Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) out-paced Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates XRG) to win stage 6 of the Volta a Portugal.

The pair were the last two riders from the breakaway left in the lead after the last climb of São Nicolau, and held off a chasing group led to the line by Francisco Campos (Tavira/Credito Agricola).

Race leader Alexis Guerin (Anicolor-Campicarn) finished in the bunch 23 seconds behind the stage winner to continue in the yellow jersey.

Isasa and Oliveira were part of a large group that escaped early in the lumpy 132.6km stage from Santa Maria da Feira to Peso da Régua.

The breakaway never gained much more than one minute on the peloton, and after shifting and changing on the aggressive stage, only Isasa and Oliveira were left at the summit of the São Nicolau.

The two leaders had 44 seconds on race leader Alexis Guerin, 28 seconds on a nine-rider chase group containing his teammate and second-placed Artem Nych (Anicolor-Campicarn).

The chasers closed in on Oliveira and Isasa over the final 15km and nearly caught them inside the final kilometre but Isasa was able to take the stage win.

Nych is now 49 seconds behind Guerin in second, with Tiago Antunes (Efapel) third at 1:28.

Stage 6 Results

General Classification after stage 6

Hello friendly subscriber.

This week is a big week over on the Cyclingnews Tech YouTube channel. Not only is it my first appearance on the big screen, but more importantly it's for a review of the most aerodynamic bike we've ever tested in the wind tunnel – and we've tested 40 – the Factor One.

As a small show of appreciation, we're giving you exclusive early access to that review.

What's more, in the coming days, we'll also be dropping a behind-the-scenes video from our most recent day the Silverstone wind tunnel, testing road wheels.

• What are the fastest UCI-legal road wheels? Wind tunnel testing the big-name brands and Chinese contenders

Whether for good reasons or bad, the Factor One is certainly a head-turning bike, with its ultra-wide fork, steep seat tube and similarly steep fork blades. Its looks might be polarising, but there's no ambiguity about its racing intentions. It's also the most expensive bike I've ever ridden, at an eye-watering £14,500.

It's a bike that does some things exceptionally well, but as you'll hear in the video below, it does some other things… well... poorly.

To find out what those things are, and for a somewhat comical rundown of what else you can buy for the same money, hit play.

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As a subscriber, you can also watch our ever-expanding archive of bike reviews over on the Cyclingnews app before anyone else. But if you'd like to head over to YouTube and give us a like and subscribe to help us grow, we'd really appreciate the boost.

And don't forget, you also get access to all of our Cyclingnews Labs testing, unlimited access to our unrivalled racing coverage, and member-exclusive long-read features on the biggest storylines within cycling.

Thanks as ever for your support.

The Factor One has to be one of the most talked-about bikes to launch in years.

It first broke cover at the Criterium du Dauphiné in 2025, and very quickly broke our small corner of the internet with its wild time-trial-esque design, extremely wide fork and chainstays, and bayonet fork with razor-thin leading edge.

Less than a day later, it looked as though it was going to be banned by the UCI, who announced a rule governing how wide forks and chainstays could be, but I later learned that Factor knew about the impending rule change and designed the bike right up to the legal limit.

It won a stage of the Dauphiné a few days later, and was then raced at the subsequent Tour de France by Israel-Premier Tech. And to cap it off, a pre-production prototype tested extremely well in the Cyclingnews aero bikes wind tunnel test, both with and without a rider, as you'll see in more detail below.

Soon after, it launched officially with an emphasis on its progressive geometry. In fact, the only thing bigger than the fork clearance was head engineer Graham Shrive's presentation on that matter. I'll get into that later, but in simple terms the bike is designed with a modern racing position in mind; further forward, with shorter cranks, narrower bars and bigger tyres.

It also launched with claims of being faster than the Tarmac SL8 – which our own testing data agrees with but Specialized's does not – and at a price that is sure to make most wallets wince.

In the UK, a frameset (with handlebar and seatpost) is £6,920, and full builds start at £11,056 (Shimano Ultegra). 'Standard' builds top out at £13,419.00 with Campagnolo Super Record.

I was sent the model equipped with SRAM Red to review (with power meter), priced at £13,082. However, it also came with the £506 optional extra CeramicSpeed OSPW system, as well as the not-currently-specced Black Inc 62 Hyper wheels, which alone fetch £3,799 (£1000 more than the 'standard' Sixty Two wheels).

To my maths, that makes this build £14,588 (or £1,000 less with the 'standard' Sixty Two wheels).

Design and aesthetics

To begin this section, it's pertinent to revisit the motivations that drove its creation. For years, Head Engineer Graham Shrive had wanted to design a bike that really pushed the envelope, but the brand's founder – then CEO – Rob Gitelis didn't think the Factor brand was ready to put something like this out into the world.

Through its sponsorship of the Australian Olympic Squad, the development of the Hanzo Track saw them unearth plenty of aero gains. Then the UCI's rules changed in 2023 governing how the fork and down tube could be designed together. In 2024, our original round of aero bike testing proved that the Ostro VAM was not only competitive but a leader in the 'superbike' space both in terms of weight and aero. With all those things combined, Gitelis decided it was time.

Concurrently, the brand was a sponsor of the Israel-Premier Tech team, who, like the rest of the pro peloton, were slowly shifting their positions to this modern consensus. Saddles were being slammed forwards to get over the bottom bracket and rotate the body to lower the front end, shorter cranks were fitted to keep the hip angle open, longer stems swapped in to accommodate the newly shortened reach, narrower bars added for aerodynamics, and tyre sizes grew for comfort, grip and rolling resistance improvements.

Shrive says this led to riders running stems that were so long that they were unsafe, and it put their centre of gravity too high and too far forward on the bike, meaning any sudden braking came with an increased risk of an over-the-bars crash.

Therefore, he designed the ONE's geometry with this in mind, and the result is that across all sizes, the reach of the bike has grown by 20mm. In my size 58cm, that means a reach of 421mm, which is 19mm longer than an equivalent Tarmac SL9, which I have also been testing.

To offset the fit implications of the longer reach, the seat tube angle is now steeper. On all but the 47cm frame (where it's 1°), the seat tube is now 2° steeper than the OSTRO, at 75.5°. Some basic trigonometry tells me that at my saddle height (785mm), that puts me 27mm further forward, easily offsetting the extra reach.

At the rear, the chainstay lengths are unchanged, so the distance from the bottom bracket to the rear hub is still 405mm (except the 58cm, where it's 408mm). This is shorter than most of the competition, and lends itself to an agile ride, albeit there's nuance to this in the bigger sizes that I'll get to shortly.

To account for the trend towards bigger tyres (and to a point, shorter cranks), the bottom bracket drop is now 5mm bigger (thus it sits lower) on all sizes.

The rest of the differences against the OSTRO VAM are size dependent. To account for handling goals and toe overlap concerns at the smaller end of the size run, Factor has kept a similar wheelbase to the OSTRO VAM (technically it's 3 - 4mm longer), steepened the head tube angle, and offset this by reducing the fork rake (in the 47cm frame, Factor has changed the fork rake by a quite significant 9mm).

The goal of this is that toe clearance (or the removal of toe overlap) isn't solely achieved by slackening the head tube angle so much that it ruins handling. As such, smaller riders should get a bike that handles as well as bigger riders. I've been riding a 58cm so can't verify it, but the logic holds.

To compare that again to the Tarmac – the Specialized doesn't come in a 47, so I'll compare the 52cm frames – the head tube angle is 73.3° on the ONE, 0.8° steeper than the 72.5° of the Tarmac. However, both have 58mm of trail because the Tarmac's fork has a 4mm greater rake (aka offset).

All that is to say, this should make the handling of the ONE slightly sharper than an equivalent Tarmac, especially combined with 5mm shorter chainstays and a 1mm shorter wheelbase.

At the other end of the size run, though, the increased reach has mostly carried over into the wheelbase. It's now 16mm longer than the Ostro VAM in the 56 and 58cm frames (which I have here). That makes it more stable, but it does lose some of that agility that made the OSTRO VAM frame special.

To continue the Tarmac comparisons, the One is longer and lower (19mm more reach and 4mm lower stack in my size 58cm). The Tarmac's head tube is marginally steeper, with a shorter trail, meaning the front end feels a little more nimble, which is no doubt also aided by the Tarmac's lighter weight.

But added to this, the Tarmac's chainstays are only 2mm longer (again, we're comparing the 58cm frame), and the wheelbase is 16mm shorter. In tight corners, this definitely bears out in the Tarmac's favour, but the ONE makes up the ground in other places.

Rounding off this comparison, since the Tarmac comes specced with a -15mm offset seatpost (you can change it) and the ONE comes with a straight post (you can also change this), I can get 42mm further forward on the ONE, which makes for a big difference in how I feel when I actually ride the bike. I can obviously also slide the saddle back to undo this, and as I'll explain below, I tried a few different positions.

Before I get into that, though, let's just talk about some of the other standout design points, because aside from all these geometry shifts, there's some serious engineering going on here.

Primarily, that's the way the front of the bike is put together. It uses a bayonet-style head tube (where the steerer tube doesn't travel through the head tube, but rather in front of it and clamps top and bottom); a design popularised by the Cervélo S5 and also now found on the Colnago Y1Rs, but the leading edge of the ONE is insanely narrow, even by the aforementioned bikes' standards.

The way the fork mounts into place is a little complicated, to the point that Factor has a 'V2' in its manual that simplifies the original instructions.

Thankfully for the mechanics out there, no specialist tools are needed (unless you count a hollow socket, but a ring spanner works in its place).

There's a rather large 'tension rod' that sits vertically and is tightened from the bottom to first add preload and also hold everything together. In my time with the bike, I experienced a loss of preload on multiple occasions, creating that unnerving feeling of a loose headset.

Loosening and re-tightening to add preload got me through the few months I had with the bike, but not without the final attempt shearing off part of the head of the bolt, meaning I was then unable to disassemble it for a proper fix. I'm well aware a paying customer would just take it back to a shop for a fix here, probably when the headset loosened the first time, and so a proper disassembly-reassembly would likely remove this issue entirely.

Where the ONE really changes the script, however, is where the cockpit clamps into place. Instead of mounting at the point of the steering axis, it clamps into place approximately 4cm further forward, downwards onto the top of the fork using four bolts (which are later hidden by a carbon cover).

The steering axis, and thus the 'lever' you turn when steering the bike, is still normal, so handling feels familiar, but this design means less distance between your hands and where the cockpit meets the bike, which makes it much stiffer. This adds to the directness of the steering, but it has pretty dire implications for comfort, as I'll get into later.

The rear brake hose (and Di2 cables where necessary, but my bike was wireless) routes vertically out of the top of the head tube, and is then directed around a tight corner forwards into a hole at the rear of the one-piece cockpit, before being directed left or right depending on which way round you run your brakes. The front brake hose travels entirely through the fork, and thus exits slightly further forward before being bent around another tight corner to the opposite lever.

Both of these are pretty difficult manoeuvres. That much was already clear from the state of the hoses in my test bike – they'd clearly been ravaged by pliers or mole grips to force them where they needed to go.

I got a taste of doing it myself when I needed to swap the bars from the size 1 (90mm stem / 110mm effective length) the bike was accidentally shipped with, to the size 3 (110mm stem / 130mm effective length) I needed, and pliers really are the only way to get the hoses to bend where they need to go. I'm just glad we're no longer using cable-operated brakes, as this would be on par with the Venge Vias's infamous rim brakes.

The other big design story (both literally and figuratively) is the wide fork, and despite having thousands of words on geometry already, there's actually not a huge amount to say.

Somewhat obviously, they draw from learnings made in the Hanzo Time Trial and Track development. Specifically, learnings about tyre wake and how the disrupted airflow acts downstream, and how the fork leg spacing helps to smooth the airflow before it then goes on to hit the frame and rider's legs.

Factor says it tested multiple fork leg spacing iterations to see which was fastest, and settled on a fork that is 114mm at its widest point; a mere millimetre under the UCI limit of 115mm.

The crown of the fork protrudes forward from the head tube to the point that it creates a little shelf. I could probably sit a small mascot on here like truck drivers who tie toys to their grill, but that would likely upset Shrive and the aero motivations for making it this way.

The depth of the fork blades no doubt aids the bike's ability to 'sail' in crosswinds, but what's less discussed is that Shrive intentionally changed the shape so that the leading edge was more vertical, because that makes it more perpendicular to the airflow. Most forks sit at an angle loosely in line with the head tube angle plus a little bit of offset, but the ONE's fork actually kicks forward at the top before coming down more vertically toward the axle. This really changes the aesthetic of the bike – and I'm still not sure I'm over that – but from an aerodynamics standpoint, it reduces the (horrible phrase alert) 'wetted length', which is the length of material in contact with the air, and improves the effectiveness of what is.

Performance

Clearly, a lot is going on with the design of this bike, and there's a hell of a price tag to boot, but how does it actually feel to ride, as a bicycle, on the road?

Well, the biggest surprise to me when I first hopped onto one is that it felt… normal. Save for a headset issue on my first test bike, which essentially gave it indexed steering, the Factor One rides and handles a lot like any other race bike.

The primary affectors of how the bike rides – its geometry, its material, its touchpoints – are all fairly normal. I've already spent 1000+ words on the geometry so I won't go there again, but aside from a seat tube angle that puts you further forward on the bike, and a wheelbase that's longer, everything else is pretty much the same.

The forward-protruding fork makes the head tube angle look steep, but in this size, it's the same as the OSTRO and 0.2° different from the Tarmac. The trail is similar, the chainstay length is similar, the stack is similar.

So if you came here to learn if riding the Factor One was going to feel foreign compared to your current race bike, there's a good chance that it won't (assuming that race bike isn't from the 1970s).

However, before you rush off to remortgage your house, 'normal' doesn't automatically make it great. In fact, despite the price tag, there are a lot of things the Factor ONE doesn't do very well. Whether that actually matters to you will depend on what you want from it.

If you're considering the Factor One as your only bike, I think you'll grow weary very quickly. To peddle a metaphor, it's akin to having a car designed for track meets as your daily commuter, or to borrow one from my colleague Will, using a fish filleting knife as your general-purpose knife. I will cut up a pizza, but it won't be the best tool for that job.

The primary reason for this is that it's ridiculously stiff. I'd love to put some numbers to this, but Factor chose not to be involved in our road bike stiffness tests earlier this year, so I'm left to infer from feeling. And the main 'feeling' is a lack thereof, because every time I ride it for more than about 40 minutes, my hands go numb. This is probably partly due to my weight being further forward and thus more supported by my hands, but there's no getting around how insanely stiff the bike - and specifically the cockpit - is.

In my entire history of riding other bikes, I can recall one instance of hitting a bump and my hands coming off the bars, causing me to almost crash. It's happened three times on this bike. I don't think that's a lack of attention on my part either; the jolt through the front end of the bike is so much more severe than I'm used to that smaller bumps that I'm otherwise happy to ride over are enough to dislodge my hands.

I've ridden the One with two different wheelsets (the 'normal' Sixty Two and the Hyper Sixty Two), two cockpits (110 and 130mm), with the Black Inc stock bar tape, without bar tape at all (through necessity for one ride) and with Fizik's Comfortfeel 3.5mm tape. The stiffness or numbness hasn't abated in any case.

Of course, I'm framing it as a problem, and it must be said that the One can accept 32mm tyres, but that stiffness has its benefits too. Yanking on the bars in an ugly-face, all-out sprint, the difference is night and day compared to pretty much anything else out there. Have you ever picked up an old smartphone and wondered how the hell you ever lived with it? That's kind of how I feel when I try to sprint on anything else now. The responsiveness in the pedals feels marginally better, but the feeling through the bars is ridiculously good.

It carries over into climbing too. The Factor ONE weighs 8.2kg in this setup (with pedals and computer, no bottles) but has the sprightly feel you get on a 6kg lightweight bike because of how the stiffness translates to the road. I doubt for a second it's actually undoing the 1.5kg deficit it has to the O2 VAM when it comes to a hill climb, but from a pure sensations point of view, it's a nice thing to have on a bike that can also then barrel along a flat road with ease.

And 'barrel along' it can. The ONE is a bike that enables the en vogue modern, progressive aero position, and for that I really like it. Partly because it lets me open up my hip angle and prevent pinching of my hip flexors, which has long caused me discomfort, but also because I get to ride in that racy, forward, purposeful position that has long-ago been shown to be more aero.

I've always been quite quad dominant in my pedalling technique too, and I feel this lets me play to that strength. This is also the first test bike I've had in years where I've not had to slam the saddle as far forward on the rails as it'll go, and I buy into the notion that a longer front-centre reduces the over-the-bar risk, even if it's not something I've ever really worried about before.

