How to watch Tour de France Femmes 2026: TV channel, highlights and streaming online

The Tour de France Femmes begins on Saturday with possibly the most difficult route yet for women’s cycling’s flagship race.

This year the peloton will tackle the infamous Mont Ventoux on a gruelling stage seven, the queen stage of the nine-day race, but the battle for the general classification could go right down to the wire with four summits of the Col d’Eze, outside Nice, crammed into less than 100km in an explosive final stage.

Dutchwoman and 2023 champion Demi Vollering is arguably the favourite to regain her crown but will face fierce competition from reigning champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, who has had a mixed season but with everything building towards her title defence, and 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who has finished on the podium in every edition.

Elsewhere Britain’s Zoe Backstedt is one of the favourites to take a maiden stage win on stage four’s individual time trial, as the 21-year-old makes her Tour de France debut.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch the race.

The Tour de France Femmes begins in Lausanne on Saturday 1 August, running for nine stages until the finish line in Nice on Sunday 9 August.

Viewers in the UK can watch the race on TNT Sports and HBO Max. A subscription starts from £25.99 per month for an annual subscription, or £30.99 if paid monthly. This year there is no free-to-air coverage of the Tour de France Femmes.

Chief among the contenders is the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering, who won this race in 2023 and won the Giro d’Italia in June to complete the full set of Grand Tour wins. The European champion is in stunning form, having won Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Flanders among other races in a glittering Classics campaign before that recent Giro triumph. Her FDJ Suez-United team is assembled entirely around her, with the likes of French climber Evita Muzic and this year’s Paris-Roubaix champion Franziska Koch excellent lieutenants.

Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has had a middling season so far; second at the Tour of Flanders and third place at Paris-Roubaix were the highlights but her results have otherwise been average, including a rather anonymous showing at the Vuelta Femenina. But she has been open about building her season entirely towards the Tour and having cemented her triumph on the Col de la Madeleine last year the inclusion of Mont Ventoux will suit her, although the individual time trial is much better suited to Vollering than the Frenchwoman.

2024 champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has been on the podium of every edition and reliably brings her best to the Tour; her Canyon-SRAM squad is a strong one, too, including former Giro d’Italia podium finisher Antonia Niedermaier, who will provide support in the mountains. But although she has been putting in significant time on the TT bike the time trial does not play to her strengths, and she has not looked able to match Vollering on the climbs so far this year.

Young Spanish prodigy Paula Blasi blew away the field at this year’s Vuelta Femenina and will be co-leader for UAE Team L’IMAD alongside two-time Giro winner Elisa Longo Borghini, with the team able to play multiple cards. Longo Borghini has had a difficult year hampered by illness but is the more natural leader of the team; the squad will likely have to balance the pair’s competing interests, particularly if Blasi arrives in the same barnstorming form as she displayed in Spain, where she was particularly impressive on the toughest climbs – which bodes well for Mont Ventoux. UAE also have Maeva Squiban, who won two stages last year, and Dominika Wlodarczyk, who finished fourth last year.

Movistar leader Marlen Reusser has had a run of bad luck at the sport’s biggest races, including abandoning last year’s Tour with illness on stage one, and crashes and illness have held her back at points this season too. But she won her home race, the Tour de Suisse, earlier this summer and looks to be back at her best; the 34-year-old can climb with the best and as reigning time-trial world champion will expect to gain time on her rivals on stage four.

Finally, SD Worx-Protime will be led by Anna van der Breggen, a legend of the sport who may not be quite at her electric best but is certainly not far off it. Second at the Vuelta and third at the Giro, where she wore the maglia rosa for much of the race, indicate she remains a serious threat. High mountains like Mont Ventoux have always suited her and the ITT also plays in her favour.