Since its creation in 2022, the event has gone from eight to nine days of racing. The organizers repeat that they especially do not want to go too fast.
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The question comes back each time the layout is revealed in October or as soon as the race is about to return to the daily life of the French in the middle of summer. Why does the Tour de France women last a big week when that of men extends over 21 stages and three weeks of racing? Accustomed to having to answer it, Marion Rousse, the director of the event, always shows the same patience and advances the same arguments.
“We evolve at the same pace as female cycling, which has nothing more to do with the first edition. But the model is always fragile. We must not go too fast and go straight to the wall. Several models have existed before and collapsed”she repeated to Franceinfo: sport at the end of May. In 2025, the Tour de France women added an additional day of racing to offer nine stages, in addition to its own cyclosportive, scheduled for August 2 between Chambéry and the Madeleine pass.
“We will see over the years how it changes, as we have done in recent years with professionalization. We now have a peloton of 154 runners who are all prepared, after having recognized the routes. I think it’s a good format “supported Franck Perque, the architect of the route. No runner interviewed regretted not being entitled to three weeks of racing, even if it has never been a question of the possibility of inflicting this long -term effort. “Girls are able to do three weeks, but not team structures”blowing the leader of a World Tour team last year.
Some climbers have been favorable to this idea, inevitably seeing their interest because specialists in endurance. The young Marion Bunel, in particular, but she hopes that, if this evolution materializes, things are being done “step by step”. The sprinter Lorena Wiebes, she prays that the effort does not exceed “Two weeks”. “I have pity for boys personally [tellement c’est dur]. Three weeks, we don’t need it “has decided for her part the Swiss Marlen Reusser, who will have only lived this year this year.
Three years ago, a large part of the runners of the Tour de France women was not even professional. Few of them had already run in the high mountains. The progression is clear, but the male peloton evolves still on another planet. 250,000 euros in premiums are planned throughout the race for runners, compared to 2.5 million euros for men in 2025. If today, the advertising caravan has 50 vehicles, this remains three times lower than that of the male event.
“There is still lots of things to improve. I’m not sure I want a three -week tour now. The male teams have 25 runners, we are about 15. It’s just not possible to live a three -week tour and run the rest of the calendar”adds the Dutch Demi Vollering, winner in 2023. runners and race organization are on the same wavelength: you have to perpetuate and not try to grow at all costs. “”The champions themselves do not claim it. Why compare a race that is four years old to another who is 120 years old? “, supported the director of the male tour Christian Prudhomme on Wednesday.
In 2026, the Tour de France women will continue to offer nine days of racing but will be freed from the wake of the male event. The big departure will be given from Switzerland, in Lausanne, on August 1, six days after the men’s parade on the Champs-Elysées (July 26). What hope for next developments and a passage to two weeks by 2030? “”If I give you my version of the Tour in 2030, I will certainly plant myself, replies Marion Rousse. But yes, I hope it will be even greater. “