The downsides to this position mean I now have more trouble with my neck, because rotating my body forwards means my neck has to compensate in the opposite direction if I'm still to see where I'm going. I had it especially badly on the Ridley Noah Fast 3, but I seem to be in the minority in having this problem, so I'll brush it aside as a me problem for now.

But this all leads to the ONE feeling really at home. I'm loath to say it 'feels' fast, because so many other factors could come into play on any given day and we have the wind tunnel data to prove that it is – keep reading for that – but it 'feels' happy. The longer wheelbase adds high-speed stability, and where I found the Ridley Noah was buffeted by the wind quite easily with its deep wheels and mega head tube, the Factor is stable and surefooted. The switch to the Hyper wheels adds a slight twitchiness to the front end by dint of its reduced weight, but with either wheelset fitted, the bike was quite content ticking along at speed, even when the going got a bit blustery. And once I'd put the longer-reach cockpit on, I could sit in a nice long, low, narrow position and tick at speed nicely.

When the going gets twisty, however, I can't help but shake the feeling that the handling is actually comparatively slow in comparison to the Ostro Vam, Tarmac SL8 and SL9. I'd add the Noah Fast 3.0 to that mix too, but the Noah Fast I've ridden was a smaller frame size, so it's not a perfectly apples-to-apples comparison - not least since the Ridley geo is even longer and lower than this, with a slacker seat tube angle.

The extremely stiff cockpit kind of helps to offset this and give the impression of precision, and it goes extremely well on fast, sweeping descents where the roads are smooth because the front triangle flex that can cause vagueness under high load – like you get on the Y1Rs – isn't an issue here. But on tighter corners and hairpins, I'd often miss the apex. Overall, I just struggled to develop the intuition for how the bike would handle like I could on the OSTRO VAM, or like I can on the SL9. This is exacerbated when the road surface gets a little rougher, as is common here in the UK, as every bump is felt through the hands, making steering inputs more difficult.

Of course, I'm splitting hairs here, but it sort of bears out in the geometry charts in my frame size too. I think riders on smaller frames will probably feel differently, because in that comparison against other race bikes, the ONE's gets a steeper head tube and pairs it with a short wheelbase, but in my size, it's a different proposition with a longer wheelbase and no meaningful change to head tube angle and trail. Thanks to the position change, there's perhaps a little too much weight through my hands too. It's not a dealbreaker though. As I say, I'm splitting hairs and comparing an elite bike against other elite bikes, and it's perhaps something that I could reduce by playing around with more tyre sizes, different cockpits shifting my weight balance around to find a sweet spot.

Aero performance - wind tunnel test data

Cyclingnews subscribers will already be familiar with this, but the ONE can lay claim to the title of being the fastest bike we've ever tested in the wind tunnel, both with and without a rider. That's against a cohort of over 30 high-end road race bikes, and includes pretty much all the big players from Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Colnago, Cervelo and more.

The graph above shows the CdA (the measurement of how aerodynamic something is) at seven different wind angles, with 0° at the centre being a direct headwind, and a lower measurement being better or more aerodynamic.

The Factor One is highlighted, and it's clear that its aero credentials come to the fore as the wind angle increases.

Using the CdA from each of those wind angles and averaging them out, we then calculate the number of watts needed to overcome the aerodynamic drag of both the Factor One and dozens of other bikes that have been through the same test.

We use an old, basic bike as the comparison, and can see that the Factor One tops the list, saving 40.28 watts. Perhaps more usefully, it's two watts more aerodynamic (at 40km/h) than the next best bike.

With a rider on the bike, things shift a little, but the Factor is still within 0.04w of the top spot, which is well within the error margin of the test. In this test, it was 27.53W more aero than our baseline bike with a rider, and 7.9W more aero than the Tarmac SL8 (we're yet to test the SL9).

And in our third aero test, we swapped out the stock wheels for a 'control' wheel - the Enve SES 6.7.

This allows us to see how each bike compares with the exact same wheel-tyre combo, isolating the aero differences to the frame, fork, handlebar and so on.

In that test, we once again have Factor atop the tree with a sizeable step to the next best on test.

To read the full breakdown, head to our wind tunnel aero bikes shootout or our Factor One wind tunnel deep-dive.

Value

The price of this build is £14,588, or $15,788. Minus £1000 or $1100 for the 'standard' Black Inc Sixty Two wheelset.

That's £90 cheaper (or oddly, $288 more expensive) than a Colnago Y1Rs specced with the same groupset and a similar wheelset upgrade (Enve 4.5 SES wheels). But it's also £2,589 more than an off-the-peg S-Works Tarmac SL9.

To contextualise just how much money the Factor One will cost, here's a look at what else you could buy. You could buy a Tarmac SL8 Expert - Ultegra Di2 (£5,499), a Crux 5 Expert Force XPLR (£5999) and an Epic Hardtail (Comp, S-1000 AXS and Sid SL)

Alternatively, if you wanted a top-tier race product, you could buy a Canyon Aeroad CFR (£8029) and still have enough to buy that aforementioned brand new Crux 5.

Or to put another spin on it, if you're buying it because you want to get better at racing, you could buy that aforementioned Canyon Aeroad CFR, and then spend £300 a month on a support network of various coaches for 21 months to help you find significantly more than the few watts you're saving here.

Verdict

The Factor One is a singularly minded, out-and-out race bike, and for that type of riding it's really good, but it's an incredibly expensive tool for a specific purpose, not a versatile bike. It's the drywall screwdriver in the toolkit; brilliant at its job, and technically capable as an impact driver, but it'd soon get tiresome.

The handling might not feel quite as sharp as the OSTRO did, but it's still really fun to ride when you're trying to go fast. Racing, KOM hunting, or simply chasing your mates on it is a hoot, and the geometry allows that 'modern' position. It's longer, lower, but with a steepness to the seat tube that doesn't just stretch me out, instead letting me really get over the bottom bracket, drop my elbows and ride it hard.

As a result, it's a bike that holds pace on the flat as well as anything else out there, and the stiffness means sprinting is also better than anything else out there.

But the big takeaway is that it's so stiff that riding it every day becomes tiresome. Even after adding plush bar tape and swapping to my favourite saddle, I feel battered if I go for more than a couple of hours, not to mention my numb hands and pothole incidents.

As such, this is more a race tool than an everyday machine. And that throws up another issue in that it has such a divisive aesthetic that plenty of its potential buyers wouldn't actually feel comfortable turning up to their local race on one.

The ability to get into the modern position is really good. But the Noah Fast offers this too.

It's not a bike I'd overall recommend, unless for a very specific purpose.

As a collective, North America took 13 riders to this year's Tour de France Femmes, including six from Canada, five from the US and one each from Mexico and Cuba.

They were spread across nine teams in the peloton, with debutants and veterans among the crowd, along with a world champion and a GC contender.

The 13 North Americans at the Tour is a high watermark for the continent in five editions of the race, up from 11 at the Tours of 2022 and 2023. Three South American racers also took the start, another record. That meant a total of 16 from the 147 starters hailed from the Americas.

We tracked down several of the North American racers at the Tour to find out about their seasons and check in on how their races were going. Here are their stories.

Returning to the Tour after overcoming RED-S

First up was Canadian racer Kiara Lylyk. The 22-year-old raced the Tour, her second, for small French outfit Mayenne Monbana My Pie, alongside US rider Natalie Quinn. However, her campaign came to a premature end ahead of the Mont Ventoux stage after suffering from back pain during the week.

When Cyclingnews spoke to her ahead of stage 2, Lylyk said that she was happy to make the start in Lausanne, having spent much of 2026 recovering from RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport).

The syndrome occurs when athletes fail to take in enough energy to support what they expend during exercise, disrupting hormone production and causing a range of negative impacts, including fatigue, reduced immunity, early osteoporosis, and menstrual disorders.

"I had very last-minute notice of the race, so I just did the best with what I had. It's been a really rough year for me, coming back from RED-S. Just to be here and start is a big accomplishment. I'm just happy to be here," Lylyk said.

"I got my period back for the first time in three years, so that was the win of the year for me. Just getting better in training. I didn't think that was going to happen this year, so I'm just happy."

Conversations about RED-S took centre stage at last year's Tour, with several riders talking about the importance of menstruating and having open and positive conversations about rider weight and health.

Cédrine Kerbaol, Kim Le Court-Pienaar, and Emma Norsgaard were among those to broach the subject last summer. A host of other riders, including Cat Ferguson, Kaia Schmid, Veronica Ewers and Chloé Dygert, have also discussed their battle with RED-S.

"I think the team is much more aware of it. We've had a couple of cases of girls losing their periods and having RED-S. I think someone like Chloé Dygert talking about it is really important because she said, 'Yeah, you can be doing all the things right, and you don't even realise if it's not intentional'.

"It's important to recognise, and sometimes you can't focus on winning the bike race – it's just about being healthy."

Tour de France Femmes debutant turned GC star

Lylyk was joined at the race by five other Canadians, including 21-year-old Isabella Holmgren, who raced to a very impressive eighth place with Lidl-Trek. Holmgren, now in her third year as a pro, is the reigning Tour de l'Avenir champion and finished as best young rider with a seventh-place finish at the Giro d'Italia.

Highlights of her race included a fifth place in the hills to Belleville-en-Beaujolais and a sixth place in the Nice finale, not bad for someone who treated the Tour as a learning experience.

"The main goal was just to learn. It's my first Tour, and I've never experienced something like this before. We have the best team, and it's so nice to learn from all of the girls and have them there to support," Holmgren said after the race.

"I think stage 5 is probably one of the best stages that I had, but also for the team. We had three girls in the breakaway, and we were racing super aggressively. I was disappointed with Ventoux [she finished 10th – Ed.] but on that day it was everything that I had, so I need to be happy.

"It makes me really hungry. I know that the level is really, really high, but I want to be there in the future, so I'm definitely very motivated."

Other Canadians at the Tour included EF Education-Oatly's Magdeleine Vallieres Mill, the surprise World Champion still looking for her first win in the rainbow stripes. She raced to a solid 18th place overall, with 16th place on the final day her personal highlight.

"I think we've been in the mix every day, and we've had a really good team and strong team every day doing really good work together," she told Cyclingnews ahead of the final stage. "It's been nice to have some extra cheers because of the jersey, super special, and the atmosphere has been super good."

National time trial champion Nadia Gontova, racing for Liv-AlUla-Jayco, was thrilled to show off the Canadian colours in the Dijon time trial, meanwhile.

"It's been super cool and really special getting to ride in the National Champs kit and on my new bike here at the Tour," she told Cyclingnews.

"I don't think I quite had the legs I was hoping for, but it was still super cool, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. It's really nice to get to debut it at the Tour. Super cool."

Elsewhere, Cuba was represented by veteran racer Arlenis Sierra, who was part of Movistar's effort to score overall victory with Marlen Reusser. The team took their first yellow jersey since Annemiek van Vleuten's 2022 win, but the Swiss racer sadly dropped off the podium with a final-day crash on the Col d'Eze.

A self-coded training app already yielding results

Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner came to the Tour equipped with a special black-and-gold Cannondale SuperSix EVO with EF Education-Oatly, and a home-built training plan, too.

The 33-year-old US rider, a Harvard comp-sci graduate, spent a chunk of last off-season designing her own training app with the help of artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, she said that "The research I needed about my body did not exist. So I built it with AI."

The app collected a smorgasbord of biometric data, including heart rate, power numbers, sleep and menstrual cycle tracking, and bloodwork, and she credited it with her trio of triumphant rides, one on the road and two on the track, at the Pan American Championships.

Faulkner's top result in France was a strong sixth place in the mid-race time trial, while she ended the Tour in 26th overall, a career high.

"It was a really fun project for me. I feel like it's helped me a lot to understand my body better, understand how I'm performing and adapting, what works, and what doesn't. It's something that I still tune into a lot and find a lot of value from," she told Cyclingnews, before noting that she hasn't had a lot of time to put into the app since the season began.

"It may be something I return to in the off-season again. At this point, I'm trying to figure out what I do with this because I built something really valuable, but I'm still a full-time athlete. That's kind of an open-ended question for myself."

So far, it's been a personal project, and Faulkner hasn't been able to set aside the time to make the app available to others, including any teammates that may have expressed their interest in it.

"I think there are definitely opportunities to bring it to the team; I have nothing against that at all. I don't want to create something that other people are relying on me for when I can't be available during race season," she said.

Clearly, what Faulkner has created is working well for her so far, and it'll be interesting to see the returns in 2027 after another off-season of coding and tweaking.

Inspiring a nation on a historic Tour debut

The Tour de France Femmes welcomed its first-ever rider from Mexico this year as Romina Hinojosa made history for Lotto-Intermarché.

The 23-year-old, who made her Grand Tour debut at last year's Vuelta, battled to the end of the Tour after her team lost four of their seven riders in the opening three days of the race. Hinojosa herself was almost an OTL on stage 2, only narrowly beating the time cut by 1:41 in Geneva.

She improved as the race went on, though, making the breakaway along with one of her two remaining teammates, Sandrine Tas, on the road to Mont Ventoux. Her Tour drew to a close in Nice with a visit from her boyfriend, a certain Isaac del Toro, who waited in the team bus paddock for her to cross the line.

A day earlier in Sisteron, Hinojosa told Cyclingnews of her pride at representing her nation on cycling's biggest stage.

"I'm definitely very proud of it. I think I could go back and be like, 'Wow, I’m shit'. But no, actually I’m really proud," she said.

"This is the highest level, and seeing my progress, my personal ups and downs that I’ve had in the past years, I think I should be really proud of myself right now. So yeah, definitely going to work harder, but for now I’m really happy."

The Tour had taken its toll on both her and her Lotto teammates, but they kept on battling and smiling, Hinojosa said. Highlights for the team, the Ventoux breakaway aside, included Linda Riedmann's 10th place in Geneva and former speedskater Tas racing to 16th in the time trial.

"It’s definitely been a hard Tour de France. My first one, but it’s been hard. Every day I keep going on with a smile, and I really think it has made a difference in how I approach every day," Hinojosa said.

"I have been getting stronger day by day, so definitely next time I’m here I will be better prepared, but for now I’m really happy with everything."

American riders and teams racing aggressively and scoring GC results

Alongside EF Education-Oatly, Human Powered Health were the second US squad present at the Tour. They brought one US rider with them this time around as Lily Williams headed to France for the fourth time in her career.

This year, the 32-year-old has chased down some big results, including second places on stages of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de Suisse. Last week, she was part of a stage-hunting-turned-GC-focused team as Dutch racers Thalita de Jong and Nina Buijsman excelled in the hills and mountains. Their reward in Nice was 13th and 16th in the final standings, a top result considering that hadn't been their target in Lausanne.

"I think it’s impossible to plan for top results here. It’s just the biggest, hardest race of the year," Williams told Cyclingnews ahead of the penultimate stage.

"So I think we’ve kind of gotten better and better as the week goes. Thalita is 11th in GC, and we’ve had people in the finales on multiple days playing for the stage, so we’re just going to keep trying the last stage."

Williams had a major role to play for De Jong in the finale, too, after the Dutchwoman went over the limit on the opening climb, putting her GC spot at risk.

"Lily did an amazing job in the downhill to bring me back to the first group, but I also knew I gave so much that the climb would be really hard," she said.

"Luckily, we had a nice group; we did not go full because all the leaders were in front. We managed well to get to the finish line, but it was tough."

Elsewhere, a trio of North American battlers could be found aboard French squad St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. The team has ambitions following Premier Tech's arrival as a sponsor late last year and the team's upcoming decision to go all-in on women's racing.

Former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson of Canada was joined in the team by American duo Caroline Wreszin and Heidi Franz, the latter making their Tour debut.

Jackson and Franz wouldn't make the finish of the race, but they and the team were frequently seen attacking along the way.

"For us, the breakaways are so important. This year especially, we've really tried to establish a more aggressive tactic in the team, and I think that's gone really well so far this season. Especially here on the world's biggest stage, we need to be present in those moves," Franz said.

"Visibility is super important. We might have a little bit less pressure. We can race a bit more instinctively because we don't have an out-and-out GC favourite. I think that gives us some freedom to race instinctively and aggressively without feeling like we have a lot to lose. We have more to gain by being aggressive and trying things rather than being conservative and holding back just in case. That's our mentality."

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Célia Gery has commented publicly for the first time since being accused of foul play by Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney at the Tour de France Femmes, saying "it was really difficult to go through".

