Tour de France Femmes overall podium (L-R): Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) in second, winner Demi Vollering (SD Worx) in the yellow jersey and Kasia Niewiadoma (Danyon//SRAM) in third(Image credit: Getty Images)
Demi Vollering (SD Worx) wins the Queen Stage in a dominant fashion(Image credit: Getty Images)
Emma Norsgard wins stage 6 of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-Sram) attacked and won stage 5 solo(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Yara Kastelijn of Fenix-Deceuninck celebrates at podium as stage 4 winner(Image credit: Alex Broadway/Getty Images)
Lorena Wiebes wins stage 3(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Tour de France Femmes: Stage winner Liane Lippert of Movistar Team reacts after winning stage 2 in a sprint ahead of race leader Lotte Kopecky(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) soloed to the victory on stage 1 of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images)
Demi Vollering and her SD Worx team dominated the 2023 Tour de France Femmes. After snagging the yellow jersey from her teammate on the previous stage, Vollering finished second on the time trial to close out the second edition of the event. SD Worx also swept the stage 8 podium, European Champion Marlen Reusser won stage 8, with a 10-second lead on Vollering and Lotte Kopecky was third.
Vollering topped the general classification with a 3:03 lead on Kopecky who had worn the yellow jersey for the first five stages. Kopecky overtook Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) by 21 hundredths of a second.
As expected, the Queen Stage provided exciting edge of your seat racing. Demi Vollering (SD Worx) put her mark on Tour de France Femmes, with a dominant solo win on the Col de Tourmalet. She dropped defending champion Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar) with 5 kilometre to go on the iconic climb, caught and passed the lone breakaway rider Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram Racing) on her way to an emphatic stage victory. Vollering takes over the yellow leader’s jersey with by 1:50 on Niewiadoma, and 2:28 on van Vleuten, leader into the stage, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) dropped to fourth place overall at 2:35.
For the second stage in a row, the winner in the Tour de France Femmes came from the breakaway that was close to being caught. This time, Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) was the last rider standing from the three-rider move and had enough power to hold off the sprinters by a single second. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) remained in the race lead amid the drama that her DS Danny Stam was ejected from the race.
For the second stage in a row a solo attack succeeded, this time coming from Canyon-Sram's Ricarda Bauernfeind. The stage was thought to be one for the sprinters but the peloton shattered on the mid-stage mountains. The German neo-pro attacked on a climb with 36km to go and kept going, holding off the chasers by 22 seconds. Race favourite Demi Vollering was given a 20-second penalty for drafting off her team car and dropped from second to seventh.
Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) attacked with under 20km to go and held on for her first career road race victory on stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes. It was the longest stage of the week at 177.1km, which saw multiple attacks on the hilly route including race leader Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx). She retained yellow while her teammate Demi Vollering moved into second overall at 43 seconds thanks to the time bonus a second-place finish at Rodez.
Another stage win for SD Worx as the maillot jaune Lotte Kopecky took up the reins to lead out her teammate Lorena Wiebes for the stage win, but it almost didn't turn out that way. The brave Julie van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) held onto her solo breakaway until the final 300 metres, with Kopecky finally bringing her back at the last gasp.
Liane Lippert (Movistar) outsprinted race leader Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) and won stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes in Mauriac. The German champion came from behind in the sprint at the end of a hilly, challenging 152km second stage, with Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) rounding out the podium in third place. Kopecky gained another eight seconds in the GC lead, now 49 seconds over Lippert, who jumped nine spots to second overall.
Lotte Kopecky rocketed up the late climb on the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes 2023, using her power and her dominant SD Worx team behind to solo to the stage win and first leader's jersey of the race.
The second edition of the new version of the women's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift began on July 23 in Clermont-Ferrand, on the same day as the stage 21 conclusion of the men's race in Paris, and the eight-day race will finish on July 30 in Pau.
The Tour de France Femmes includes eight stages again; however, it did not begin on the Champs-Elysées circuits in Paris as it did in 2022. Instead, it started in a whole new area of France in 2023.
Cyclingnews will have live coverage of all eight stages of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, along with race reports, galleries, results, and exclusive features and news.
Don't miss a minute of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes as major contenders aim to win the yellow jersey, and follow along with this How to Watch the Tour de France Femmes guide for all the latest live streaming and event schedules.
