The 2024 Tour de France Femmes route was announced last autumn, with the iconic Alpe d'Huez added as the event's crucial crowning climb for the third edition of the rebirth of the women's Tour.
The first two Grand Tours of the season are now complete with Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) winning the overall title at the La VueltaFemenina and Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl Trek) claiming the maglia rosa at the Giro d'Italia Women. The peloton has also wrapped up the Olympic Games with Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) winning the gold medal in the time trial and Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) winning gold in the road race in Paris.
That means the time has come to examine which riders are likely to rise to the top in the Tour de France Femmes, which will play out over 946km from August 12-18.
The Tour de France Femmes route will kick off with the first four stages – raced over three days – in the Netherlands and BelgiuLa Vuelta Femenina in plays to the sprinters' hands for the first two, then there is a short time trial that could start to pull out some gaps in the overall before the race heads into the undulating terrain for stage 4 and stage 5, where it finally reaches France. Then the categorised climbs will start to make their presence felt on stage 6, but it is a downhill run to the finish at Morteau. However, after that, there is no reprieve, with Stage 7 finishing atop Le Grand-Bornand and Stage 8 on the iconic climb of Alpe d'Huez.
With just a few time trial kilometres, 6.3 to be exact, and two climb-heavy summit-finish stages to provide the finale, there is no doubt it is the riders who thrive on the long steep slopes that will be in prime position as the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes heads towards the Alps for the first time.
Particularly after her powerful performance on the Col du Tourmalet in 2023 and her stage racing winning streak this spring, defending champion Vollering remains firmly at the top of the favourites list.
Still, given that there is no concluding time trial this year where the powerful performer in the race against the clock can claw back any missteps in the mountains, there is an opportunity for challengers to turn up the pressure on those final two brutal days.
The course has set the scene for a build toward an exciting but unpredictable finale so it's time to take a closer look at the riders that are likely to be the star players as the drama unfolds.
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1. Demi Vollering
- Team: SD Worx-Protime
- Age: 27
- Tour de France results: 1st overall in 2023, 1x stage win in 2023, 2nd overall in 2022, mountain classification in 2022
Demi Vollering lines up as the defending champion at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes after showing her strength and consistency across the early stages of last year's event, dominating the decisive Col du Tourmalet and then finishing second in the closing time trial to win the overall title.
She is backed by the world's no. 1 team SD Worx-Protime, which supported one of her best seasons last year with victories at Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Romandie.
In 2024, she may not have Lotte Kopecky, who stood alongside her on the 2023 Tour de France Femmes overall podium, but the team has an impressive array of climbing talent, including the developing young rider Niamh Fisher-Black, to act as backup.
The Dutch rider has regularly proven her abilities in the high mountains and on long finishing ascents, particularly with wins atop Lagos de Covadonga and Mirador de Peñas Llanas at La Vuelta Femenina, Lagunas de Neila at Vuelta a Burgos, Col du Tourmalet at the Tour de France Femmes, and at Torgon at the Tour de Romandie.
She is now in her sixth season of racing, her fourth on the Women's WorldTour, and has grown into one of the world's best one-day racers, time triallists, and general classification contenders.
This season she has taken another step up by continuing her stage-racing winning streak from Tour de Romandie into this spring where, back-to-back, she won La Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women, Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Suisse. After training at altitude and then finishing 5th in the time trial and playing a support role in the road race at the Olympic Games, watch for Vollering to come into this Tour de France Femmes ready to defend her title.
Like last year, SD Worx-Protime will have another card to play in Lorena Wiebes, especially for the early sprint stages in the Netherlands, where she could take the event's first yellow jersey and carry it through the mid-race stages before handing it over to Vollering in the mountains.
At 27, Vollering is just realising her biggest strengths, and we can anticipate her leading the Dutch dominance of women's world-class bike racing for another decade.
2. Kasia Niewiadoma
- Team: Canyon-SRAM
- Age: 29
- Tour de France results: 3rd in 2023, mountains classification in 2023, 3rd overall in 2022
Kasia Niewiadoma has twice finished third overall on the podium at the Tour de France Femmes, and while both were hard-fought achievements, but it was the 2023 edition that really showed her progress as a general classification contender.
In 2022, Niewiadoma stated that she spent much of her off-season training strengthening her abilities in the long, high mountains, while in 2023, it was her time trial strength that she tapped into.