The French champion, teammate of eventual winner Demi Vollering, was confronted by their chief rival, Niewiadoma-Phinney after stage 8, with the Canyon-SRAM racer accusing Gery of 'blocking' her at a key moment in the finale.

"I lost all respect for them," said Niewiadoma, who added: "I feel like if they want to compete, they should compete fair play."

Vollering and the FDJ United-Suez team management came to the defence of Gery, but the rider herself kept silent on the matter. She did not speak to the media at the start of the final stage the following morning and has remained silent on social media since the race began.

However, comments have now surfaced via the French cycling website Direct Vélo, who spoke to Gery after the podium ceremony in Nice on the final day, but only published their story on Tuesday afternoon.

"It was really difficult to go through, but hey, voila, that's how it is," Gery said.

FDJ United-SUEZ had indicated that Gery had received a wave of abuse following the incident, with team director Lars Boom even talking of death threats.

"She got a lot of nasty messages, which makes me always very angry, especially because she's such a young girl still," said Vollering. "We should always protect young people from these kinds of stupid actions from people who don't think and just send a message."

Gery did not address the impact of the wider reaction beyond that brief comment she made. However, she did indicate that she could look back on the race with positive feelings.

"It really does me good to finish in this way," she said after Vollering had soloed to the stage and overall victories on the final day, which also put a nail in the coffin of any speculation that the incident had an impact on the final result of the race.

"It does me even more good and gives me even more pleasure that Demi won given what happened alongside it.

"I'm really happy," she added. "It was a superb experience with the victory at the end of it. It's the dream scenario."

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Australia may be a nation where the winter wardrobe is widely highlighted by the striped scarves in the colours of your chosen AFL (Australian Football League) team – and yes, having it on is just about mandatory if you don't want to be a social pariah – but that doesn't mean that a considerable chunk of the population isn't also tuning in for the highlight of the cycling calendar, the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes.

In the nation, which has a population of 28 million, national broadcaster SBS said more than six million tuned in to watch the men's and women's editions of the French Grand Tour, which ran from July 4-26 and August 1-9 and was delivered free to air by a commentary team led by Matthew Keenan, but also including key cycling figures such as Cadel Evans, Caleb Ewan and Grace Brown.

The Total TV reach – a tally of individuals reached for the minimum period of 60 seconds for TV and 15 seconds for Broadcast Video on Demand – for the two races combined was 6.15 million. That was 5.21 million for the 21-stage men's race won by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and 1.51 million for the 9-stage women's race won by Demi Vollering (FDJ United - SUEZ).

That compares with a Total TV Reach of 5.57 million last year, with 5.19 million for the men's race and 1.8 million for the women's race, according to figures put out by the broadcaster in 2025.

That signifies an increase in the men's race, which overlapped with the FIFA World Cup for two weeks, but a decline in the women's race, which perhaps shouldn't be a surprise, given that in 2025 there was the additional draw of Sarah Gigante. The young Australian was, at one point, threatening to take a podium spot, finished second on the Queen stage and also came sixth overall.

SBS Sport also said its Tour de France third-party platform performance grew by 450%, with 660 million views on SBS Sport social media platforms across both races. That included a 405% increase for the Tour de France and an 812% increase for the Tour de France Femmes.

The SBS report follows news from broadcaster France Télévisions that 23.2 million in France watched at least a minute of the Tour de France Femmes coverage, while 45.6 million viewers watched at least a minute of the men's race.

The viewership numbers come at a time when calls are increasing for the delivery of live coverage across all stages of the women's race – with three broadcast live in 2026 – which would bring it in line with the broadcast of the men's event.

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A new Cube aero road bike has been hiding in plain sight since June this year. That model, along with a host of other new machines, has now been officially released by the brand.

Both Tour de France races are over for the year, and hot, lazy August days at times feel like downtime before the excitement begins to build again for the year's final big races like the Vuelta a España and the World Championships.

But Cube is already looking even further ahead to 2027 and has pretty much announced its full bike lineup for next year, including the mystery aero bike we have wanted more information on for months.

We saw Team TotalEnergies with the new Cube aero bike at the Tour-Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes back in June, and the team has raced with it ever since.

That bike was announced today as the latest version of the Litening Aero C:68X; it's lighter, more aero and, in context, really rather 'cheap'. We have more details on Cube's range-topper below.

Since this is the first 2027 range news we've released, and possibly because we're excited for any news on next year's bikes, we've included an overview of some of the other models on offer from Cube as well.

The new CUBE Litening Aero C:68X

There is no model name change for the Litening Aero C:68X, but the brand's range-topper has undergone some changes in this latest update.

Cube hasn't gone into fine details regarding the design process for the new machine, but we've got the key points here.

The frame and fork are now 150 grams lighter and have 34mm tyre clearance. The steering forkstop pin has also gone, providing a bigger range of movement from the handlebars.

Geometry also remains the same, with no big changes taking place between the new and outgoing models, although a size 62cm frame has now been introduced.

The frame is said to be lighter, stiffer and more aero than the outgoing model, with a quoted aerodynamic saving of 6.2 watts. That's all the detail we have on that front for now, though I have asked the brand for more information.

There's a fresh carbon seatpost which is said to be 10% more comfortable, and that area of the bike is the easiest to differentiate between the old and new models. The new bike has a seat tube / top tube junction that drops away at an angle; look to that area if you are spotting the new bike.

There is also a new integrated handlebar specifically for the bike. Cube says the IC Aero Max cockpit helps put the rider into a more aero position. We got a little more info on the bar, and Cube told us there are palm support dents on the tops, special bar tape cutouts for where the tape is designed to end, and a little bit of flare to the drops. The brand is also speccing narrower bars and shorter cranks on 2027 bikes.

Prices for the bike begin at £4,999, but top-spec Dura-Ace (claimed 7.1kg weight) or SRAM Red builds - with Newmen Streem carbon wheels, Schwalbe Pro One Aero tyres, and the Aero Max cockpit - will set you back just £7,499 or €7,299. Still a chunk of money, but a very attractive price point in this top-tier aero bike category.

The lightest bike in the range isn't even the most expensive; the 6.9kg Orbit model with SRAM Red XPLR 1X drivetrain comes in at £6,999 / €6,999.

Road and gravel bikes

It's not all 7K Dura-Ace race bikes today; Cube has made some changes to its gravel and more affordable road lines too.

The Attain endurance bike range has received attention; specs have been strengthened across aluminium and carbon models, and a carbon frame model now starts at £2,500 with Shimano 105 Di2, carbon wheels and an integrated handlebar, which sounds like a competitively priced package that should rival bikes like the Canyon Endurace.

The Nuroad gravel range has also had an update, and another contender for one of the best specced gravel bikes around is the Nuroad C:62 SLT (pictured above). It's one of the few bikes on the market right now with an SRAM Red XPLR groupset for under £7,000.

Coming in at 8kg with Red XPLR, Newmen Streem wheels and Schwalbe G ONE RS Pro tyres, its RRP is £6,499. It also has mudguard mounts, rejoice!

Mountain and hybrid bikes

Cube's range could be called comprehensive; there are a lot of bikes. When it comes to mountain bikes, the brand has resurrected a previously discontinued model and streamlined a big range.

The Fritzz was discontinued back in 2018, but after a hiatus the brand has reworked and returned it to the range as an Enduro bike which will replace the Stereo One77 model. We don't have full details on the suspension and frame angles, but the bike will sport 170mm of travel, use a high pivot design and come with a mullet wheel setup as stock.

The sizable Stereo range, which until now consisted of 14 models, has been streamlined to a 150mm / 145mm travel bike and two carbon frame options. A Shimano XT-equipped bike will come in at £2,199, further reinforcing the Cube value offering.

Finally, whilst various hardtail and hybrid bikes have also received updates, there's a brand new model in the shape of the carbon-framed e-bike, the Supreme Hybrid C:62 deluxe. Both versions of the bike have a Gates carbon drive, integrated lighting, fenders, frame lock, kickstand and luggage rack. Prices start at £4,899 for this.

Rosa Klöser may have just spent nine days racing the Tour de France Femmes, supporting her Canyon-SRAM teammate Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney in a finely balanced battle for yellow, but just because that huge challenge has been completed doesn't mean the time has now come for the German rider to put her feet up. Instead, the multi-discipline racer and Life Time Grand Prix competitor has another entirely different debut ahead at Leadville Trail 100 MTB.

The unconventional path, however, is well-trodden territory for the rider who made a late entry into competitive cycling while still a PhD student. She went from being a commuter to a local racer in 2022, became a gravel racer in 2023 and then quickly rose to the top of the gravel world in 2024 by winning Unbound 200 on debut. Klöser then also joined Canyon-SRAM on the road in 2025 and quickly proved her competence in another discipline, debuting at Paris-Roubaix in her first season and finishing a more than respectable 31st, all while still delivering gravel results near the top of the standings.

There was no getting comfortable in 2026 either, with Klöser adding a spot in the six-event Life Time Grand Prix Series to the agenda, along with her first-ever Grand Tour. True to form, it was the biggest of them all – the Tour de France Femmes.

"What an incredible experience and bike race to be part of, especially with an incredible Canyon-SRAM team. Beyond proud of our double GC trouble Kasia Niewiadoma & Antonia Niedermaier but also all my other extremely strong and talented teammates," said Klöser in an Instagram post after Niewiadoma finished second overall and Niedermaier fourth.

"Thanks to all the girls & staff - who supported me through my first Grand Tour!"

Despite her limited road experience – racing ten race days with Canyon-SRAM in 2025 and six this year before taking on the Tour de France Femmes – Klöser was clearly up to the challenge.

"Personally, I was flying the first three days and was really happy with how I could support the girls in positioning and being represented in the breakaways, as well as covering moves or even doing leadouts, also had my first TT race ever, unfortunately caught a cold around stage 5 & kissed the tarmac on a downhill just 3 km out from Ventoux on stage 7," said Klöser. "Therefore, stage 8 & 9 were survival and without my teammates in mind I would have stopped, but we made it all the way to the line in Nice."

There, Klöser crossed the final finish line with teammate Chiara Consonni, taking 111th place on stage 9 and 43rd overall, though the prize at the end was substantial regardless. She had made it through her first Tour de France Femmes and contributed to her teammates' impressive results.

"Ultimately, I came to learn and support the girls as best as possible, I LEARNED that I have a lot to learn (also I guess I will become a slave of heat training and better recovery/sleep management)," said Klöser.

Sleep and recovery, however, may be two things that aren't so easy to fit in over the next few days as another, arguably even bigger, leap into the unknown awaits on Saturday.

While Klöser has spread her wings on gravel and on the road, committing to the six-event Life Time Grand Prix series also meant committing to another discipline, given three of the six races are mountain bike events and the first of these is Leadville Trail 100 MTB.

That means many of Klöser's rivals have been brushing up on their mountain bike skills during the series hiatus after Unbound at the end of May. On the other hand, the rider who is now in third place on the series leaderboard has been heading into her debut with time on the tarmac, negotiating the ebb and flow of the peloton rather than that of the rough terrain.

What's more, there has been little time for recovery after finishing the Tour unwell and even less time to check out the unfamiliar course, recently altered due to wildfires, given she has just finished racing in France and has to throw a ten-hour flight into the mix.

Still, Klöser has proven she is a rider who knows how to perform on debut, even in challenging circumstances. Plus, she's already managed to cram Paris-Roubaix and Sea Otter Classic Gravel in within the space of four days at the beginning of the season and then topped it off by turning around and going back to Europe to win The Traka 360 two weeks later.

It may be hard to know where Klöser will sit on the race and series leaderboard after Leadville on Saturday, but one thing that her record clearly shows is that she won't be afraid to dive right in and embrace the challenge of the 102-mile, high-altitude mountain bike race.

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Human Powered Health made its first move for next season and signed Polish all-rounder Marta Lach for the next two years, beginning in January.

The Women’s WorldTour team refers to her as a 'Classics powerhouse', as evidenced by her finishing speed on a variety of terrain and conditions. She has won Festival Elsy Jacobs à Garnich each of the last three years and has a total of 16 victories across eight pro seasons.

The now 29-year-old has been among the top five most productive riders for SD Worx-Protime the last two seasons, earning 10 podiums.

“I’m really good in the Classic races, especially the crazy ones, like Antwerp or Roubaix, but I also really like sprints after a hard race. I’m very ambitious, always fighting until the end,” she said in a Human Powered Health press release.

"I would really love to use this potential, and I hope in Human Powered Health we can really use it as an advantage. It’s an international team, and the happiness that I see between the girls, and the mentality to push forward, and to be happy on the bike drew me to the project. This environment seems to be a good one for me.

"I believe that with the team, we can achieve a lot. Also to grow as a person and as a rider.”

That allure of the US-based WorldTour squad led to a call between her agent and Human Powered Health General Manager Ro de Jonckere. The reaction was immediate, as De Jonckere said, "we did not hesitate for a second".

"The deal was done within 24 hours, which says a lot about how strongly we believe in Marta and what she can bring to this team. She is an incredibly strong and versatile rider, with all the qualities we love to see in an athlete," De Jonckere said.

"As we continue our commitment to building Human Powered Health into a top WorldTour team, Marta is one of our key signings for the next two seasons. We feel she fits our philosophy perfectly, and we are very excited to have her join us.”

She was a fan of the Olympic Games as a child and has gone on to represent Poland twice, in 2024 finishing 10th in the road race in Paris and adding a top 20 in the time trial.

Lach gained experience with her versatile style at SD Worx-Protime, from cobbled one-day races, such as Nokere Koerse where she won last year, to stage races, taking second on a stage and the overall mountains classification at the Tour de Suisse Women.

"I’m grateful for the past, for these people that I’ve had the chance to meet along the way, and I look back on this time with gratitude. Now, I’m excited to take the new step of my career,” she added.

Cyclingnews will cover all of the 2026 cycling transfers from around the men's and women's pelotons with news, analysis, and an updated transfer index, to make sure you don't miss a thing this transfer season.

Tour de France Femmes broadcaster France Télévisions has announced that the race has broken TV audience records in the country again this year.

Last summer's edition, which saw home success with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot capturing the yellow jersey and Maëva Squiban winning two stages, set record viewing highs that have now been pushed even higher.

A 32.9% average audience share across all nine stages set a record unmatched in the previous four editions of the race, while "23.2 million French people watched at least one minute of the race," reported France Télévisions.

A peak audience of 5.1 million viewers tuned in to watch Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney soar to a stage win and the yellow jersey atop Mont Ventoux with an average audience share of 41.5%. The final day in Nice brought in 3.5 million viewers.

The race's nine stages averaged 2.6 million viewers, down 100,000 on 2025, though that's to be expected given the lack of home success and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's withdrawal.

Elsewhere, online video viewership on france.tv and franceinfo also rose (4.5 million views, up 18% on 2025), as did views on the broadcaster's social media channels (60 million, up 6%). There was also improvement in youth audience viewing figures, with the audience share among 15-to-34-year-olds rising to 24.7%.

"The fifth edition of the Tour de France Femmes has reached a historic milestone in terms of audience share, consolidating the lasting place of women’s cycling in the French broadcasting landscape," read a statement from France Télévisions.

The news comes amid calls for the race to be broadcast in full to match the men's edition, which began full coverage of all stages back in 2017. This year's edition of the Tour de France Femmes saw three stages, including the Lausanne opener, the hilly stage 5, and the finale in Nice, receive start-to-finish broadcasts.

During this year's race, Cycling Weekly reported that riders were disappointed by the situation, which notably missed the start of Sigrid Haugset's record-breaking 88km winning effort on stage 3 to Poligny.

Race director Marion Rousse said that she has held discussions with France Télévisions on the subject. She sounded a note of hope for future implementation of full-stage coverage.

"What’s certain is that I’ve discussed this at length with France Télévisions, and we’re giving serious consideration to broadcasting all the stages in full in the future because the women deserve it, and because it works well in terms of audience figures," she said.

"We’re currently giving it real consideration, which is a step forward. Things are moving in the right direction."

Meanwhile, UCI President David Lappartient hailed the Tour's progress, in particular the TV viewing figures and ASO's ambitions.

"The TV audiences are also very high," he told WielerFlits.

"I think it's important to consolidate the popularity of this race, to also have live TV from the start to the finish. That was the case today, but it will not be the case for all the other stages.

"But we can really see that the organiser ASO is trying to improve every year and do something more every year. I really see a bright future for women's cycling and the Tour de France Femmes."

