The Tour de France Femmes is an annual women’s cycle stage race around France. Check out Tour de France Femmes 2023 route and winners.
Tour de France Femmes : 2023 | Route | Winners
The 2022 edition of the race featured 8 stages, taking place in July in the week after the men’s tour. 24 teams took part, with six riders in each team.
The rider with the lowest cumulative finishing times is the leader of the race and wears the yellow jersey (maillot jaune).
While the general classification garners the most attention, there are other contests held within the Tour: the points classification for the sprinters, the mountains classification for the climbers, young rider classification for riders under the age of 23, and the team classification, based on the first three finishers from each team on each stage.
Achieving a stage win also provides prestige, often accomplished by a team’s sprint specialist or a rider taking part in a breakaway.
Tour de France Femmes 2023
The Tour de France Femmes has been presented this 27th of October, revealing the route for the 2023 edition.
The French Grand Tour for the women’s peloton will take place from the 23rd to the 30th of July 2023.
The Grand Depart will take place in Clermont-Ferrand this edition, with a whole stage looping around the central French city.
It will be an open day, with the puncheurs and sprinters having an opportunity to ride for the first yellow jersey.
The second stage will have an hilltop finish in Mauriac with 3.4 kilometers at 5.8% which should open the fight for the yellow jersey. Stage 3 will have it’s finale in Montignac-Lascaux and should be a bunch sprint.
Stage 4 into Rodez will see a familiar finale, an explosive one after a hilly stage. The hilltop finish will see 570 meters at 10%.
Stage 5 will finish in Albi, a stage that should see a sprint finish, however with possibilities for the offensive riders aswell and stage 6 into Blagnac should be another opportunity for the fast women.
Stage 7 will be the queen stage, as the race heads into the Pyrenees. The 90-kilometer stage will see the ascent of the Col d’Aspin (12Km; 6.5%) to warm things up, and a very hard summit finish at the Col du Tourmalet (17Km; 7.3%), a day that will be decisive for the overall classification and see the pure climbers fight for the win.
The race will finish in Pau, as the 8th stage will see an individual time-trial around the city with 22 kilometers in difference.
Route
The route for the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was announced on Thursday in a press event at the Palais des Congrès in Paris with the top riders in the world present to view the stage-by-stage reveal by Tour de France organisers ASO.
It is the second edition of the rebirth of the women’s Tour de France, after a successful return last year saw the race begin on the famed Champs-Élysées and at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles where Annemiek van Vleuten claimed the yellow jersey and the overall title.
The 2023 Tour de France Femmes is set to take place from July 23 to 30 and will take on a whole new area of France.
The eight days of racing will begin in the Massif Central on July 23, in the city of Clermont-Ferrand, the capital of the Auvergne region.
The 956km route will take the peloton south and into the Pyrénées with a mountaintop finish on the iconic Tourmalet on stage 7 with a finale stage 8 time trial in Pau.
Winners
Ahead of the race, Annemiek van Vleuten, Elisa Longo Borghini, Ashleigh Moolman, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Marta Cavalli and Katarzyna Niewiadoma were all named as pre-race favourites for the general classification, with Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo tipped for the points classification.
The field of 144 was described as “packed with talent”, with the top 28 riders in the UCI rankings all taking part.
| History winners | |
|---|---|
| First edition | 2022 |
| Editions | 1 |
| First winner | Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) |
| Most wins | No Repeat winner |
| Most recent | Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) |
Worldwide media coverage praised the event, with CNN calling the race a “rebirth” and Cycling Weekly stating that the race was a “huge step for the women’s sport”.
Race director Marion Rousse stated that “it’s a proper Tour de France, with the caravan, the crowds, placards, flags” and Le Tour Entier co-founder Kathryn Bertine stating it was a “wonderful edition”.
Riders also praised the event, with Katarzyna Niewiadoma noting it was one of the hardest races that the women’s peloton has taken part in, and fourth placed overall Juliette Labous (Team DSM) explained that she was surprised by the large crowds, stating “I didn’t expect this much, I knew there would be a lot of people but I didn’t expect as much as this.”