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.
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"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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