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Elisa Longo Borghini and UAE Team L'IMAD celebrated a successful Tour de France Femmes on Sunday evening as the Italian finished third overall and the team placed two other riders in the top 10, as well as taking home the teams prize.

But, amid the revelry on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, Longo Borghini had an important message to share in the post-race press conference.

Her consistent performances throughout the race saw her take third behind Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and nine days of racing between Lausanne and Nice proved all is well at the very top level of the sport. However, Longo Borghini had a warning about cycling's lower levels – the ranks of the amateur, under-23, and junior racers.

"What I would like to see is the base to be a little bit more wide, let's say, and to not see small teams disappearing, because otherwise we will not have a change of generation. Young girls will not have a chance to have experience," Longo Borghini said.

With her Tour podium, she only added to one of the most impressive palmarès in cycling. It stands alongside a pair of Giro d'Italia titles and Olympic bronze medals plus wins at Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders (twice), and Strade Bianche.

None of that would've been possible without the support she received as a junior racer, however.

"I did the third year of juniors because I was not good. I never did a single European Championship or World Championship as a junior, and now I'm standing on the podium of the Tour de France," she said.

"Who knows – maybe out there, there is a strong girl that didn't get the chance to go into a development team at the moment and is still riding maybe in Continental or not in a UCI team. I would like to see more races for young girls, under-23, in the future."

In Longo Borghini's native Italy and another traditional cycling powerhouse, Spain, the number of UCI teams has fallen dramatically in the past three years. Italy has gone from seven to five, while Spain has gone from 10 to just two.

Several teams, including Eneicat-Be Call, Massi-Baix Ter, Farto-Kiroot, Cantabria-Rio Meira, AR Monex, and BTC City Ljubljana, have dropped from the Continental rank to club level in recent years, limiting riders' access to international and higher-level races.

In Spain in particular, the problem comes down to small teams being unable to match the UCI's minimum salary rules.

"The problem is that they put a minimum salary for Conti teams that is too high for teams. At the same time, the salary for Conti teams is a national rule, so every country is going its own way, resulting in clear discrimination," Eneicat-Be Call rider Alessia Missiaggia told Cyclingnews earlier this year.

It remains to be seen whether the lower levels of women's cycling can be strengthened as Longo Borghini hopes, but she did acknowledge that, at the top level, things are better than ever.

Greater competition than ever before has led to climbing and power records being broken, as well as increased attention and viewing figures.

"The level of women's cycling in general is very high at the moment. At the Tour de France, it's always funny because all these numbers come out about watts per kilo and time of climbing and stuff like that. But in every Grand Tour, if we can call them like this for us, we are breaking records," she said.

"Also at the Giro last year, 5.3 watts per kilo was done, but nobody spoke about it because it was not the Tour. I'm very happy that here, at least, we are speaking about the fact that women are fast on the bike. We are reaching a great level in general in cycling."

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

Up-and-coming Catalan star Paula Blasi has recognised that the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was a steeper learning curve than she expected, but has promised that she will be back at the Tour with a wealth of race knowledge acquired from this August's edition.

Blasi, 23, has already won the Vuelta Femenina, Amstel Gold Race and Volta a Catalunya in her first full season, and those breakthrough results raised expectations enormously about what she could do in her first-ever Tour de France, which she completed in fifth overall.

However, a lack of initial clarity, pre-race, about her exact role in a very strong UAE Team L'IMAD line-up combined with intense media speculation. It finally faded away as the team centred increasingly on the defence of Elisa Longo Borghini's top placing overall, and as Blasi told TV3 at the time, what had been a 'massive ball of stress' lifted from her shoulders.

Apart from Blasi's top-five finish, her squad came away with top spot in the teams prize and third place overall for Longo Borghini, and seventh for Domenica Włodarzyck, as well as a second place overall in the BYR ranking for Blasi, a classification she led for the first four days.

"It's been a real roller coaster," was how the Catalan described her first impressions of the race on Tuesday to AS.

"There were days when things went badly, others that were a bit better. I think I really got back on terms on stage 6, but I suffered from the stress you live through in the bunch as well.

"It was my first Tour, and truth to tell, it's not like any other race. You have to get used to it."

As a natural optimist, Blasi argued that she would like to believe the Tour is a race she can win. But she also said it was more challenging than she had expected, too.

"I've realised I'm not as close [to the very top] as maybe I thought. When they attack, I was lacking that extra little percent or two it takes.

"So I've got homework to do, and I hope to have done it in time for the next times round."

Blasi told AS that rather than form in itself, though, she realised that she had wasted a lot of energy due to poor placing. That was a steep learning curve that she mastered though, or as she said, "between the rider who turned up for stage 1 of the Tour and the one now… there's a world of difference."

"From day 1, you're going all out, full gas. I was actually surprised by that, and I told myself - hey, what happened to all that preparation you had?

"I was suffering from day 1, and that was, in theory, the easiest stage." But then I realised positioning was fundamental. If you aren't in the right place and you're too far back, then you need to shift double the amount of watts. So that's something I've learned."

Overall, she said, "I have to trust myself more, because when the high mountains come, the legs are there."

Having multiple cards to play in the shape of herself and Longo Borghini, the two strongest riders in UAE in terms of results, was a big advantage, she said. That was particularly the case as the race was very anarchic at times, and "the minute things started getting hectic, people were losing their teammates and ending up isolated. I think having two riders up there was a big plus."

Overall for Blasi, while the results throughout the Tour have given her a lot of confidence in the future and showed she has a role to play in cycling's top event, she also insisted she has to keep her feet firmly on the ground and not get overly ambitious too soon.

"It was my first Tour, all but my first year in the WorldTour so I don't think I can ask for much more," she said. "And I'm also getting more realistic.

"I wanted to show myself that the legs I had in the Vuelta could also count in the Tour, that it wasn't just a fluke."

Grand Tour racing in 2026 is now behind her, but as a bronze medallist in last year's World's U23 Road Race, Blasi promised that she would be heading to Canada this September to try and up her game there in Spanish national colours, too. Or as she put it to AS with her usual optimism, "That's definitely going to happen."

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The 2026 Tour de France Femmes is in the rearview mirror and the 21 teams that made up this year's race are all taking stock. But which ones will be basking in the glow of a successful Tour and which will be frustrated at what they managed to take from the race?

Here, we go through the peloton team by team, analysing their performances across the nine days of racing. We'll take a look at the highlights, the areas for improvement, and we'll be giving each team a one-word review.

We haven't ranked the teams ourselves but we have structured this in order of the prize money list – more on that subject here. In the past we've used the teams classification as our order but the prize money feels like a better reflection of the impact each team had upon the race.

FDJ United-SUEZ

• One-word review: Awe-inspiring
• Achievements: Overall victory, three stage wins, six stage podium finishes
• Room to improve: Barring the tactical miscalculation on Mont Ventoux, not much

FDJ United-SUEZ have come a long, long way since the team first began as Vienne-Futuroscope, and even if they hadn't achieved anything in the TdFF, victories in Strade Bianche, Flanders, Liège, Paris-Roubaix and the Giro this season already make it one of their best.

And now? As if becoming the first ever French team to win the Tour de France Femmes outright – and having the first double winner in Demi Vollering – wasn't notable enough, they were the only team to take more than two stage wins, again thanks to Vollering's hat-trick of victories.

It's worth wondering what French champion Célia Géry might have achieved, had she been given her own options. But instead this was a one-card bet – and given Vollering's track record, you can hardly blame them – that paid off enormously.

On Tuesday, their newly reinforced position at the top of the UCI team ranking will be confirmed, but regardless of what happens now in the rest of the season or what preceded it, August alone has made this year a runaway success. (AF)

Canyon-SRAM

• One-word review: Inspirational
• Achievements: Second overall, fourth overall, one stage win, white jersey, one day in yellow, four stage podium finishes
• Room to improve: Overall victory, but they barely put a foot wrong

What more could Canyon-SRAM have achieved in this year's race, beyond winning? "You need brains and legs for the Ventoux," rival Elisa Longo Borghini wisely pointed out, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney's all-out effort to claim yellow and the stage win fully reflected that.

Firstly, a brilliant strategic combination of attacking from distance to ensure her rivals would hesitate behind her on the tougher upper slopes; secondly, having the legs to pull it all off.

If Niewiadoma-Phinney was the highest-profile individual success, at 23, Antonia Niedermaier's fourth place and best young rider win mark her out as the top future achiever of the race. Twice second overall and twice best young rider in the Giro, Niedermaier's Tour success puts the German in a whole new league.

During the race, FDJ and UAE were the most active squads throughout the mountain stages. But top climbing performances by non-specialists like Zoe Bäckstedt right up to the last day – where the time-trialling star set a new best-ever 20-minute power number on the second climb of the day – were testament to Canyon's collective strength and team spirit no matter the terrain. (AF)

UAE Team L'IMAD

• One-word review: Consistent
• Achievements: Third, fifth, and seventh overall, team classification, two stage podium finishes
• Room to improve: Not much to note here, aside from scoring a stage win or two

After much speculation in the media about their team leadership structure, in many ways, UAE Team L'IMAD's victory in the team prize provides the ideal answer to whether they were operating as a cohesive unit. But arguably an even clearer response came on Mont Ventoux, where Elisa Longo Borghini and Paula Blasi worked perfectly together to limit the gap on early attackers on the climb, then reel in a flagging Marlen Reusser.

Longo Borghini reaching the Tour podium on the final day might have been helped in part by Reusser's crash on stage 9, but by the point she fell, the Movistar rider was already reportedly struggling.

UAE's one real gap was a stage win: Maëva Squiban's nasty crash late on stage 8 arguably did away with their biggest opportunity, while Longo Borghini chasing down the late breaks on stage 6 possibly tired her out too much for the finale.

Yet for the Italian national champion, claiming third overall after so much bad luck in the Tour constituted the best result possible, given Niewiadoma and Vollering's superiority. And getting three riders in the top ten with Longo Borghini, Blasi, and Polish national champion Dominika Włodarczyk is another testament to their strength in depth. (AF)

SD Worx-Protime

• One-word review: Contrasting
• Achievements: Two stage wins, green jersey, three stage podium finishes, two days in yellow
• Room to improve: Lotte Kopecky was quiet aside from one day in the break, while Anna van der Breggen was unfortunate to fall ill

Lorena Wiebes delivered exactly as was expected of the number one sprinter in the world on not one but two occasions, with stunning victories on the opening two days also allowing her to wear yellow for 48 hours. As a result, it feels harsh to criticise SD Worx-Protime. After all, in a race where just six teams of the 21 actually won stages (and only three more than one), dominating the opening weekend was an impressive result.

That said, that incredibly positive-looking scenario came rather unstuck as soon as the GC stages and hilly days kicked in. Anna van der Breggen's low-key performance due to not feeling well from the start, according to the squad, finally saw the Dutch veteran abandon. And if Lotte Kopecky had succeeded in bridging across to Haugset on stage 3, rather than falling short by 10 seconds, there's no knowing what would have happened given her natural speed.

The presence of Wiebes on the final podium as points winner was another major triumph, particularly after such a difficult last stage for sprinters through the mountains of Nice. But whilst it's hard not to fall into the dangerous habit of taking Wiebes' sprint wins for granted, such is her strike rate, compared to that near-certainty, the more unpredictable elements of the race for SD Worx left more than a few question marks.

It was a Tour of marked contrasts, then, even if the final balance was positive. (AF)

Lidl-Trek

• One-word review: Potential
• Achievements: Eighth and 10th overall, one stage podium
• Room to improve: They were never far from the thick of the action, but didn't quite convert that into a big win

Teams will often resort to the "it's not just about the results" line when they fail to achieve much concrete, but in the case of Lidl-Trek, the bare numbers – two places in the lower half of the top ten on GC and one top-three podium finish – certainly don't do justice to what they achieved.

Riding her first Tour de France and making it to eighth overall at the age of just 21, for Canadian Isabella Holmgren, for example, feels very much like the starting point of something much bigger, particularly after taking two top-ten finishes in the Giro d'Italia despite her comparatively young age. A 39-kilometre break for Riejanne Markus on stage 2, only caught almost within sight of the finish, and a 100-kilometre break for Loes Adegeest on stage 8, reeled in well inside the host city of Nice, were equally promising.

Niamh Fisher-Black's fourth place in Nice was another good reminder of Lidl-Trek's determined bids for success, as was Elisa Balsamo's runner-up spot on stage 1. Three combativity awards for Lidl-Trek also spoke volumes about their collective commitment, of which getting three riders in the break of the day on stage 5 (one of them Holmgren) was another prime example. If the results didn't come, it wasn't for lack of effort – or for lack of signs that in the future, things could well work out differently. (AF)

EF Education-Oatly

• One-word review: Tenacious
• Achievements: One stage podium, sixth overall.
• Room to improve: All-round consistency. They needed a stage win to give their race that extra shine

As Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's GC bid withered and died, French interest inevitably moved to the next best-placed overall racer from the home country. And while EF's GC leader Cédrine Kerbaol left no room for doubt that she was in fine form, capturing sixth overall in Nice, the absence of fireworks on a scale with Ferrand-Prévot's lone Alpine raid perhaps made the Breton's race seem a little underwhelming from the outside.

Yet at the same time, while Kerbaol did turn in a fine attack on Ventoux midway up at one point – and Noemi Rüegg's work for Kerbaol on the same climb was testament to their strong cohesiveness as a squad – probably the most impressive ride by Kerbaol came in terms of her bounce-back before that.

After she lost time on the anarchic stage through the Beaujolais, Kerbaol then went on the rampage on stage 6 and came within a whisker of challenging Kim Le Court-Pienaar for the stage.

It was France's best result for an individual day in the race. And even if it didn't succeed, it certainly pushed her back into the top positions overall: indeed, with seven top-ten finishes throughout the week, that kind of resilience was what most characterised her performance in the Tour – and her team's. (AF)

AG Insurance-Soudal

• One-word review: Singular
• Achievements: Ninth overall and a stage win
• Room to improve: The success was rather one-dimensional

With a stage win and a spot in the top 10 of the general classification, AG Insurance-Soudal got what they came to the Tour de France Femmes for. Kim Le Court-Pienaar was responsible for both and was very much the star of the show for the Belgian team. Shari Bossuyt was fourth on stage 2, but otherwise the rest of the squad, including Urška Žigart and Lore De Schepper, were quiet.

But Le Court was not, and in fairness to the others, much of the workload revolved around guiding the Mauritian into position on most days. After placing second on the opening day and fifth two days later, Le Court-Pienaar bagged her win in thrilling style on stage 6, making a late charge across to the breakaway, negotiating a tricky tactical finale, and sprinting it out in fierce fashion. It was a storming win on a thrilling day.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. The win put her into ninth overall, and that’s where she remained after a final three days of aggressive GC action that included a top 10 on Mont Ventoux. The rest of the team might have been quiet enough, but after her breakthrough 2025 – which featured a stage win and 16th overall at the Tour – Le Court-Pienaar is still very much a rider on the rise. (PF)

Movistar

• One-word review: Sad
• Achievements: A stage win plus three days in yellow
• Room to improve: Finishing the job

Movistar’s Tour de France ended on a downer, as team leader Marlen Reusser crashed on the final day, finished outside the top 100, and slipped from third to 14th overall. Reusser had already been dropped on the second ascent of the Col d’Eze, so her podium position was already in doubt, and that would still have counted as a disappointing end, but as she trailed home, she no longer had the chance to truly fight for it.

Reusser had enjoyed a great Tour, winning the time trial and spending three days in yellow, even if it came to an end in frustrating fashion amid a tactical duel with Demi Vollering on Mont Ventoux. But Vollering was so strong on the final two days that the podium was realistically the ceiling. For a rider who has podiumed the other two Grand Tours but still seems to face doubts over her GC credentials, a Tour podium would have been a fine achievement, but she can still take plenty of heart after what has been a disrupted season.

As for the rest of her team, Liane Lippert might have hoped to sprint a little better than sixth place from a break on stage 6, but otherwise the squad was mostly rallying around Reusser, with all the talk of a very positive spirit in the team, which only heightened the sense of sadness at the end. (PF)

Visma-Lease a Bike

• One-word review: Dire
• Achievements: Three stage podium finishes, 12th overall
• Room to improve: A proper GC bid

When you have the defending champion, who won with such staggering superiority 12 months ago, it’s hard to describe this as anything other than a shocker for Visma-Lease a Bike. Off the pace in the time trial and three minutes down on the following stage, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s yellow jersey defence was over even before Mont Ventoux, and her race was over the following morning.

