Defending Tour de France Femmes champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot sounded an optimistic note about next year's race following the 2026 route presentation on Thursday.
The Visma-Lease A Bike rider, who became the first Frenchwoman to win the modern iteration of the race, called it a "super nice route", singling out the grand finale on her home roads in Nice and the summit finish atop Mont Ventoux as two stages she's particularly looking forward to.
"It's a super nice route. It's going to be beautiful, and I really like it," Ferrand-Prévot said after the route presentation, according to her team.
"I'm already excited to work hard towards defending my title. Finishing in Nice is fantastic. It means a lot to me, since I live in the area. I know the roads extremely well, which is an advantage.
"Mont Ventoux is also a climb I've done many times. It's actually quite easy for me to train there and to get to know the climb even better."
Ferrand-Prévot built her 2025 Tour victory in the mountainous stages of the race back in July, soloing to a dominant penultimate stage victory and the yellow jersey atop the Col de la Madeleine before sealing overall glory with another solo ride on the final day in Châtel.
Next year's route features just one high mountain stage in the form of the stage 7 finish at Mont Ventoux, but elsewhere there are plenty of hills and medium mountains in which the general classification contenders can do battle.
Stage 4 of the race sees the return of the individual time trial, with the 21km test in Dijon the longest featured in the Tour de France Femmes since the 2023 edition. Ferrand-Prévot said that she's looking forward to working on the time trial bike in preparation for the stage, which runs in a region of France she knows well.
"I think it's great to have a time trial, especially in this region," she said. "I know the area quite well. Riding through the vineyards is amazing. I'm really happy about that stage and looking forward to it.
"I'm ready to put in the work on the time trial. It's a chance to ride a different bike and develop yet another discipline, which is something I really enjoy."
Visma-Lease A Bike team manager Rutger Tijssen echoed Ferrand-Prévot's enthusiasm for the race route, calling it a "complete Tour" and singling out the Mont Ventoux stage as the one which will make the big GC differences.
"It's a complete Tour, and that's the challenge. In terms of the parcours, there's not much that's dramatically different from last year. It's never really flat, not even in the first stages," he said.
"There's one ultimate test with the Mont Ventoux, which will make the big separation. It's comparable to Col de la Madeleine from this year, perhaps slightly tougher due to the temperature and the wind."
Tijssen also noted that Ferrand-Prévot would need to dedicate herself to time trial training, saying the 33-year-old would need to "take a step forward" in the discipline ahead of next August.
"Everything takes place in a relatively small area, with few transfers, which is nice. The time trial is back, which is a great challenge and requires a slightly different preparation compared to last year.
"We need to take a step forward here, also with Pauline. It's very trainable, and Pauline has shown that she can make great strides when she sets her mind to something."