She also took more risks, none more apparent than her attack on the Col d’Aspin descent in a courageous bid for victory atop the Col du Tourmalet. She finished second, only to Demi Vollering, and then used her well-trained power in the closing time trial to finish ninth. Although Lotte Kopecky jumped ahead of her in the overall classification on the final day, she claimed the third spot by holding off the previous year's winner Annemiek van Vleuten in fourth.
Her consistent finishes over the mountain passes during the Tour de France Femmes also meant that she took home the mountain classification's polka-dot jersey.
Niewiadoma is one of the most consistent athletes in the women's peloton, often finishing among the top three and top five across the biggest one-day races and stage races. But she regularly seemed to be edged out for the victory.
In a spectacular turn of events this fall, Niewiadoma changed that at the UCI Gravel World Championships, claiming the world title and donning the rainbow jersey in Veneto. It was 'a victory that repays an entire season' she said
She then went on to win Flèche Wallonne atop the Mur de Huy this spring. It was her first big road race win since she claimed the Amstel Gold Race and a stage at the Women's Tour in 2019.
Niewiadoma has recently competed in the Olympic Games where she finished 8th in the road race, and seems right on track for another solid performance at the Tour de France Femmes.
She lines up with powerful support riders in Neve Bradbury, who has clearly demonstrated her form with a win in the Giro d'Italia Women Blockhaus stage and third overall. Then there is also time trial world champion Chloé Dygert, who is in prime position to win the stage 3 race against the clock. She will also be supported by Elise Chabbey, Soraya Paladin, Alice Towers, and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka.
3. Elisa Longo Borghini
- Team: Lidl-Trek
- Age: 32
- Tour de France results: DNF 2023, 6th overall in 2022
Elisa Longo Borghini's all-in approach to racing often makes her a favourite for any one-day race or stage race throughout the season. Likewise, her consistency in the time trials and on long mountain passes also makes her one of the best general classification riders in the world.
In her first Tour de France Femmes in 2022, Longo Borghini finished in the top 10 in six of the eight stages and was one of the event's star protagonists. The challenging back-to-back mountain stages at Le Markstein and La Planche des Belles Filles cost her dearly in the overall classification, as many of the best climbers struggled at the high pace set by the overall champion that year, Annemiek van Vleuten. As a result, Longo Borghini dropped from 4th to sixth overall.
Her performances in the Grand Tours can be unpredictable at times, but she has often shown her biggest strengths at the Giro d'Italia Women, where she finished second overall in 2017 and third overall in 2020, and this year, went on to a spectacular overall victory winning the maglia rosa on home soil.
It's a contrast to the outcome last year, which was a tough season for the Italian. At the 2023 Giro d'Italia, sitting in second overall as one of now-retired Annemiek van Vleuten's biggest challengers for the maglia rosa, she crashed on stage 5 and was forced to abandon. She returned to competition for the Tour de France Femmes but was also forced to abandon ahead of stage 7 due to a skin infection.
Putting last year's challenges behind her, and with the Giro d'Italia Women victory under her belt, Longo Borghini looks to be in a prime position to challenge for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France this time around.
However, that will only be the case if she and the team decide that she has a focus on the GC. She has previously indicated that her season would target the Giro and the Olympics and perhaps play a support role at the Tour. She also said that if she was called up to be a GC rider, she would be prepared.
She seems to have carried her form well through the Olympic Games, too, finishing in the top 10 in the time trial and road race, althrough she was disappointed not to have gotten a medal.
Lidl Trek also has GC contender and potential mountain stage winner Gaia Realini, along with Lucinda Brand, Shirin van Anrooij, Brodie Chapman and Lizzie Deignan.
There are a couple of stages that look well-suited to Longo Borghini's puncheur-style, hilly mid-stages that include stage 4 from Valkenburg to Liège, stage 6 from Remiremont to Morteau, and her ability to muscle over the biggest climbs will keep her in contention on stage 6 into Le Grand Bornand and on stage 7 to the top of Alpe d'Huez.
Longo Borghini didn't get the chance to show her true potential in the two big stage races of the 2023 season, but she has returned healthy in 2024, with the confidence boost of a much sought after victory and is ready to race at her best at the Tour de France Femmes.
4. Juliette Labous
- Team: dsm-firmenich PostNL
- Age: 25
- Tour de France results: 4th overall in 2022, 5th overall in 2023
Juliette Labous has become the French fan favourite at her home Tour de France and a podium hopeful, once again, for the 2024 edition.
She is a quiet contender, having slowly but steadily risen to become one of the best riders in the world over the previous seven seasons with the various versions of team Sunweb, Team DSM and now Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.