The Frenchwoman made suggestions that her level was just as good as last year – and that of her rivals had simply risen – but it didn’t explain the gaping gulf, and there were further question marks after she pulled out with an unspecified illness. Elsewhere, there wasn’t quite enough to make a success of it all. Marianne Vos could only manage a couple of podium placings in the early stages, while Femke De Vries tried to step into the GC shoes but eventually placed 12th after struggling on Ventoux.

The ride of Visma’s race came from Lieke Nooijen, who was second – and only four seconds off the win – in the time trial. Marion Bunel was 11th on Ventoux and still very much a climber for the future, but in the here and now, Visma’s Tour was always going to be judged against the defending champion, and she fell completely flat. (PF)

Fenix-Premier Tech

• One-word review: Single-minded
• Achievements: Polka dot jersey, one stage podium
• Room to improve: After a convincing mountain classification win, the team may well be thinking about upping the stakes across the board in future

After losing the overall in the mountains competition to Justine Ghekiere two years ago on the last day possible, it's fair to say that Puck Pieterse had a mission to accomplish in the Tour this year. And even if there was no stage win like in 2024 to make her triumph even more special, wearing the polka-dot jersey from stage 3 right the way through to the finale on the Tour with the most elevation gain is no mean achievement.

She also took her team's only stage podium finish, placing third on stage 6 behind Kim Le Court-Pienaar and Cédrine Kerbaol. Having made a point of getting in her first break on the very hilly stage 5, Pieterse confirmed afterwards that it was her main goal of the race, and indeed, her final total of 55 points was the highest for any Queen of the Mountains winner, and well clear even of the all-conquering Demi Vollering. (AF)

Uno-X Mobility

• One-word review: Exemplary
• Achievements: One stage win, one day in yellow, one stage podium finish
• Room to improve: Beyond moving into GC contention, nothing

When it comes to Grand Tour participation for anything other than a major GC team, how do you improve on an 89km solo breakaway that ends with a rider, Sigrid Haugset, both clinching the stage win and taking the yellow jersey? The answer is simple: you can't.

The Norwegian national champion's lone blast for glory wasn't just the longest successful break in the Tour de France Femmes to date; it instantly converted Uno-X's participation into a major collective triumph. In a year when smaller teams were finding it exceptionally difficult to break into the big time across all the Grand Tours, this was proof that it was still possible.

It was hard not to feel sorry for Lotte Kopecky, coming so close to Haugset before suffering so badly from cramps that she had to give up. But at the same time, Haugset's persistence – a plan nine months in the making – was a triumph for the underdogs in an era where it's increasingly hard for nonconformists to hit the jackpot. There were plenty of memorable wins in this year's Tour de France Femmes, but this one was right up there at the top of the class. (AF)

Human Powered Health

• One-word review: Focussed
• Achievements: Thalita de Jong and Nina Buijsman racing to 13th and 16th overall
• Room to improve: De Jong admitted to going over her limit on the final stage, dropping two places on GC

The American squad headed to France with ambitions of stage results, but they pivoted to a GC focus after strong rides from Thalita de Jong and Nina Buijsman, who improved as the race went on.

De Jong had four top-13 places on stages, including ninth to Belleville-en-Beaujolais after time spent in the breakaway, and 12th on Mont Ventoux. Buijsman, meanwhile, was 13th on Ventoux and 12th on the finale in Nice.

"I came in as a helper, trying to go for some stage results, and quickly turned into a GC rider. I had some really good days and raced focused. Everything I did, I tried my best. I am proud of that," said De Jong after the race. (DO)

Cofidis

• One-word review: Solid
• Achievements: Two top 10s for Malwina Mul, while Nikola Nosková won the combativity prize on stage 1
• Room to improve: Mul aside, the team were less visible when the race headed into the harder hills in the latter half of the race

French squad Cofidis weren't a standout force throughout the race, but they did put together some solid results and days out in the breakaway early on.

Polish neo-pro Malwina Mul finished ninth on both stages 2 and 3 to Geneva and Poligny, plus an 18th place on the arduous finale over the Col d'Eze.

Nikola Nosková was their other top performer, the Czech rider getting out in the breakaway on the opening day and on the road to Tournon-sur-Rhône on stage 6. 21-year-old Ema Comte, another neo-pro, made the break on stage 2.

"We were a little frustrated that we didn’t take the polka-dot jersey on the very first day. We could have held onto it for several days, but oh well… We knew the rest of the race would be a bit more complicated. We were really competitive, and Malwina finished this Tour de France strong. I think we were on a positive roll all week long," said directeur sportif Mélanie Briot. (DO)

St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93

• One-word review: Battling
• Achievements: Three top 20s and 19th overall by Emilie Morier, plus a day in the break for Alison Jackson
• Room to improve: A stage top 10 and more breakaway action

The upwardly mobile team were this year replete with a new Premier Tech sponsorship on their jerseys and former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson among their strengthened squad.

Last time out, they were among the minnows of the race, making headlines for their riders battling the time cut. This time they came with their ambitions set higher, as Jackson told Cyclingnews before the race.

Things didn’t work quite as they had hoped, with the French squad eventually limping to Nice with just three riders remaining. Unlike Lotto (see below), however, three of their withdrawals came on the final day rather than early on, meaning they had plenty of opportunities to leave their mark.

In the end, it was Emilie Morier who scored their top result with a 14th place on the final day, while she also finished 15th on Mont Ventoux and 19th overall. Jackson’s best outing came on stage 1, where she raced in the breakaway. (DO)

Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi

• One-word review: Attacking
• Achievements: Fourth on stage 3
• Room to improve: Ostolaza is a strong rider who is capable of a good GC result if she can avoid crashes and the resulting time loss in future

The Basque squad were hard to miss at the Tour as they raced around France in one of the more attractive kits in the peloton – a patchwork pink and green number. They were visible out in the breakaways, too, with Ukrainian champion Yuliia Biriukova, homegrown rider Idoia Eraso, and Paula Patino all getting in moves during the race.

Eraso wore green on the second day of the race, a nice bonus for the team, after picking up points in the break on stage 1, though she didn't lead the classification.

Their best result of the nine days came in Poligny on stage 3. Out front, Haugset stole the day with a massive solo move. Laboral Kutxa had reason to celebrate too, as Usoa Ostolaza – another rider developed in-house – powered to fourth place from the peloton behind Marianne Vos. After finishing fourth at La Vuelta Femenina, she had harboured hopes of a GC top-10 here, but a crash and 24-minute time loss on stage 5 put paid to that.

Directeur sportif Ion Lazkano said that "achieving a result like that [fourth place] in the Tour doesn't happen every day" but admitted that "Usoa’s crash on the fifth stage really disrupted our plans." (DO)

Ma Petite Enterprise

• One-word review: Polkas
• Achievements: Two days in polka dots for Océane Mahé plus four top-20 results
• Room to improve: Try to aim for top 10s and get more riders involved in the breakaway performances

Ma Petite Enterprise were among the smallest teams in the race, supported by small businesses across France and fan donations, but they did have more luck than other similar squads in getting results this August, and the Tour was a job well done for the French squad on their Tour debut during their first year of operation.

24-year-old Océane Mahé did well on the opening day to make the break and lead the way over two of the day’s four climbs. That resulted in her wearing the polka dot jersey for two stages, resulting in time on TV, podium ceremonies, and more interviews – all wins for the team. Being the only non-Women’s WorldTour squad to wear a jersey deserves praise, too.

Elsewhere, Clémence Latimier, Laura Asencio, and Célia Le Mouël put in some solid performances to take four top-20 finishes across several stages. (DO)

Liv-AlUla-Jayco

• One-word review: Muted
• Achievements: Sixth on stage 2 with Letizia Paternoster
• Room to improve: More attacks and maybe a more targeted calendar for their GC leader

It's fair to say that the Australian team were among the least visible Women's WorldTour squads in the race. Liv-AlUla- Jayco struggled through the Tour and didn't make a huge impact.

Results-wise, their best effort came courtesy of Letizia Paternoster, who sped to fifth place in Geneva. Ruby Roseman-Gannon was in the breakaway on Ventoux day, but apart from that the team were rather quiet.

That may have something to do with the form of their GC leader, Monica Trinca Colonel, who didn't finish the race. The Italian finished seventh at La Vuelta Femenina and then went on to race the Giro d'Italia later in May. She was second at her National Championships leading into the Tour, and finished 10th on stage 3, but racing all three Grand Tours in one season may have been a mistake with the toughest coming last. (DO)

Picnic-PostNL

• One word review: Embattled
• Achievements: Sixth on stage 2 with Josie Nelson
• Room to improve: Both men’s and women’s squads seem to have lost their way, so something surely has to change behind the scenes

It was a challenging Tour for the Dutch squad, who are enduring a tough year just as the men’s team are. Picnic-PostNL can look back on four Tour stage wins in their history via the now-departed Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool, but those days are well behind them now. Still winless in 2026, that triumph never really looked like coming to fruition here.

Josie Nelson’s sixth place was their top result, the British rider up there in the Geneva sprint. Beyond that, there wasn’t much else to highlight as their GC hopeful, 22-year-old Eleonora Ciabocco, struggled. Pfeiffer Georgi’s best result was 19th place on the penultimate day. (DO)

Lotto-Intermarché Ladies

• One-word review: Depleted
• Achievements: 10th on stage 2, 16th on stage 4, and a battling performance
• Room to improve: Try and avoid such a devastating early spell of bad luck, not that you can really plan for that

Bad luck hit Lotto almost immediately at this year’s Tour de France Femmes, their first since 2024. Stage 2 saw Sterre Vervloet, Marieke Meert, and Elisabeth Ebras all leave the race via a combination of crashes and the heat.

On the same day, two more of their number, Romina Hinojosa and Dina Boels, barely made the time cut, crossing the line just 1:41 before their team would’ve been down to two women. The same stage also brought their best result, too, as Linda Riedmann claimed 10th place.

Sandrine Tas, the former speed skater making her Tour debut, had a nice result with 16th in the time trial, while another debutant, Hinojosa, flew the flag for Mexico as their first-ever Tour de France Femmes racer.

"We’ve tried to bounce back and keep showing up every day and trying our best. I think yesterday we showed that we’re not just here to finish, but we also want to show ourselves, and we’re happy we managed to," Tas told Cyclingnews the day after Ventoux. (DO)

VolkerWessels

• One-word review: Replaceable
• Achievements: Eline Jansen’s 11th place in Geneva
• Room to improve: More breakaway rides from others on the team, especially early on where a jersey might be up for grabs

Like many teams at this end of the list, Dutch squad Volkerwessels struggled to make an impact at this Tour de France. With eight chances to make a breakaway, and even fewer to realistically contest for a stage win or a jersey, the least well-off teams in the race can go largely unnoticed by TV viewers.

Their standout performance came early in the race as Eline Jansen infiltrated the breakaway on day two in Geneva. She spent over 50km out front on the road from Geneva, eventually racing to 11th place as super sprinter Lorena Wiebes sped to victory. Compared to some other teams this low down the rankings, that’s not a bad achievement.

Apart from Jansen, the all-Dutch team struggled to make much headway. Quinty Schoens was quiet, with 22nd on Ventoux her standout result, while Laura Molenaar left the race on stage 2. (DO)

Mayenne Monbana My Pie

• One word review: Penniless
• Achievements: Fiona Mangan made the break on stage 7
• Room to improve: Just get the team sponsors out on TV in more breakaways

Well, one team has to come bottom of the prize money list, and this time it was one of the smallest squads in the race, May enne Monbana My Pie. It was a challenging Tour for the team formerly known as Winspace – they ended their nine days of racing with €0 in prize money.

The team’s best stage finish came on stages 2 and 5 as Natalie Quinn and Karolina Perekitko raced to 28th place. There wasn’t much else to shout about for the ProTeam, either, though Irish racer Fiona Mangan did make the breakaway on stage to Mont Ventoux.

In a race dominated by the strongest teams and riders in the peloton, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a team such as Mayenne didn’t leave a real mark, but for any team in the race to come away with no prize money at all is a surprise.

"If I had to pick one moment from this Tour, it would be the second I decided to follow the breakaway on the Ventoux stage. I think I gave absolutely everything I had," Mangan said after the race. (DO)

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

At last year's Tour de France Femmes, the French public had double the reason to celebrate alongside Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's overall victory, as Maëva Squiban raced to a pair of stunning breakaway victories in Ambert and Chambéry.

The 24-year-old Breton surprised even her teammates last summer, with Dominika Włodarczyk exclaiming "What's going on? Is it April 1 or August 1?" at the team bus after Squiban's second win. Her triumphs came after disaster struck UAE Team ADQ early in the race as Elisa Longo Borghini and two other riders were forced out of the Tour due to illness.

This time around, things were very different for the squad, now named UAE Team L'IMAD. They headed to Lausanne led by a trio of GC hopefuls in the form of double Giro champion Longo Borghini, last year's fourth-placed finisher Włodarczyk, and La Vuelta Femenina champion Paula Blasi.

With such a strong lineup – all three finished among the top 10 in Nice, and Longo Borghini savoured a long-awaited podium – Squiban rode a support role from the Grand Départ to the grand finale. That was no problem for her, given their final achievements.

"This year I was 100% here to help my teammates and my leaders, not to play my own card, which is what I did. So, of course, I was not in the front to play for victory like last year, but I think I did my job. Elisa is on the podium in the end, which was our goal, and now it's done," Squiban told Cyclingnews in Nice.

She spoke well after the race had finished, having watched third-placed Longo Borghini take the stage on the Promenade des Anglais before taking the stage herself as UAE celebrated winning the team classification. After that came several minutes of signing jerseys for a crowd of children cheering her name at the UAE team bus.

"It's a nice prize for us," she said of the team prize. "And all the girls and sports directors can be on the podium, not only the winner or the leader. I'm happy with this one."

Squiban played her role to great effect during the Tour, evident in the team's successes come the end of the race. UAE directeur sportif Cherie Pridham told Cyclingnews that with this year's Tour being harder than previous editions, and with a host of GC leaders on board, it was natural for her to take a different role.

"It's a different race altogether, a much harder Tour de France Femmes, and a Tour where we had clear objectives. If the opportunities arose, of course, she could take those when it suited and didn't impact the GC targets.

"Maëva is a very talented rider, but very specific. She knows when she can be good. She's French – why not be proud in France, you know?"

During the nine days of the Tour, Squiban got a handful of chances to race in the breakaway after all, though obviously the results weren't the same as last summer's.

On stage 5, an arduous race through the Jura hills to Belleville-en-Beaujolais, she made the breakaway, which only went clear 50km into the day alongside Włodarczyk. She was caught with 30km to go before dropping back to help Longo Borghini and Blasi limit their losses as Demi Vollering surged to stage glory up ahead.

Stage 8 saw her out in the break all day alongside Lidl-Trek racer Loes Adegeest, the pair carrying a near-four-minute lead into the final 30km. That fell swiftly on the run to the final climbs around Nice before Squiban's hopes of scoring a third stage victory were ended by a crash on the descent of the Côte de Colomars, 17km out.

"I've hardly got any grazes. It's just that I took a bit of a knock and it was a bit bumpy all over. Then, yesterday, I'm not quite sure what happened. I slipped at the front; I don't know if I took the bend wrong or if it was slippery," she told Cyclingnews and DirectVelo, before adding that she and Adegeest might've had a shot at glory had she stayed upright.

"I think it would have been touch and go. We just needed to get over the top of the steep hill alongside the leaders – that was pretty much the aim.

"Then again, if we started saying 'what ifs', we could win every stage. But I'm still happy to have spent the day at the front. 135km in a pair was quite long, but it was fun."

Squiban raced to the line, and, following examinations at Nice hospital, she was cleared to race on and complete the Tour for a third time on Sunday.

"Let's just say that the Tour demands respect. I wanted to finish. As I hadn't broken anything, I thought to myself, 'Right, I'll give it a go, and if it works out, great. If it doesn't, so be it,' " said Squiban, who showed her fighting spirit with an attack on the Col d'Eze on the race's final day.

"Today it was just to be sure I was still in a group after the first climb, because I knew that if I was in a group for the time limit, it would be OK. So, I just wanted to be sure to be in a group. Yesterday was not exactly what we planned, but in the end it was a good day. I like being in the front in the Tour."

Squiban's upcoming races include "some races close to my home in Brittany," most likely the Kreiz Breizh Elites Féminin and Classic Lorient Agglomération at the end of August, where UAE are set to race.

After that, she's hoping to be called up for the European Championships in Ljubljana and World Championships in Montréal, having made her Worlds debut last year.

"I'm still waiting," she said of the call-up news. "And after that, holidays."

