Where do the Tour de France Femmes contenders stand after the Vuelta and Giro? Analysing the yellow jersey favourites

Only one of the Grand Tours now remains for the women's peloton, with the Vuelta Femenina and Giro d'Italia Women providing plenty of pointers, as well as delivering a few warning shots, ahead of the Tour de France Femmes.

The established favourites have revealed just where there preparation and form is at through both, some like Giro d'Italia winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) delivering a masterclass that will just bolster her position as a favourite to recapture yellow, and others like Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) revealing the journey as a work in progress at the earlier Vuelta, which may have given rivals a sliver of hope.

New potential contenders also rose to prominence, most strikingly Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) who is now expected to make her Tour de France Femmes debut in 2026.

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The battleground will also, of course, tilt the balance at the nine-stage race from August 1-9, with the route this year including an individual time trial, an ascent of Mont Ventoux and a wealth of other stages of radically varying type and difficulty all to tackle. The 2026 Tour de France Femmes looks like one of the hardest yet. What's certain is the potential winner will need considerable all-round strength to be in a position to claim the yellow jersey.

With that in mind, who are the riders that can be counted among the favourites to contend for the victory? The final teams may not yet be settled but with two Grand Tours already run, the indications of who will be in a position to vie for the podium spots are becoming increasingly clear, so here are our contenders to win the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.

Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez)

Though she's been beaten the last two years, Demi Vollering has every reason to look to the 2026 Tour de France as the perfect opportunity to return to the top step of the podium. For a start there is the route, as while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot may have out-climbed her to victory in 2025, the addition of a time trial really plays into Vollering's hands for 2026, and she's historically better in the medium mountains, too. Ventoux will be an all-out fight, but Vollering is the more well-rounded rider for the rest of the race.

On top of that, the Dutch rider has backed up an amazing 2025, topping the best rider rankings at the end of the year, with an impressive run in the opening part of 2026. Last year she may have missed out on her big goals but this year seems to be taking a more measured approach, and so far its clearly working for her. Of the nine races she has lined up for six have ended with a victory, and most importantly that includes the Giro d'Italia, where she delivered with form and finsesse. The carefully dosed but thoroughly effective efforts through the race to clinch the maglia rosa when it counted, on the very last day, have certainly added to the case of her being a prime pick to claim yellow and repeat her winning effort of 2023.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike)

The winner of the 2025 race, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is another rider that has to be very high on the favourites list, particularly as the Frenchwoman only returned to road racing full-time in 2025, but won the Tour at the first time of asking. It was a clear demonstration of just how good the 34-year-old is at picking a target and delivering the perfect peak and form.

That's a factor which means that even though Ferrand-Prévot hasn't exactly got the long list of wins to her name that Vollering has this season, with second at the Tour of Flanders her top result, and far from the top ranks at Vuelta Femenina, she is a rider that it would be foolish to underestimate. Her strength in 2026 came in the high mountains, so she will be looking at Mont Ventoux as a great opportunity. Her time trialing is a bit more of an unknown – she hasn't raced a single ITT since returning to the road – but that's bound to have been something she has been working on.

Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime)

After an impressive performance at Vuelta Femenina and Giro d'Italia it looks like SD Worx-Protime have found their Tour de France contender in Anna van der Breggen. After coming back to the peloton in 2025 it was too much to expect the multiple Grand Tour winner to be right in the mix straight away, but she has now built from that solid re-start and stepped up to the podium at both the Vuelta and Giro d'Italia, coming second in Spain and third in Italy. That's a considerable pick up from the third and sixth last year, so there also looks to be plenty of room for a jump up from the 11th last year in the Tour de France as well.

Working in her favour is that there will no longer be any question over whether or not Lotte Kopecky is going for GC so the team should have had plenty of opportunity to build a team around Van der Breggen that will give her the best opportunity. The hard climbs and time trial should be good for Van der Breggen, amply demonstrated by her second place in the time trial at the World Championships last year and, more recently, at the Giro when after the race against the clock she stepped into the maglia rosa.

Elisa Longo Borghini and Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ)

Right from the announcement of the date change of the Giro d'Italia, Elisa Longo Borghini's stock as a Tour de France contender rose. The Italian who has twice won the Giro has made no secret of the fact that abandoning the focus on her home Grand Tour isn't an option, but now with the greater separation between the two events her chances of not just getting to the finish of her first Tour since 2022 but also making a mark have rocketed. What's more, the less than ideal circumstances of her early season, which saw her heading into the Giro d'Italia after a long stretch off racing due to illness could actually work in her favour come August. Longo Borghini was clearly on the build through the race, winning the final stage despite doing a huge amount of work in the break, so this time should be heading into the French race far fresher.