The team supports Labous' ambition to compete in her favourite Ardennes Classics while placing a major focus on the Spain-based Women's WorldTour races of Vuelta a Burgos, Itzulia Women, and summer stage races Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes. The end-of-season focus is then on the World Championships, and this has largely been her program for 2024, with the addition of the Olympic Games.
Her steady progress has paid off, as the Frenchwoman has finished 4th at the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 and 5th in 2023. While those results are impressive, it has been the in-between performances where we can truly gauge her success with the overall victory at Vuelta a Burgos in 2022 and the summit stage 7 victory atop Passo del Maniva at the Giro d'Italia Women, and then there was a telling second place overall at the Giro in 2023.
She has made a conscious effort to improve her power on the climbs and in the time trial, which has made her a more complete rider suited to the longer stage races.
Her hard work has led to strong results this year. She finished fourth overall at La Vuelta Femenina, third overall at Itzulia Women, fifth at Tour de Suisse and Giro d'Italia Women, and just off the podium at the Olympics time trial in Paris.
Her trajectory in the last two years has only just begun to spike, and at 25 years old, she is both the present and future of French cycling. With a programme tailored for this Tour de France Femmes, watch for Labous to continue with top performances on home soil.
Like SD Worx-Protime, DSM have another card to play with Charlotte Kool in the sprints, and they will be going for early stage wins and the yellow jersey in that front, taking the pressure off Labous until the race hits the mountains at Le Grand-Bornand and Alpe d'Huez.
5. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio
- Team: AG Insurance-Soudal
- Age: 38
- Tour de France results: 6th overall in 2023
Deciding against retirement and switching teams from SD Worx to AG Insurance-Soudal for the 2023 season was probably one of the best decisions Ashleigh Moolman Pasio has made in her cycling career.
It seems to have ignited a new chapter for her that allows her to excel as an undisputed leader, select major season targets with full team support, and experience the thrill of success, while also allowing her to give back to the younger riders on a three-tiered development team.
Almost as soon as she signed her new contract, she won the Tour de Romandie at the end of 2022, then started the 2023 season with a victory at Setmana Valenciana, a victory at Durango-Durango, third overall at Vuelta a Burgos, and second overall at the truncated CIC-Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées.
At the Tour de France Femmes, she truly filled the leadership role when she sat third overall from stages 2-4 and moved into second overall from stages 5-6. She drifted down to fifth on the summit of Col du Tourmalet on stage 7 and ended a strong 6th overall following the closing time trial.
Unfortunately, she comes into the 2024 Tour de France Femmes as a dark horse, given that she struggled with illness this spring and then sustained a fractured vertebra in June. She has spent time recovering and then training hard, still holding onto her dreams for the French block of racing this summer. She recently finished 33rd in the Olympic road race, and it looks like she is back to good health. It might mean that she needs to hold back a little in the opening stages and then race her way into better form ahead of the mountains at the Tour de France Femmes.
She will certainly be eyeing stage 4 from Valkenburg to Liège, and stage 6 from Remiremont to Morteau, but her true strengths will shine in Le Grand Bornand and on Alpe d'Huez.
We are not counting her out of contention at this Tour de France Femmes and believe that she has the experience and strength to race among the best.
The team also field Sarah Gigante as a potential GC contender and stage winner for the final two mountain stages.
6. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig
- Team: FDJ-SUEZ
- Age: 28
- Tour de France results: 7th overall in 2023, 7th overall in 2022, stage win in 2022
One of the most thrilling moments of watching Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig's cycling career was her stage 3 win on the steep finishing slopes into Épernay at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes.
The Danish champion patiently bided her time on the lower slopes of the ascent, as others burned their matches too soon. She then made her well-timed winning attack from five wheels back in a monstrous sprint up the Mur de Huy-esque final climb with her head down. As the fans cheered, treated to a spectacular finish, she passed Marianne Vos, Kasia Niewiadoma, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, and Elisa Longo Borghini to triumph with what was the biggest win of her career.
It was also one of the most dramatic moments of the entire 2022 season.
While Uttrup Ludwig played much more conservatively in the 2023 edition, she ended with the same overall results, seventh again. At the 2024 Tour de France Femmes perhaps we will see a combination of the two racing styles.
Uttrup Ludwig is a fan favourite, not only for her charismatic personality but also for he tendency to put on a show of strong, aggressive racing. Look no further than her 5th-place performance at the 2023 UCI World Championships, eventually won by Lotte Kopecky, but where she played her cards all the way to the finish line.