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

The fifth edition of the Tour de France Femmes is over in what proved to be a nail-biting race that all came down to the very last stage to see Demi Vollering become the first multiple winner of the event since its inception.

It was, however, a close fought battle with the yellow jersey changing hands multiple times throughout the race.

As well as a close fought battle for yellow, the polka dot, green, and white jerseys were up for grabs too, and we were treated to some long range breakaways, thanks in no small part to Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset's exploits for Uno-X Mobility on stage 3.

The green jersey was a more forgone conclusion, as Lorena Wiebes absolutely dominated the sprints with her usual display of force. Meanwhile, Puck Pieterse added to her young rider win in 2024 by taking home the mountains jersey.

Antonia Niedermaier took home the white jersey as the highest placed rider this year under 24 years of age, ahead of breakout star Paula Blasi.

Despite tensions within the squad, Blasi's Team UAE L’Imad was the team classification winner, with Elisa Longo Borghini claiming third overall, Blasi 5th, and Dominika Wlodarczyk in 7th, although the UAE squad didn’t take home a single stage win.

In total, six riders took home stage honors across the nine days of racing. Those victories were spread out among just three bike brands, three wheel brands, three tyre brands, and two groupset brands.

Stage-by-stage breakdown: Who won with what?

Bike brands: Who came out on top?

Specialized was the absolute dominant force here, with two thirds of the stages won by its bikes. Of course, the brand sponsors three WorldTour teams, with each one taking at least one stage win, alongside other Pro Teams too. This meant each of these wins was a point for the all-rounder bikes too, as the S-Works Tarmac range - now up to SL9 - has been ‘one bike to rule them all’ since the SL7 launched and Specialized removed the aero-focused Venge from its line-up.

Canyon took home two stages thanks to two of its three sponsored teams; Canyon-SRAM and Movistar. Wins were spread across the Speedmax TT bike and Aeroad aero road bike, with the Ultimate climbing bike seldom being used.

Ridley was the only other brand to take home any spoils with the epic solo breakaway of Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset aboard the very aero focused Noah Fast 3.0 frame.

Every other bike brand in the race failed to win a single stage, or jersey for that matter.

Specialized riders took home yellow and green. Canyon left with polkadot and white. Colnago, the dominant brand in the men’s race, took home the Team Classification, but no individual wins or jerseys.

All-round takes the crown

While the men’s race was a win for the aero frames, the women’s race showed that the all-rounders were the main bike of choice for riders who won stages.

This is biased due to Specialized only having an all-rounder, while Canyon and Ridley both took home honors with full aero bikes. Indeed many teams with the choice of aero and lightweight still opted for aero frames, likely due to it being easier to make aero bikes closer to 6.8kg with the smaller sizes often used across the women’s field than men’s.

Time trial bikes took home one stage win at the TT, but interestingly some road bikes were used for this, or rather road frames converted into time trial bikes.

But the main story was all-rounders winning across hilly stages and sprint stages proving the versatility. Interestingly though the Queen Stage up Mont Ventoux was won aboard an aero bike.

Groupset wars: SRAM keeps the crown

SRAM was the leading groupset brand in the Tour de France Femmes, usurping Shimano from the top-spot, but it was close.

Shimano counted its wins from Demi Vollering and Kimberley Le Court-Pienaar, while SRAM saw wins across a broader spread of riders and teams.

Campagnolo was again notable by its absence, although a reinvigorated groupset line-up could see changes in the future, as the brand is still the only 2x13 speed option available.

Roval steals the show, Zipp and DT Swiss share the scraps

Specialized’s in-house wheel brand, Roval, took the top spot as the wheels are used by the three Specialized-sponsored teams who took home most of the spoils. Winning wheels were a mix of the Rapide CLX III and Sprint CLX wheels.

Zipp took home stage wins with Movistar in the time trial, and Canyon-SRAM on Mont Ventoux, showing some versatility across high speed aero demands and long climbing efforts.

DT Swiss was part of the epic solo breakaway on Stage 3 where aero was pretty much everything to help secure that amazing win.

Triumphant tyres, with a tubeless takeover

A theme has developed, where Specialized and the in-house wheels and tyres were present across all the brand’s bike wins. The latest Turbo Cotton tubeless tyres were used across the entirety of the riders using those bikes to take home most of the stage wins.

Continental remained present with Movistar and Uno-X Mobility using its GP5000 tyres to take home stage wins. Meanwhile Schwalbe muscled in there to get a win with Canyon-SRAM.

Pirelli and Vittoria were absent, despite the strong presence both brands held in the men’s event.

Inner tubes and glued-on tubular tyres have again been missing from the biggest races. Brands have tended towards tubeless across the board now thanks to lower weight and rolling resistance. Additionally, with more lightweight race tyres, tubeless affords micro-punctures to fix mid-ride with limited pressure loss.

Two-by, or not two-by

1x groupsets only took home a single win in this race, and that was just the time trial. Even then, many riders were still using 2x, due to the presence of some hillier sections in that stage. For the rest of the event, 2x was used by most riders.

Part of this may be due to 1x being particularly useful for races where the speeds are significantly higher often across flatter terrain. Looking at the men’s event with stages in excess of 45kph most days, those stages present a perfect opportunity for 1x gearing. Plus there were fewer ‘transitional stages’ in the women’s race so fewer truly flat affairs.

Instead, 2x and the versatility it offers was preferred for the majority of riders at the Tour de France Femmes. It doesn’t look like that is set to change any time soon with the great gear ranges, smaller jumps in gears, and superb shifting afforded across groupset brands.

Pinarello-Q36.5 confirmed Czech sprinter Pavel Bittner will join the roster to start the 2027 season, the 23-year-old signing for two years.

It's another substantial rung in the ladder for the Swiss WorldTour team, which signed AlUla-Jayco's Mauro Schmid earlier this month on a three-year deal. The win for the top-ranked ProTeam is a major loss for WorldTour squad Picnic-PostNL, where Bittner developed into a top talent and is their top UCI points scorer this season.

Bittner is one of the top performers for the Dutch squad this year, with six top 10s - including second at Scheldeprijs, third at Bredene Koksijde Classic and fifth on a Tour de France stage among his individual race results. He has been the most productive UCI producer for the team so far this season with 580.

"Over the last couple of seasons I've become a more complete rider. I've learned to stay calmer in the decisive moments and I know there's still another step to take. My ambition is to become a consistent winner, fight for victories in the biggest races and keep improving every year," Bittner said in a Pinarello-Q36.5 statement on Monday.

"From the outside I could already see how much this team has grown over the last couple of seasons. Every conversation confirmed the same feeling: it's an ambitious project, but also one where people genuinely enjoy racing together. That family atmosphere really mattered to me because I believe you perform at your best when you truly enjoy the environment you're part of."

At the pro level, Bittner has ridden exclusively in the Picnic-PostNL organisation, beginning on the development squad in 2021 as a teenager. He moved to the WorldTour level when the squad was Team DSM, and began to flash his speed with significant impact in 2024, winning stage 5 at the Vuelta a España in a sprint in Sevilla and then going second on stage 17, a hilly stage that showcased his growing consistency on varied terrain.

"At just 23 years of age he has already experienced two Tour de France campaigns, won a Grand Tour stage and continued to show remarkable progression this season. We believe his best years are still ahead of him," said Doug Ryder, team principal at Pinarello-Q36.5.

"And we're excited to support his development as he continues his journey towards becoming one of the leading sprinters in professional cycling."

Bittner and Schmid officially become teammates with Tom Pidcock at Pinarello Q36.5 on January 1, 2027.

"Pavel represents exactly the type of rider we want to build our future around. His talent has never been in question, but what impressed us most is his mindset. He's ambitious, analytical and constantly looking for ways to improve, qualities that fit perfectly with the culture we are building as a team."

Cyclingnews will cover all of the 2026 cycling transfers from around the men's and women's pelotons with news, analysis, and an updated transfer index, to make sure you don't miss a thing this transfer season.

Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won the 17.4km individual time trial on the fifth day of racing at Volta a Portugal. The Dane sat in the hot seat most of the day as his time of 21 minutes, 13 seconds was never threatened.

Tiago Antunes (Efapel Cycling) finished second, 30 seconds back, while Axel van der Tuuk (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was third, another 5 seconds in arrears. Johansen added a second stage victory for the race, having won the opening prologue.

Coming in with only one rider remaining on course, Artem Nych (Anicolor-Campicarn Cycling) posted the third-best time at the intermediate check, but slowed on the final kilometres to finish 39 seconds off the pace, and fourth best.

Nych's teammate and race leader Alexis Guérin completed his ride with the eighth-best time, 22:06, and kept the yellow jersey. However, he lost 14 seconds to Nych in the overall, though his margin was still a hefty 1:12 going into the rest day. Antunes moved up five places in GC to third overall, now 1:52 back.

“It is amazing. I am really, really happy to finish this off. This was, of course, one of my goals for this Volta a Portugal. I really wanted to win one stage, and then I won the prologue, but of course I also wanted to win today to show I can do it on a slightly longer time trial. I am really happy to pull it off," Johansen said in a team statement.
 
“I was a little scared because I only saw the course for the first time today, so you never know really what to expect. Also, on the descents, how many risks are you going to take? I am really happy it paid off with a victory today."

The course began at the Sangalhos National Velodrome in Anadia with one small incline at the 9.9km to go mark for an intermediate time check at Barrô, then a long flat stretch for a 1.5km descent into Águeda, with a slight uphill and a cobbled section to disrupt tempos.

One of the fastest times from early starters at the intermediate check was Johansen, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG) rider having won the Lisbon prologue to start the 10-day stage race, posting 12:31. He then went into the hot seat with a time of 21:13.

Van der Tuuk didn't impress from the checkpoint, but got faster on the second half and was the next rider to challenge Johansen, finishing 35 seconds back.

There were two crashes on the course, both coming near the finish. With the middle of the field on course, Pedro Pinto (Efapel cycling) went down hard in the final, and struggled to complete his ride. Then 33 riders later, Viacheslav Ivanov (Feirense-Beeceler) crashed, having to walk and carry his bike across the line.

From the riders in between, Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), an Olympic gold medalist for Portugal from two years ago, failed to impress, going 48 seconds slower than the Dane.

When the top 10 were on course, eyes refocused on the intermediate checkpoint. Antunes recorded the second-best time split, but it was still 25 seconds slower than Johansen. He would add five more seconds to his time at the finish to go second overall.

Three riders behind Artunes, Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) suffered a mechanical and he had to stop for a bike change. He finished 1:47 back.

Once all the top 10 completed their rides, the 26-year-old Dane could celebrate his second victory of the Portuguese stage race, and fifth victory of the year, all coming in races against the clock.

Stage 5 Results

General Classification after stage 5

Points Classification

Mountains Classification

Youth Classification

Teams Classification

Since the Tour de France Femmes was run for the first time back in 2022, the race has only grown bigger and better, improving and growing alongside the women's peloton. That first edition saw eight days of racing between Paris and La Super Planche des Belles Filles.

This year's race, the toughest edition yet, ran for nine days between Lausanne and Nice, was marked by a record 18,795 metres of climbing, with the brutal summit finish atop Mont Ventoux the highlight. On the side of the road, crowds are bigger year-on-year, as are viewing figures, and the same goes for the press pack following the race on the ground.

So, what next for the premier event of the Women's WorldTour calendar? Questions about future expansion have persisted almost ever since the switch from the one-day La Course to the race we know today.

Cédrine Kerbaol, who was the home nation's standout performer at the Tour this summer, said that she would be "very happy" to tackle a longer Tour in future, even as long as the three-week-long Grand Tours the men's peloton race.

"My teammates don’t share that opinion. And I really need them in every race I enter," the EF Education-Oatly racer told French television after finishing in Nice.

"So, I think it’s better to take it one step at a time. Extending it to two weeks would be a great step forward for the coming years."

Ahead of the race, Tour director Marion Rousse told Cycling Weekly how proud she was of the progress made during the first five editions, but said that the ongoing growth of the race wouldn't be quite so rapid.

"In the first edition, I went to speak to the wider public, and they struggled to name a single rider. Now I’m really happy because everyone knows the riders. We’ve really overcome an obstacle.

"You’ve really got to put the race in its context: barely five years before, there were hardly any riders in the peloton who were paid. That’s very recent.

"Yes, it’s evolving quickly, but we’re not at the same stature as the men’s peloton yet. We also shouldn’t put any barriers in our way, and one day there might be more stages, but we won’t go from nine days to 21 overnight. It will need to be done little by little."

This year's Tour was a tough watch for home fans, with France having gone from feast to famine in the space of a calendar year. Last summer, the nation hailed its first Tour winner for decades as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot dominated the final weekend en route to the yellow jersey, while Breton breakthrough hero Maëva Squiban shone as she broke away to win two stages.

This time around, French squad FDJ United-SUEZ led the way with Demi Vollering's GC victory, though there were few standout results from French racers. Kerbaol, who equalled her career best of sixth overall in Nice, took the limelight. While the French stage win drought continued from the men's Tour, she scored the nation's standout stage result here with a second place on the road to Belleville-en-Beaujolais.

The 25-year-old Breton, who won a stage and finished sixth two years ago, headed to her EF Education-Oatly team bus after crossing the line to end her race, bursting into tears in the arms of her teammates, before making her way across the beach and cooling off with a spontaneous dip in the sea. Afterwards, she told L'Equipe just how happy she was about her race.

"It's incomparable to previous years. Last year, Marlen and Van der Breggen weren't there, and the year before, other top riders were missing, too. This year, all the best riders in the world were here, so it definitely means it carries a higher value. I can only take away positives from the race," she said.

"We knew it was going to be tough from start to finish. I would've loved to go on the attack today, but there was no point in trying anything too far from the finish. Isabella Holmgren made the move I wanted to and buried herself a long way out. We averaged over 200 watts, so it was simply impossible to break away. We did what we could."

Kerbaol may have been France's best GC performer this year, though she was some way adrift of Demi Vollering's first place, finishing 6:41 down. She was closer to the podium, however, at just 1:22 off Elisa Longo Borghini's third spot.

There's reason for her to look upwards and have hope for higher placings in future, then.

"It's still a big step to climb to challenge those girls at the front. With my teammates, the harmony was just as good off the bike as on it. We also showed other teams that they can be afraid of us in the future. Next year, we'll come back stronger."

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

The total prize money pot from the 2026 Tour de France Femmes has been totted up and dished out, with Demi Vollering and her FDJ United-SUEZ team unsurprisingly the top earners, while one team remarkably went home penniless.

FDJ topped the teams’ prize money earnings, taking home €77, 080, with the podium reflecting that of the individual general classification – Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney’s Canyon-SRAM team netting €51,500 and Elisa Longo Borghini’s UAE Team l’IMADE pocketing €37,980.

There was a big gulf to the team in fourth, SD Worx-Protime – once the dominant force in women’s cycling – who collected €18,940. Lidl-Trek rounded out the top five of team earners on €14,880.

Remarkably, there was one team who left the race without a single extra Euro in the bank: Mayenne-Monbana-MyPie. The French second-division team were also bottom of the pile on their Tour debut last year, but at least pocketed €290.

This time, they were empty-handed given they did not place a rider inside the top 20 on any of the nine stages, or in the overall classification. Furthermore, they weren’t among the cash-scoring first few riders at any intermediate sprint or mountain crest, failing to have an impact in any of the classifications, including the daily combativity prize.

This is not actually the first time a team has left the Tour de France with no prize money; in 2024, the Tashkent team suffered the same fate. There had been controversy surrounding the Uzbek team’s inclusion in the race, which intensified when four of their riders abandoned on the first day, and they rode the final four stages with just one rider.

Mayenne-Monbana-MyPie lost Kaira Lylyk ahead of stage 7 and Alice Coutinho ahead of the final stage, but finished with five riders.

Vollering the runaway individual earner

Of FDJ United-SUEZ’s table-topping total, the overwhelming majority of cash was hauled in by Vollering herself.

In fact, Vollering’s personal prize haul of €69,000 would put her ahead of all the other teams as collective entities.

In second place on the personal earnings was runner-up- Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney €37,120, while third-placed Elisa Longo Borghini earned €14,310.

Vollering took home €50,000 for her overall victory, but her huge total was indicative of the impact she had throughout the race.

The Dutchwoman collected €4,000 on each of the three occasions she won a stage, and she bulked that out to the tune of €4,000 with three further podium finishes on stages. What’s more, she also finished runner-up in the final classifications for the points and the mountains, adding €1,500 in each instance.

Vollering also earned €500 for being elected the most combative rider on stage 5, and she earned a further €400 from high placings on categorised climbs to take her total to €69,900.