Also working in her favour is the team she will have by her side. At the start of the Tour de France last year it seemed like the spin across France would be a disastrous one for the squad, yet despite losing rider after rider they took two stages with Maëva Squiban and fourth overall with Dominika Włodarczyk. The team has yet to be announced but the expectation is also that alongside Longo Borghini the squad will have another GC option in a debuting Paula Blasi, who made clear what a formidable overall force she is developing into by winning the Vuelta and most recently the Tour des Pyrénées.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM)

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has finished on the podium of every single Tour de France Femmes so far, including winning the 2024 edition, and she'll be hoping to keep that streak up in 2026. The Polish rider isn't a prolific winner, but she's extremely consistent, and that's exactly what you need to do well at the Tour, particularly now it's been extended to nine days.

Like Ferrand-Prévot, Niewiadoma-Phinney has some work to do on her TT, but she should do well on the medium-difficulty stages that make up much of the second half of the race. The Vuelta may not have exactly been one where she put her best foot forward, finishing eighth overall, but as she pointed out after the event it has at least given her an opportunity to sit down with her coach and work out where she needs to improve. She's a rider who always pulls out her best performances at the biggest races, and this year's Tour should be no different.

What may be different though, is that she could well have another strong teammate by her side, with 23-year-old Antonia Niedermaier impressive in her ability to stick with the top riders on the climbs at the Giro. That staying power, and a savvy move on the final day of racing, helped put the rider up to second and the fact that she could keep up with key contenders like Vollering and Van der Breggen in Italy bodes well for France.

Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek)

At SD Worx-Protime, Niamh Fisher-Black may have been "that young girl" but the move to Lidl-Trek with an aim to step up into a leadership role has certainly yielded dividends. The rider from New Zealand delivered fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes last year and also captured silver in the road race World Championships .

A pure climber, she'll thrive in the mountains, though this year's Giro, where she came fifth overall, provided a reminder of a potential weakness, as she lost ground in the uphill individual time trial with her 11th place. The deficit of more than two minutes she shed to winner Van der Breggen that day was the difference between fifth and a podium place.

The Giro also highlighted another strong up and coming option for Lidl-Trek, with Isabella Holmgren winning the youth classification and coming seventh overall. That climbing strength could come in handy for Fisher-Black in August, offering support in the mountains or even another threat.

Marlen Reusser (Movistar)

There could hardly be a bigger contrast between Marlen Reusser's path to the Tour de France in 2025 and 2026. She had her best year of GC racing yet in 2025, finishing second overall at both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta Femenina whereas this year it was 13th at the Italian race as the Swiss rider returned from a spinal fracture sustained at the Tour of Flanders.

Still despite the powerful run in last year, sickness took her out on the first stage of the Tour, meaning we haven't got to see her in action in the race properly since 2023. Reusser is undoubtedly a rider that has matured since then, and has established herself in a leadership role, plus may enter the race fresher this time due to her forced injury time out. The race starts in her home country of Switzerland, too, which will add some motivation, and the stage 4 time trial surely looks appealing to the TT world champion.

Sarah Gigante and Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal)

Sarah Gigante is yet to return from breaking her femur last year, and in fact hasn't raced since the Tour in 2025, where she delivered sixth overall and an impressive second on the Col de la Madeleine. Usually that amount of time away from racing would mean completely discounting the chances of a rider, but Gigante has her comeback run down to a fine art, having had way too much experience at training her way back to form after a long lay-off. Plus the route for 2026 will surely be providing some great motivation to get back to her best for August – Ventoux will surely have the climber salivating.

However, should the return to racing have to be delayed further or the Tour de France Femmes prove to be a bit too early in the comeback curve, AG Insurance-Soudal aren't without options. Urška Žigart, for one, has stepped it up this year so may even be looking to add a third Grand Tour to her schedule after finishing sixth overall at the Vuelta and eighth at the Giro.

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech)

Compared to her breakout ride in 2024, Puck Pieterse had a slightly quieter performance at the Tour in 2025, after perhaps going a bit too hard in her preparation, but she will have learnt from that for 2026 and will be hoping to continue her GC development in this year's race. At the moment, Pieterse still balances road racing against mountain biking, but has been upping her road days each year, and clearly has the ability to do well at the Tour. After Pauliena Rooijakkers left the team over the winter, Fenix-Premier Tech will likely rely a little more on Pieterse this year, and she will be hoping to take a step up in her Grand Tour ambitions.

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