She had a turbulent start to the year and had to take three months off, only just returning to racing in May after recovering from a fractured sacrum.
Outside of the Tour de France, Uttrup Ludwig has delivered 6th overall at the Giro d'Italia Women in 2018, 4th in 2020, 6th in 2022, 6th in 2023, and this year 8th overall, while also competing for Denmark at the Olympic Games. She has a lot of experience competing against the best at the toughest stages races in the world and seems to be only just coming into her form as she returns from injury.
FDJ-SUEZ's line up will include second GC contender Évita Muzic, along with Grace Brown, Léa Curinier, Amber Kraak, Loes Adegeest, and Coralie Demay.
7. Évita Muzic
- Team: FDJ-SUEZ
- Age: 25
- Tour de France results: DNF in 2023, 8th in 2022
FDJ-Suez will be the strongest French-based team at the Tour de France Femmes, and this will be one of the most important races of the year for the team and French rider Èvita Muzic.
She has previously finished 8th overall at the 2022 edition of the Tour de France Femmes, in a race where FDJ-SUEZ rallied together after Marta Cavalli was forced to abandon following a serious crash.
Since then, she has risen to the occasion at many of the biggest races, 6th overall at La Vuelta Femenina in 2023 and fifth in 2024, where she won the stage to La Laguna Negra. Vineuesa and finished second on the stage to Valdesquí. Comunidad de Madrid. She also finished second overall at Vuelta a Burgos and had a strong fourth place at La Flèche Wallonne, often racing head-to-head against the likes of Demi Vollering.
She wasn't selected to compete at the Olympic Games and, while she was disappointed, promised to focus her energy on the Tour de France Femmes. She will undoubtedly have spent time previewing the stages, particularly La Grand Bornand and Alpe d'Huez, and specifically training for this event, especially while her rivals may have focused more on the Olympic Games.
So watch for Muzic to make her mark on the Tour de France Femmes, where she is a contender for both stage wins and the overall classification alongside Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig.
The team will also field Grace Brown, and while she has already announced that she will retire at the end of this year, she appears to be planning to go out on top with a win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the winning the gold medal in the time trial at the Olympic Games, watch for her to do something extra special at the Tour de France Femmes.
8. Gaia Realini
- Team: Lidl-Trek
- Age: 23
- Tour de France results: Set to debut at the 2024 edition
In 2023, Gaia Realini reached the podium of both the Giro d'Italia Women and La Vuelta Feminina, and it seems only a matter of time before the talented young climber adds the Tour de France Femmes to that list.
The rider who joined Lidl-Trek from Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria at the start of last season has yet to debut at the French race. Elisa Longo Borghini has been a deserving leader for the squad in the race for yellow the last two years, though her sixth place overall in 2022 turned to a DNF in 2023 after being diagnosed with a skin infection.
The course this time around is likely going to encourage the team to focus on multiple options for a wider strategy in 2024, and that means Realini could be a solid contender for the overall GC.
The team also has several options for stage wins, including Lizzie Deignan, Lucinda Brand, and Shirin van Anrooij. Realini will give the team another option for the mountains finale at La Grand Bornand and Alpe d'Huez, and can work with Longo Borghini, both strong enough to focus on the GC.
Realini's efforts in the mountains could lead to a top-3 in the overall classification and another rider for Lidl-Trek to put pressure on rival GC contenders.
Her prowess on challenging summits was made all too clear at the start of last season when, in her first race with her new team, she was instrumental in supporting Longo Borghini to victory on the Jebel Hafeet climb at the UAE Tour, also taking second on the stage with the powerful effort.
The strong results continued through the season, as on top of the Giro d'Italia Women and La Vuelta Feminina, there was another third place overall at the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, plus Realini also made it to the podium at La Flèche Wallonne Femmes, the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes and won a stage of La Vuelta Feminina and the Trofeo Oro in Euro.
This year she has continued to improve with 7th overall at the Giro d'Italia Women – where she was supporting Longo Borghini – and Tour de Suisse Women. She did not compete in the Olympic Games, and took time to recover and then train with her team ahead of the Tour de France.
9. Ane Santesteban
- Team: Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi
- Age: 33
- Tour de France results: 8th overall in 2023, 60th in 2022
Ane Santesteban stepped up as a key part of the climbing team when she joined Jayco-AlUla three years ago and with the Australian team last season she stepped into the top ten overall at both the Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes.