How does this compare to the men?

When looking at the Tour de France Femmes prize money, it’s always interesting, in the context of women’s cycling’s continued evolution, to see how it stacks up against the men’s Tour.

The difference is still stark. This year, Tadej Pogačar took home €500,000 for winning the Tour, and plenty more for his five stages wins, giving his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad a whopping total prize money haul of €832,750.

That figure is tempered by the huge gulf to second-placed Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe on €288,160.

However, there is still a big difference between the €2.5 million total prize pot for the men’s Tour, and the €260,000 total for the women’s Tour.

There are several contributing factors, cited by among others the Tour de France Femmes race director Marion Rousse.

The men’s Tour is a far bigger commercial beast, with huge revenues from broadcasting and sponsorship, and part of that is down to its scale. The men’s Tour has over 100 years of history behind it, while the women’s Tour in its current incarnation is only five editions old, and whereas the women’s Tour has grown to nine stages, that’s still less than half of the 21 stages of the men’s race.

Rousse has consistently resisted unfavorable comparisons with the men’s Tour, pointing out that the prize pot is still significantly higher than the most prestigious week-long races on the men’s calendar, and underlining the fact that women’s cycling is still growing from a very low economic foundation.

“We must not grow too quickly, and above all, we must ensure the race's longevity because if the event stops next year, it would be a catastrophe for women's cycling, which is evolving very quickly from year to year,” Rousse said in 2025.

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

After a fantastically entertaining final weekend in Nice, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is over for another year, and the latest winner has been crowned after a thrilling finale on the Côte d'Azur.

Following a hard-fought battle that saw her win three stages but only take yellow on the penultimate day, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) became the first rider to win this race twice in the modern era, and brought the yellow jersey home to a French team for the first time.

In its fifth year of existence, the Tour de France Femmes somehow just keeps getting better, and this year was no exception, with a decisive and challenging time trial, a historic ascent of Mont Ventoux, and a perfectly-designed finale that kept the battle alive up until the very last hour of racing.

We've covered the whole event in depth with news, analysis and exclusive interviews, but as the dust settles on this year's edition, it's time to look back on a truly fantastic nine days of racing, and what it means for its protagonists, the sport and the races still to come this year.

After 10 days on the ground in Switzerland and France, here are eight key things we learnt from the 2026 Tour de France Femmes

The Vollering - Niewiadoma-Phinney rivalry continues, but it’s far from predictable

Cycling, as we've seen proven time and again through the years, is a sport of generations. The Classics and the Grand Tours always bear witness to extended spells of dominance by a handful of riders before they naturally age out of contention and the next generation comes along.

In recent years, the men's Tour de France has been dominated by the Pogačar - Vingegaard rivalry, the two men duking it over the yellow jersey year after year at a level well above their GC rivals.

With the conclusion of the 2026 edition, the Tour de France Femmes can say that it's firmly in the Vollering - Niewiadoma-Phinney era. The final three stages of this year's race played host to a thrilling back-and-forth battle between the pair, with more contention than past years, too, after the events of stage 8. As things stand, they’re the only riders to have stood on the podium of every edition of the Tour.

Both came into the race among the very top favourites for the yellow jersey, but with the likes of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Marlen Reusser, Elisa Longo Borghini, and more also racing, their success was far from a foregone conclusion.

Without wishing to constantly compare women's and men's racing, that simply isn't the case at the men's Tour, where few others beyond the 'big two' stand a realistic shot at yellow. There are no such foregone conclusions at the Femmes, and we should be grateful for that. (DO)

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is not untouchable – in fact she still has a lot to learn

A year ago, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was an unstoppable force as she sailed to her first Tour de France Femmes title, and I think we were all expecting a similar show of strength in this year's edition. Vollering had had the more impressive season beforehand, sure, but PFP's singular focus and unrivalled commitment to training and form was expected to bring her back to the Tour in fantastic shape.

But instead, her race was pretty much a flop, rarely matching the level of the best riders, neither on the punchier stages, the time trial nor the long climb of Mont Ventoux before dropping out with a vague illness.

The Frenchwoman was in good spirits and not frustrated by her performance, but this week has dispelled the idea that perhaps we had last year that if she puts her mind to something, she can do it at will. Clearly, the TT is still a major weakness that you have only been able to improve so much, and even her dialled training approach can fail her and bring her to the Tour without the level to compete.

Ferrand-Prévot has already achieved her major goal of winning the Tour and she's still a legendary and decorated rider. However, after thinking last year that she could just pick an aim and achieve it straightforwardly, this year has reminded us that she is human and fallible, and even she still have areas to improve and learn. (MP)

Route design is everything

It's not controversial to say that this Tour de France Femmes was one of the best, if not the best, editions of the race in terms of excitement, intrigue and competition. But that wasn't just down to the talented riders, most of whom have been here every year. It was also down to the route design.

When the route was unveiled last autumn, it was clear that the route designers had gone big on difficulty, eschewing the flat sprint stages in favour of multiple one-day-style punchy routes and, crucially, a time trial. They opted for just one mountaintop finish on Ventoux, and a circuit race finale that could keep things alive to the final day.

It was a little bit of a gamble, I think, because the race could have been signed, sealed and delivered on Ventoux on Friday and the final weekend could have been a bit anti-climactic, but actually, I think the organisers got it just right. They know the dynamics of cycling and they designed the route to reach a high point in its final few days.

And that's exactly what we got. The GC riders tested their legs as early as the first day in Lausanne, and took every single opportunity to race, be it on stage 5, Ventoux, or the Col d'Eze finale. The time trial also offered fantastic intrigue, bringing Marlen Reusser into the fight and ensuring the winner was a true all-rounder.

By including punchy stages but only one big climb, the route ensured that there were time gaps and an extended GC fight, but the gaps were never once big enough to be considered done, not until Vollering crossed the line on Sunday.

Grand Tours will always have mountaintop finishes and sprint stages, but it's what the route includes between those extremes which really makes the race, and this Tour got that utterly spot on. (MP)

The level is high enough to add more stages

The topic of race expansion seems to be brought up year after year in women's cycling, from the length of Classics and stages to the number of days featuring in a Grand Tour.

This summer, after five years of the race, it seems barely believable that the Tour de France Femmes didn't even exist before 2022, with the one-day La Course running as its predecessor since 2014.

Since its inception, the Tour has grown from eight stages in its first three years to nine stages in 2025 and 2026. This year's was, by the numbers, the toughest edition yet, featuring 18,795 metres of elevation gain as three hours covered first to last places.

Is it time to add another stage? The final stages certainly left us wanting more, with exciting racing all the way to the finish line, and another mountain stage – not necessarily another summit finish – wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Women riders are often asked if they'd like to race three weeks, and Cédrine Kerbaol, who finished sixth overall, told L'Equipe after the race that she'd be "very happy" if the Tour were expanded to that length, even if "my teammates don't share that opinion."

Three weeks might be too far of a leap right now, but the level of competition at the Tour means that it could certainly expand to 10 or 11 days, or maybe even 12 with the addition of a rest day. The gradual expansion has worked so far, after all.

Meanwhile, in her closing press conference, Elisa Longo Borghini reminded us of the importance of supporting women's racing at lower levels and the youth ranks, too.

"We are reaching a great level in general in cycling. What I would like to see is the base to be a little bit more wide, let's say, and to not see small teams disappearing. Because otherwise we will not have a change of generation. Young girls will not have a chance to have experience," she said. (DO)

Célia Gery was the MVP of the Tour

Célia Gery's debut Tour ended in a bit of a cloud as the 20-year-old found herself at the centre of drama and online nastiness after a racing clash with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. But we shouldn't forget that she was one of the most influential, important and strong riders of the entire race.

Juliette Berthet may have won the official, fan-voted teammate of the race prize, but honestly, I'd have given it to Gery. Only 20 this year, U23 World Champion Gery has already won the elite French National Championships and been entrusted to join Demi Vollering at two Grand Tours, and this week it was clear to see why. The Frenchwoman is so strong, often the last rider left with Vollering on the punchy stages, and really brave with her riding despite being one of the youngest riders in the bunch.

You could argue that riders like Berthet and Évita Muzic had a slightly lacklustre race compared to previous years, though I'm sure they did important work that we didn't always see. But Gery was always there, always making the race, and I don't think Vollering could have won this race without her.

The other point of strength is that Gery did not get overexcited or drawn into her own ambitions, and every attack was smart and to the benefit of the team. And to be honest, that move on Niewiadoma-Phinney, whether she liked it or not, was a really bold one from Gery, a rider who is willing to fight tooth and nail for the win.

As long as it's legal, we shouldn't punish that tenacity. She wasn't rewarded with a stage win like she was at the Giro d'Italia, but she got to be part of the first French team to win the yellow jersey, and surely carved out her place in Tour teams for years to come. (MP)

The next generation is waiting in the wings

The main storyline of the Tour saw a host of established GC stars battle it out at the top of the standings. However, there were several standout performances from the next generation of riders who will inevitably be in a similar position in the years to come.

In Nice, the final top 10 featured three riders aged 23 or under in Antonia Niedermaier, Paula Blasi, and Isabella Holmgren, with the former pair spending much of their race working for more experienced GC leaders in Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini.

This time next year, both may be leading their own teams, if rumoured transfers are to be believed, with Niewiadoma-Phinney rumoured to be joining Holmgren at Lidl-Trek, and Blasi seemingly set for a Movistar switch.

All three are already Grand Tour forces in their own right, and they’re all still growing and improving as riders, too. Niedermaier took the white jersey home, while Blasi – second on the final stage – and Holmgren – launching a solo attack on the Col d’Eze – both went out with a bang.

You can also add 20-year-old Gery, immaculate in her service for Vollering at both Giro and Tour, and 25-year-old Niamh Fisher-Black, still on the rise as a GC racer, after her switch to Lidl-Trek last year, to the list. (DO)

From feast to famine for French riders

Last summer saw the home nation experience its most successful Tour de France Femmes yet as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won France’s first yellow jersey in decades while she and breakout star Maëva Squiban shared four of the race’s nine stages between them.

This year, the end results for home riders made far bleaker reading, even if home team FDJ United-SUEZ took home the yellow jersey with Demi Vollering’s second triumph.

Beyond the French squad’s success, there was little to shout about for the masses of French fans at the roadside. EF Education-Oatly’s Cedrine Kerbaol was the sole shining light as far as the general classification goes, improving on her eighth place last year to sixth this time around. She also took the home nation’s only stage podium finish with a second place behind Kim Le Court-Pienaar in Tournon-sur-Rhone.

Ferrand-Prévot, meanwhile, was well below the astonishing level she showed last year. The Visma-Lease a Bike leader lost two minutes in the time trial and two more in the hills the next stage before cracking altogether on Mont Ventoux and withdrawing with a reported illness the next morning.

It’s not all bad news for France, however – young guns Célia Gery and Ferrand-Prévot’s teammate, 21-year-old Marion Bunel who took third at La Vuelta, look certain to contest Grand Tours in the near future.

Then there’s Maëva Squiban, who switched from swashbuckling freelance attacker to domestique this year, though won’t always be consigned to that role, and Ferrand-Prévot, who will surely be back to battle for another yellow jersey. (DO)

The appetite and viewership for full TV coverage is there

Those of us who have been involved in women's cycling for years have been banging on about TV coverage for ages, when we had to ask and fight for there to be any coverage at all of even the biggest races. Thanks to a combination of fan interest, investment and UCI rules, coverage of the Women's WorldTour is now better than ever. But the Tour de France showed that viewers still want more – and that asking for more coverage is now a mainstream opinion, not the reserve of a select few women's cycling obsessives.

The coverage this year was more extensive than ever, with three stages shown in full, but the racing convinced most of us that full coverage of every stage would be completely justified. Stage 3 seemed to be the most galvanising, with the two hours of live coverage meaning that we never got to see the winning attack from Sigrid Haugset (Uno-X Mobility), and reminding us that just showing the second half of a race is no longer enough.

Of course, there are financial considerations, and the broadcasters and organisers have to see the economics of such a move, but TV viewership this year is surely on the way to justifying such a move. Full figures aren't out yet, but France TV said that over 2 million people watched the opening stage last Saturday, only 20% less than the figures for the opening men's stage, and Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that viewing figures for the Ventoux stage exceeded viewership for all but two stages of the men's race.

"I've discussed this at length with France Télévisions and we’re giving serious consideration to broadcasting all the stages in full in the future because the women deserve it, and because it works well in terms of audience figures," race director Marion Rousse said on the topic. "We’re currently giving it real consideration, which is a step forward. Things are moving in the right direction.”

Whether it's full coverage next year or expanded coverage and flag-to-finish images in the future, Rousse is right that things are definitely going in the right direction. Coverage that matches the men's race is already wanted, and is surely not far from being achievable. (MP)

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Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse has pushed back against the idea that future race routes will automatically be harder than previous editions, pointing out that the 2026 Tour benefited enormously from having a wide variety of stages.

Speaking to French media as the 2026 race drew to a close in Nice, in comments reported by Ouest-France, Rousse reminded journalists that the diversity of stages in this year's edition had helped make for an exceptionally entertaining race to watch.

She also pointed out that organisers' tendency to make races as hard as possible tempts riders to play it conservatively and to wait for the final climb on ultra-difficult mountainous stages, rather than taking bigger risks.

"I don't favour constantly raising the level of difficulty, but that's a personal point of view.

"I've had experience as a TV media analyst and sometimes, when it's too tough, that kills off the suspense because riders just look at each other until the last climb.

"We try to vary the types of stages and we had a great stage in the Beaujolais" - where Demi Vollering took her first stage win in a sprint against Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) - "and on Saturday [stage 8], by putting two 'walls' in the final, it felt like we were seeing a Classic.

"We can make the race harder, but do we want to? Not necessarily."

As for this year's race, Rousse felt that riders exploited the terrain that had been offered them to the full, to make for a very exciting event from start to finish.

"Every day, something happened," she pointed out.

'Helping young girls have an opportunity to dream'

One of the biggest downsides for French cycling was that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) was well off the pace, despite working hard to make that possible.

"She trained like she had to, but she wasn't up there," Rousse said, "but that doesn't mean she won't be back in the future, fighting for the top spot overall."

"I'm in a good place to know that in the life of a top athlete, from one year to the next, things can stop working so well. I hope people won't forget her palmares and what we'll be able to see in the future [in races] thanks to her as well.

"She's the first person to feel disappointed not to be there at 100%. But she was there at the starts and finishes every day and that meant a lot to people, too."

Rousse said there had been concern over how the race could play out in terms of viewer interest, given this was the first time in its modern history that the end of the men's Tour de France and the start of the Tour de France Femmes had been separated by a week. But that calendar switch had worked out well and as a cumulative effect of its impact and success, "the race now forms part of people's daily lives."

On top of that she argued, the Tour de France Femmes had become a focus point to help "young girls dream if they take out a racing licence, or help them to identify with top feminine stars. It's very important for us.

"When I started racing aged 6, I couldn't help but identify with the men, because that was all you saw on TV.

"Helping young girls have an opportunity to dream, and not just about getting on a bike, is a very good goal to have, and that's why I'm proud to be the race director. On a broader level, this is about how women take part in sport."

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When Antonia Niedermaier stepped onto the podium as the best young rider – and fourth place overall – as the Tour de France Femmes concluded in Nice, it was a huge result for the 23-year-old debutant but also an exciting step into the future for her team.

Canyon-SRAM were celebrating finishing on the podium of the Tour five times in a row with Niewiadoma-Phinney on Sunday night. But with the Polish rider reportedly on the way out of the team for 2027, according to Daniel Benson, that streak might come to an end. Or will it?

Of course, it won't be with Niewiadoma-Phinney that the team finish on the podium if she is indeed headed for pastures new, but the team seem to have a ready-to-go successor in Niedermaier.

"We wanted to build her slowly. It's her first Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and this is an exceptional result for a first appearance," team manager Ronny Lauke said.

"And so now she knows what it all means to be in this race and how much bigger it is than any other race she has competed in. So the future is bright."

Niedermaier finished second at the Giro d'Italia Women only a few weeks ago, but came to the Tour as a secondary rider to Niewiadoma-Phinney, without really even attention as a co-leader and certainly no leadership tensions. It was under those circumstances that she was able to thrive.

"It was her first time here and could enjoy it, and she wasn't really in the big focus. She enjoyed that as well, not talking to you folks every day," team DS Rolf Aldag told reporters in jest on Sunday.

