The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift might be delivering a Swiss Grand Départ in 2026, taking the race exterior French borders for its opening levels for the second time because the race was reintroduced in 2022.
“We’re thrilled to be spending three days on this Swiss Riviera, which, past its gorgeous surroundings, affords a high-quality sporting terrain,” mentioned race director Marion Rousse in a media assertion.
The 2026 occasion from August 1 to 9 will start on a loop from Lausanne, which was dwelling to the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin and stage 8 of the boys’s Tour de France in 2022. That, the truth is, was when the concept of internet hosting a stage of the ladies’s race grew to become an goal.
It’s possible you’ll like
“The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will get off to a cracking begin, with the favourites clashing within the puncheur-friendly opener, adopted by a probable dash end within the glamorous harbour of Geneva,” mentioned Rousse.
The 2026 Tour de France Femmes peloton will set off from the banks of Lake Geneva, taking in a loop that can see them cross by Lake Neuchâtel and thru two climbs of three.5km at a median gradient of 6.1% and three.7km at 4.5%. It then heads again towards the banks of Lake Geneva, although there would be the problem of a 2.3km ascent at 5.4% after the Olympic Museum, which then results in the 400-metre straight to the end line in Place Saint-François after 137km of racing.
The second stage will then take riders 150km from Aigle to Geneva, heading towards the Lake Geneva by way of Montreux and Vevey, with the highway rising to Lac de Bret and sweeping round Lausanne earlier than heading to Geneva by way of undulating terrain. The final of three climbs, nevertheless, comes 35 kilometres from the end line with the Jet d’Eau as its backdrop.
Stage 3 will then additionally set off from Geneva with the race heading again towards the French border by way of a but to be introduced route.
The primary Grand Départ for the reborn Tour de France Femmes was in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2024 and in March the organisers of the the race, the ASO, additionally confirmed that each the boys’s and ladies’s Tour de France had been set for a UK begin in 2027.
The announcement of the Swiss begin in 2026 means the occasion will start not removed from the place the 2025 race concludes. The ultimate victor on this yr’s version, which runs proper throughout France, might be topped in Châtel simply over the French border and fewer than an hour away from the 2026 begin.