What's more, the eighth-place finish in the race for yellow was delivered after a powerful performance on Col du Tourmalet, where she came seventh.
That highlighted her ability on the long climbs, which are taking centre stage in the 2024 edition. However, there is another element at play in 2024. Not only does the course suit her but after years of calling for a home team, she now has the chance to play a headlining role at Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi, where she has signed for the next three years.
The Basque team didn't race the Tour de France Femmes in 2023, but they have stepped up the level significantly this year, strengthening the budget and roster and applying for a Women's WorldTour licence. Although they are currently a Continental team, they have big plans for the future.
There is little that could do more to prove their arrival as a world-class team than a strong showing as the world watches the battle for yellow unfold at the Tour de France Femmes.
Joane Somarriba, who won the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale version of the event three times in 2000, 2001, and 2003, will guide the team. Her experience will undoubtedly help the riders perform at their best at one of the biggest races in the world.
10. Neve Bradbury
- Team: Canyon-SRAM
- Age: 22
- Tour de France results: Tour de France Femmes debut in 2024
Neve Bradbury secured the biggest win of her career atop Blockhaus on the queen stage 7 at the Giro d'Italia Women in July. The solo victory also landed her on the overall podium in the Italian Grand Tour, finishing in third place behind overall winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and runner-up Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime).
Although she wasn't initially scheduled to race the Tour de France Femmes, she is now going to join her teammate Kasia Niewiadoma as the team's second GC contender in France.
Canyon-SRAM signed Bradbury in 2021 after she had won the Zwift Academy that year. She's now in her fourth season with the team and is having her strongest year yet.
Her highlights so far include second place overall at the UAE Tour and Tour de Suisse Women, where she also won a stage, and she kicked off the year with a third overall at the Tour Down Under. She said that these were the keys to unlocking her GC potential.
She has earned her spot on the Tour de France team and brings ample potential in the hunt for stage wins, particularly from opportunistic breakaways and in the mountains over the last two stages. And together with Niewiadoma, they could both manage to be among the top 10 overall at the end of the eight-day race.
11. Mavi Garcia
- Team: Liv AlUla Jayco
- Age: 40
- Tour de France Femmes results: DNF in 2023, 10th overall in 2022
Mavi Garcia has been a staple in the GC standings across La Vuelta Femenina, Giro d'Italia Women and at the Tour de France Femmes.
The former Spanish Champion excels across hilly terrain and in tough, tactical racing often ensuring that she is in a position to fight for a breakaway or finish among the selection on major ascents.
Although she hasn't had her best season so far this year, but improved ahead of the summer stage races, having finished fourth overall at Itzulia Women and just recently winning the Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia.
She also finished ninth overall at the Giro d'Italia Women and sixth in the road race at the Olympic Games.
She is potentially just now coming into her best form and could produce good results at the Tour de France Femmes. But it takes more than strength and form to do well in a race of this calibre, and Garcia will understand that better than most.
In the 2022 edition, she was on track to a potential overall podium but was hit by her own team car during the gravel stage mid-race. Although she got up and finished the stage, she still felt the effects of the incident. She ended up finishing in 10th place overall, but we can't help but think how much better she would have performed without injuries.
She has another shot at the podium this year, and the final stages at La Grand Bornand and Alpe d'Huez will favour her strenghts. While the team have a strong sprint squad, too, for the opening flatter stages of the race, watch for Garcia to take the reigns in the final weekend.
12. Riejanne Markus
- Team: Visma-Lease a Bike
- Age: 29
- Tour de France Femmes results: 11th overall in 2023, 12th overall in 2022
Riejanne Markus has finished just outside of the top 10 in the first two editions at the Tour de France Femmes, but this year she's made big gains in her performances in the mountains and in the stage races that could see her improve results at the Tour.
Notably, she finished second overall to Demi Vollering at La Vuelta Femenina after inside the top 10 in all of the final four stages, and she was third on the final stage atop Valdesquí. Comunidad de Madrid.
Her consistency during this race helped her secure the overall podium, and that could prove to be her biggest strength at the French Grand Tour.
She also just finished second overall at the Princes Anna Vasa Tour, where Visma-Lease a Bike swept the final podium.
She arrives with a powerful Visma-Lease a Bike team, that will be hunting stage wins, too, with Marianne Vos. However, the team can offer her both support and experience in her efforts for a top GC place.
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage as it happens and more. Find out more.