"[She had] a little bit more time off. She's more the introvert person. And I think that was really, really good for her to have Kasia with her. The pressure was on Kasia all the time, and she has this routine, and she handles it in a good way. And Antonia can [absorb] that all and come back next year, and it's not going to be a shock to her system.

"She felt now how it was to defend the jersey. One day she might have to defend the yellow jersey, and we're looking forward to being part of it."

Niewiadoma-Phinney's departure is not yet confirmed, but from the way Aldag spoke, it seemed very clear that Canyon-SRAM are looking at Niedermaier as a potential new Grand Tour leader.

"There's a long way 'til next year," he said. "I think we will probably drink some beer tonight and reflect next week, and send all our reports, and write up what we can do better next year. And then we will see what we're going to do. And probably by November, we're going to make a plan for what we're going to do in the Tour 2027."

Anyone who has been watching Niedermaier's rise will know what a talent she is, but this Tour really confirmed that she is the complete package when it comes to Grand Tour racing. A fantastic climber, strong in the TT – which will likely only become more important as women's Grand Tours grow – and mentally resilient.

Her success in the Canyon-SRAM jersey was made even sweeter by the fact that she isn't a rider the team just found or signed as a ready-made talent, they have built her career and performance from the beginning.

Niedermaier was part of the very first cohort of riders on the Canyon-SRAM Generation team when it was launched in 2022, and has come up steadily through their programme to become one of the most exciting Grand Tour prospects in the peloton.

"It's part of our DNA to bring riders into the sport, like giving them that pathway without having that big pressure from the beginning, so I believe it played a role [in her success this year]."

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Following the 'block-gate' controversy of stage 8 at the Tour de France Femmes, Demi Vollering removed all doubt about the result in the finale on the Col d'Eze on Sunday.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney had accused FDJ United-SUEZ of blocking her before the final climb on Saturday, and with just eight seconds in it at the top of the standings afterwards, there was room to question whether the apparent move influenced the Tour's overall outcome.

Not so on Sunday evening, after Vollering dropped the Pole at the top of the Eze, soloing 16.2km to the line to seal the yellow jersey by 1:18. Her overall victory was decisive, beyond question, and, following a mid-stage conversation, the air had been cleared.

"I explained again that we really didn't want to block her on purpose, and then she accepted it, and she was like, 'OK, I understand.' It was all good in the end. I think it was good that we had a talk together," Vollering explained in the post-race press conference, before telling of how her teammate, Célia Gery, the 20-year-old at the centre of the storm, had been affected by the row.

"She got a lot of nasty messages, which makes me always very angry, especially because she's such a young girl still. We should always protect young people from these kinds of stupid actions from people who don't think and just send a message," she said.

"I mean, it's very sad to think that you go to somebody's profile and send them death-threatening messages. I really cannot understand this, but it makes me very angry. She had a really rough time, so of course today was also motivation for us to show that we can do it without all the commotion about what happened yesterday.

"I think I just wanted to have a chat with Kasia about this, also because I was just a bit disappointed that she let all the emotions out like that about a rider and saying their name. You should always try to avoid these kinds of things. First of all, we are riders, and then next to it, we are human beings – we are real people. If you say somebody's name or you really attack somebody like this, it really hurts somebody and can really do bad things to people.

"We all know racing is crazy, and we try our best to make it as safe as possible, but we are under so much pressure, and sometimes things just happen and go how they go in a race. So I think we should realise that."

'I believe you always need to see life in the bigger picture'

With the controversy consigned to history and racing taking centre stage on Sunday, Vollering made a statement with her winning attack over the final ascent of the Eze, run up a steeper road than the previous three on the stage.

The win, plus the final GC, were her 13th and 14th of the season and stand alongside titles at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Giro d'Italia in a glittering 2026 campaign that looks like the high point of her career to date.

There are still title defences at the World Championships in Montréal and the European Championships in Ljubljana to consider, too. Does she feel like this is the best Demi Vollering we've seen to date? And, at the age of 29, is she still improving as a rider?

"I feel like I'm growing as a person as well. Over the years, you learn so much, and you keep on learning. You take that all with you in your backpack, and sometimes you're struggling because you think you figured it out, but then at the same time, the moment you start to feel like that, you lose all of it," she said.

"That's life. You need to keep evolving, you need to keep working hard, you need to keep working on every detail. I think you never should think you're 'there', because you will never get there. Life is a whole process, and it goes with ups and downs. You need to try to do everything as good as possible, but at the same time, there is no end goal until we're not on this world anymore.

"You need to enjoy every step of the way and try to just become every day a little bit better version of yourself."

After the finish, a magnanimous Niewiadoma-Phinney admitted that having an opponent like Vollering – the pair have been on the podium of every Tour de France Femmes to date – is one of her main motivations to improve and get stronger.

Vollering said that the feeling was mutual – that it's true for Niewiadoma-Phinney and her other rivals, too. But she noted that improvement as a rider and chasing these big racing goals isn't worth it if it negatively affects life away from the bike.

"I think it's really nice that your rivals think things like this about you. I think it also shows their strength. I also believe that all your rivals bring you to a bigger level. Like this, we keep each other motivated and focussed as well. We have to force ourselves to become every day a better version, just because the others are also growing," Vollering said.

"You try to be the best version of yourself – see it in the long-term version to not do too crazy stuff, because it's only your cycling career. After, it's still a life. You want to stay healthy, and I don't want to sacrifice everything for this dream. Everything I have I will give, but I don't want to force myself into corners I don't belong.

"This is me, and I have to deal with my size and everything. I know that some girls think getting skinnier is the way to get to a higher level, but I'm not a believer of that. I believe that first of all, you need to be a healthy version of yourself, a motivated version of yourself.

"You train every day very hard, you focus on your recovery, and that's how you get better – not taking shortcuts that are for the short term. I believe you always need to see life in the bigger picture."

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UAE Team L'IMAD had plenty of reason to celebrate come the conclusion of the Tour de France Femmes in Nice, as the team finished the race with Elisa Longo Borghini on the podium, two more riders in the top 10, and the team prize to boot.

While the Tour had started with questions from the outside over their leadership strategy, their plan clearly paid off. Longo Borghini finished with a career-best third place after previous attempts were ended by illnesses and a pre-race crash. La Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi raced to fifth in her debut Tour, while Dominika Włodarczyk, fourth last summer, finished seventh.

If there was ever any tension in the squad to begin with, there certainly wasn't at the conclusion of the final stage.

"Big result. We're really, really proud of Elisa, proud of Paula, proud of Dominika, proud of Silvia – I mean all the girls," team directeur sportif Cherie Pridham told Cyclingnews outside the team bus in Nice.

"It was just an incredible week that we had to manage. There was a lot of noise from the media, but to finish third on the podium, second on the stage podium today, and then win the team classification pretty much from the start – it's a dream.

"We said from the start that we just need to believe in the process. The road was always going to do the talking, but we kept our line, and the girls executed a professional job."

The role of Paula Blasi, one of the breakthrough riders of the season following her Amstel Gold Race and Vuelta triumphs, was the centre of questions as the race kicked off in Lausanne. The Spaniard insisted she wasn't a co-leader in France, but how could a rider of her ability be consigned to a support role?

"I think cycling sometimes is like that. If you have a plan, even though maybe it may feel strange, you have to accept it and go for it," Blasi told the assembled media at the finish.

"But even though I was like, 'Oh, maybe I'm not really doing the right thing,' you always try to trust in the team. Also, sometimes even if you have a clear leader, maybe she cannot have the best day, and things can change on the road, and you have to adapt a bit.

"So that's what we did, but in the end, I think we had a clear tactic, and we proved that even though we can have any tactic, we just commit to it. That's what we did, so I can say I'm pretty happy about it."

Blasi and Longo Borghini worked together on the race's queen stage up Mont Ventoux, with the Italian surging to third on the stage and laying the base for a final weekend which would see her jump onto the podium.

After the stage, she admitted that the leadership talk had taken its toll on her, saying, "We're cyclists, but we're humans too, aren't we? And it just became a massive ball of stress."

Blasi said in Nice that she and the team managed to block things out and focus on the race and their own tactics.

"We all knew what was going on in the media, and we spoke about it. We were like, 'We know all the blah blah blah around.' But also, we are a team quite honest with everyone.

"We were like, 'This is the tactic. We go for it, we commit, and then if in the climbs we have to change, we will change.' "

'I never stopped believing that I could stand on the podium in Nice'

Longo Borghini admitted that UAE's eventual triple leader strategy invited questions, but reiterated her earlier point that riders are all humans who are affected by such rumours and speculation.

"I think we showed that we raced well and smart. It was questionable, for sure, having three leaders, and I understand the journalists have to do their job and their work, and I respect that 100%. But sometimes there is too much speculation, and as I said, it hurts people because behind an athlete there is a person – a girl, a woman," she said.

"We do suffer a little bit sometimes when we read some silly stuff, let's say. Sometimes I just think we should think twice before writing things down.

"We showed that we could work very well today. In the end, Paula was working for me, and I was working for her until I punctured for the sprint, because she's super fast and I wanted to give her a chance to be second in a stage in the Tour de France. We went all in, and we showed we were strong."

Blasi took that chance and finished second in Nice as Vollering soloed home to take the second yellow jersey of her career.

Longo Borghini ended the day in seventh, a handful of seconds back after a late puncture, ready to celebrate third place – a result built on consistent racing – barring that single off day in the Jura on stage 5, and keeping the belief, even when she lay 2:20 off third place following Ventoux.

"I never stopped believing that I could stand on the podium in Nice, and I kept telling myself that the Tour would finish in Nice," she said in the post-race press conference.

"I've been scratching seconds here and there every single day after the bad luck on the time trial and after Stage 5, and today it paid off. So, I still have to realise it, but I can say that I'm proud."

Longo Borghini said the result was "definitely one of the highlights of my career so far", the third place a "cherry on the cake" of nine hard days of racing.

She'd remain on the podium to celebrate with her full team, too, including the revelation of last year's Tour, Maëva Squiban, who was more than happy to assume a domestique role when it brought such results.

"Our goal was to put one girl on the podium, and we did it. We also won the team classification," Squiban told Cyclingnews.

"It's nice because all the girls can be on the podium, not only the winner or the leader. Everyone was happy to be on the podium, including the sports directors. We're happy with this Tour."

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"It's not like I lost to a rookie, you know?" is probably the line from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney that best sums up her reaction to missing out on the overall victory at the Tour de France Femmes.

The 2024 winner went toe-to-toe with the pre-race favourite Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), bettering her on the legendary climb of Mont Ventoux to briefly take yellow, and only losing on the punchy final weekend where FDJ threw absolutely everything at her.

So it was 'just' a podium finish this time for Niewiadoma-Phinney – her fifth in as many editions of the race, which both her and Vollering have done – but that didn't automatically equal disappointment.

"I'm happy and satisfied just because I know that I gave my absolute best," she said in her runner-up press conference.

"We came here to fight for the best possible result, and I mean, I won on Mont Ventoux, and I feel like that was the biggest day of my life, cycling-wise. I'm super proud and happy about it. And then Demi is of course extremely strong, and it's not that I lost to a rookie, you know? It makes me work harder and then dream to come back here and get the yellow jersey again. So, in general, I would say I'm happy."

It was a similar feeling at the Canyon-SRAM bus, where celebrations were obviously not as raucous as they were a few metres down the road at FDJ, but the team were keen to emphasise that this was a result they were very pleased with.

"We acknowledge performance and congrats to Demi and to her team. She has been the strongest with a good support group of her team, and we accept that we are second now in GC. We are proud of that achievement," a cheery Ronny Lauke, Canyon-SRAM team manager, said.

"We fought until the very end, and this is a realistic result now with everything we have seen. It was a fair competition today, and we are happy with Antonia in fourth place with the white jersey, the best young rider, so we are also ready for the future. Everything is good from our side."

It's perhaps surprising for the rider and team to be this happy about coming second in a race they've won before and podiumed the other three times – though interestingly, never in second – so why was that the overwhelming feeling on Sunday evening?

Apart from taking a huge win on Ventoux, there is also the fact that this race gets harder every year, both in competition and parcours, as the level of the peloton in general rises rapidly. To be able to keep improving along with that offers a sense of pride and accomplishment for Niewiadoma-Phinney.

"Each year has been special in its own way. I think that this year definitely felt nice. I think that I felt stronger than in any other editions. I felt like I was part of making the race maybe more interesting," she said.

"So definitely the way I approached the race with my coach and what we were preparing for paid off, and that just gives me confidence for the future. I feel like there are a lot of women right now at a similar level, and then it's all about those little gains you can make or maybe mental strength and mental approach that gets you into yellow."

Niewiadoma-Phinney was vague on what the specifics of those little gains or performance tweaks might be, but spoke more openly about the mental side, and how her enjoyment of the sport makes it much easier to live the life of an elite athlete.

"I find myself being very fortunate because I purely love riding my bike. I feel very passionate about it, and I share the passion with my husband, so any day for us on a bike is a fun, happy day. And as long as you love doing what you do, then it never feels like any sort of sacrifice or anything like that," she said.

"And whenever I go to races, and I get my ass kicked, that also gives me motivation to then come back and be the one that kicks others' asses."

'Every single year she delivers'

The significance of Niewiadoma-Phinney finishing on the podium five times for Canyon-SRAM, matching Vollering in that record to underline just how close she is to the peloton's best rider, is really not lost on the team, either.

"I'm also proud that we are now the team that is for the fifth consecutive year on the GC podium, and the only one, the only team," Lauke said.

"This is exceptionally good. Kasia, from the beginning, when we knew that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was coming for our part of the sport, we knew that this was going to be our season highlight and we wanted to perform. Kasia has adjusted her training, her preparation, her focus, and every single year she delivers. She's always trying to become better, and she's an exceptionally classy rider. In her shadow another rider has grown, Antonia [Niedermaier] and this is fantastic for us."

It's this ability to focus on the Tour de France, perhaps at the expense of being a more prolific winner, that is likely behind Niewiadoma-Phinney's repeated success here. Rather than struggle with the pressure of one singular big goal, that laser focus seems to only spur her and the team on, and means that every year, she comes to this race at her very best level, a streak of consistency very few are able to replicate.

"The importance of this race, you need to understand how much it does for the sport and how important it is. So I think that's where we always come together, to say, 'Well, it's not just a race. It's not just another Grand Tour or something; it's the Tour de France'," Canyon-SRAM DS Rolf Aldag said.

"If you put that importance into it, then you also understand you need to put more and more resources into it year by year – more altitude, more people, more planning, and stuff like that. I think the team always did that really, really well. But also, to be fair, Kasia always did that on her own. So we gave her a lot of peace and freedom to prepare. We didn't make everything mandatory from the team. We know how motivated she is, and that's the key to it. You need to love this race, and you need to understand how important it is, and that makes it definitely easier."

This may be another second place in Niewiadoma-Phinney's palmares, but it won't be remembered as that. It will be remembered the same as the year she won: a great battle, a duel between two of the peloton's best, and a mighty final day to decide the GC. The result may not have been the same, but the racing, determination, and indeed strength was perhaps even better.

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Stage 4 of the Volta a Portugal was by Alexis Guerin (Anicolor-Campicarn), the Frenchman attacking on the brutal final climb to take a conclusive victory and the overall lead with six stages to go.

Guerin made his race winning move with just over 14km of the ascent to Covihâ, quickly gapping the group of favourites, and winning by 1:44. Behind him last year's overall winner and Guerin's teammate, Artem Nych attacked a chasing group of five to take second place with third place going to Pedro Silva (Feira dos Sofás-Boavista).

The fourth of the Volta a Portugal's 10 stages brought the race's first mountain top finish, the ascent to Covilhã measuring almost 21km at an average gradient of 6.3%. This made the day one for the climbers, with the preceding kilometres of the 154.6km stage, starting in Figueiró dos Vinhos, also lumpy and including three classified climbs.

A group of six riders soon escaped but were caught before yet another clutch tried their luck, when they were back in the bunch a further group, including race leader Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) got away. He was joined by Oscar Rota (Feira dos Sofás-Boavista), Tomas Cognate (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé) and Francisco Pereira (Feirense-Beeceler) and the group built a decent gap before being joined by a further six riders.

However, as that group hit the climb it began to fall apart, Oliveira's UAE team bringing them all to heel once he was dropped.

Rota, Pedro Andrade (Feirense-Beeceler) and Jorge Gálvez (Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé) were the last to be caught as a group of around 15 favourites reached them on the final climb. That group soon split, though, Alexis Guerin (Anicolor-Campicarn) attacking with 14km to go and building what was to be a race winning advantage.

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