(Image credit: Getty Images)

In 2026, the Tour de France Femmes seemed to get everything right. After four years of experimentation, the route felt like ASO had pulled together everything they'd learnt into a beautifully balanced course, featuring a bit of everything: a foreign Grand Départ, an iconic mountain stage, a time trial, and a big-city finale.

The result was a truly thrilling race, delivering six different stage winners, five different riders in the yellow jersey, and a GC battle that went down to the wire on the very last day.

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Matilda is an NCTJ-qualified journalist based in the UK who joined Cyclingnews in March 2025. Prior to that, she worked as the Racing News Editor at GCN , and extensively as a freelancer contributing to Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Velo, Rouleur, Escape Collective, Red Bull and more.…