour de France Femmes starting on the Saturday of the final weekend of the mens race.
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But as Rousse told MARCA, the ongoing growth of the Tour de France Femmes in terms of infrastructure and interest led the organisers to move the race to a later slot in the calendar.
"After several years' experience and with eight million TV viewers on [national race broadcaster] France Télévisions last year, when Pauline [Ferrand-Prévot, 2025 winner] crossed the line in Châtel, we said that yes, we could afford the luxury of starting a week later," Rousse said.
"Above all, the main reason is that the race has now grown so much that we" – the organisers – "couldn't run the two big events on our calendar the same weekend. It's evolved so much that we want exactly the same infrastructure as the men, so we needed some days so that all the race organisation vehicles could do the transfer."
The whole infrastructure operation would head from the finish of the men's Tour in Paris on July 26 to the start of the women's race in Switzerland six days later.
Previously, Rousse said the overlap had been to ensure that "people continued to follow us", but now spectators had grown used to seeing the Tour de France Femmes as its own separate entity.
That was despite the two races being all part of the same whole, she said, or as she put it: "We talk about the men's Tour and the Tour de France Femmes, but the truth is that it is one Tour de France."
It's not just the Tour de France Femmes that's evolving, either. Rousse also insisted to MARCA that the inclusion of climbs as tough as the Angliru in La Vuelta Femenina this year showed that "there are no challenges that are too tough for women. The level is more homogeneous, and constantly getting higher.
"I'm happy because women's cycling is evolving, from the start of the season, practically every weekend we have a different winner, and that creates a lot of suspense.
"Maybe even more than in men's cycling, because when [Tadej] Pogačar attacks right at the start of a race, very often you already know the name of the winner."
Regarding the Mont Ventoux, and its inclusion for the first time in the 2026 Tour de France Femmes on stage 7, Rousse argued that the innate toughness of the relentlessly rising 15.7 kilometre HC climb made it the critical point of this year's race.
"From the very start of the climb, you go into the wood where it's very steep. Then there isn't a single kilometre where you can catch your breath. If you have a bad day, you don't come back."
