Ferrand-Prevot Defends Tour Title Against Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney

Lausanne – 01.08.2026: Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is once again at the point where the greatest pressure and the greatest opportunity in French cycling converge: the start of the Tour de France Femmes. The defending champion from Team Visma-Lease a Bike tackles the first of nine stages this Saturday. The opening stage covers 138 kilometers from Lausanne back to the Swiss Olympic city; no result was available at the time of publication.

The route to the finish in Nice on August 9 demands far more than an explosive acceleration. The organizers put the total elevation gain of this fifth edition at 18,795 meters – a record for the modern Tour de France Femmes. The opening stages in Switzerland are followed on August 4 by a 21-kilometer individual time trial from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon, the mountain finish on Mont Ventoux on August 7, and finally the finale in Nice.

Ferrand-Prevot proved in 2025 with her commanding overall victory how effectively she can tailor a season around this one race. Her 2026 racing calendar was considerably lighter, making her form harder to assess. The 34-year-old finished second at the Tour of Flanders and third at Paris-Roubaix. She has not contested a major race since the Vuelta in May, focusing her preparations entirely on the Tour.

Her likely strongest rival is Demi Vollering. The Dutch rider from FDJ United-Suez arrives after an exceptionally consistent first half of the season. In 2026, she won the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro d’Italia Women, among other races. She holds a particular advantage over Ferrand-Prevot in the time trial, as Ferrand-Prevot has collected only limited recent race benchmarks in the discipline since returning to road racing.

However, Vollering also knows how unpredictable this race can be. The 2023 winner has stood on the podium in every edition to date, but has won only once. With Juliette Berthet, Evita Muzic, French champion Celia Gery and German champion Franziska Koch, FDJ United-Suez has a strong lineup for the mountains and for controlling the race.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney remains another reliable contender. The Polish rider from Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto won in 2024 and has reached the podium every time since the race was revived in 2022. Her climbing ability and composure in hectic finishes make her especially dangerous on Ventoux and on the demanding stages in the south.

UAE Team ADQ also has two options in Elisa Longo Borghini and Paula Blasi. The 23-year-old Spaniard Blasi won the Vuelta Femenina in May and is now contesting her first Tour de France Femmes. How the roles between her and the experienced Longo Borghini will be allocated should become clear at the latest on the first major climbs.