Stage 1: Clermont-Ferrand to Clermont-Ferrand, 124km (Flat)
Stage 2: Clermont-Ferrand to Mauriac, 148km (hilly)
Stage 3: Collonges-La-Rouge to Montignac-Lascaux, 147km (Flat)
Stage 4: Cahors to Rodez, 177km (Hilly)
Stage 5: Onet-Le-Château to Albi, 126km (Flat)
Stage 6: Albi to Blagnac, 122km (Flat)
Stage 7: Lannemezan to Tourmalet Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 90km (Mountain)
Stage 8: Pau to Pau, 22km (TT)
2023 Tour de France Femmes schedule
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Date
Stage
Start Time
Finish Time
July 23
Stage 1
12:15 CET
15:36 CET
July 24
Stage 2
13:05 CET
17:45 CET
July 25
Stage 3
13:30 CET
17:44 CET
July 26
Stage 4
12:25 CET
17:44 CET
July 27
Stage 5
14:00 CET
17:39 CET
July 28
Stage 6
14:20 CET
17:38 CET
July 29
Stage 7
16:15 CET
19:25 CET
July 30
Stage 8
19:25 CET
17:30 CET
2023 Tour de France Femmes Contenders
Marianne Vos at the Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: JEFF PACHOUD AFP via Getty Images)
The 2023 Tour de France Femmes course plays to the strengths of defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten, but plenty will be fighting to curb her dominance across the eight days of racing.
In addition to Van Vleuten, her nearest rival will be Demi Vollering (SD Worx) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), as all three stood on the final overall podium last year.
Elisa Longo Borghini and Lizzie Deignan will lead Trek-Segafredo in the eight-day race, while sprinter Elisa Balsamo will eye the green jersey.
Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) won the green jersey last year and will undoubtedly aim to secure that special distinction again in 2023, but she will face other fast sprinters like Balsamo, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) and Charlotte Kool (Team DSM).
Cyclingnews has assembled a full list of champions dating back to the first version in 1955 and the original women's Tour de France stage race held from 1984-1989 to the modern Tour de France Femmes.
The women's peloton raced their first official launch of the women's Tour de France until 1984 won by American Marianne Martin. It was an 18-day race held simultaneously as the men's event and along much of the same but shortened routes with shared finish lines. The Société du Tour de France, which later became part of ASO in 1992, managed both men's and women's events.
The women's Tour de France ended in 1989, and while ASO went on to organise women's one-day races like La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course, and the inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes (in 2021), the women's peloton had not been included as part of the official Tour de France for the past 30 years.
Other women's stage races in France, not run by ASO, took place including the Tour Cycliste Féminin, which had started in 1992, and the re-named Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, until it came to an end in 2009.
La Course by La Tour de France was then created in 2014 following a petition to ASO calling for a women's Tour de France. Le Tour Entier's petition was led by Kathryn Bertine, Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley and Chrissie Wellington and secured 97,307 signatures. The event was held across various platforms from a one-day to a multi-day event between 2014 and 2021.
Despite its controversy, La Course had become one of the most showcased events in the Women's WorldTour, and although the wait was longer than anyone anticipated, it finally became the stepping stone to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Zwift announced that it would become the title sponsor of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on a five-year deal through 2026.
The first edition of the rebirth of the Tour de France Femmes was an eight-day race that began on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in conjunction with the final stage 21 of the men's Tour de France and end on La Super Planche des Belles Filles where Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) was crowned the overall champion.
2023 Tour de France Femmes start list
2023 Tour de France Femmes Team
Team dsm-firmenich
FDJ-SUEZ
Movistar Team
Israel Premier Tech Roland
Team Jumbo-Visma
Team SD Worx
Canyon-SRAM Racing
Fenix-Deceuninck
Liv Racing TeqFind
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team
Human Powered Health
Team Jayco AlUla
Lidl-Trek
EF Education-TIBCO-SVB
UAE Team ADQ
CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling
Lifeplus Wahoo
AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep
Arkéa Pro Cycling Team
Cofidis Women Team
St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 WE
Team Coop-Hitec Products
Races
Tour de France Femmes 2023
23 July 2023 - 30 July 2023|France|Women's WorldTour
Stage 8 - Demi Vollering wins the Tour de France Femmes 2023 | Pau - Pau2023-07-30 22.6km
