The 2026 Tour de France Femmes started with 147 rider on the line in Lausanne, but by the time the race concluded in Nice there were just 115 rider that made it across the finish line as crashes, illness, heatstroke and sheer exhaustion took their toll.
A hard-fought final GC battle on the challenging terrain of stage 9 took out the biggest chunk, with 11 riders either a DNS or DNF as the explosion of pace and absence of anything to continue fighting for made the decision to walk away seem a little less fraught.
Still, it had already been down to 126 riders on the start line the day before, when a rider that had started the race as a favourite instead in the position of walking away before it was finished. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) did not start stage 8. The French rider had been struggling since the time trial on stage 4, and lost her hopes of a second title well before Ventoux, but after the stage was almost 15 minutes down on the maillot jaune.
Another GC contender, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), dropped out before stage 7. Van der Breggen had been off the pace since the race began, but her troubles piled high on stage 6 as she lost 13 minutes and fell to 28th overall. Her SD Worx-Protime team preferred she quit the Tour so she can recover as quickly as possible for her upcoming goals later this season.
They were, however, just two of the 32 who didn't finish the nine-day race, as unfortunately, the reality of bike racing is that sometimes the journey to the finish line is cut short.
Riders may abandon a stage mid-race after a crash or illness, climbing into a car or being taken away by ambulance instead of finishing. Others will pull out overnight and not start a new stage in the morning.
Riders can also be taken out of the race by the organisation, either by - 'DNF' means 'did not finish', 'DNS' means 'did not start', 'OTL' means 'outside time limit' and 'DSQ' means 'disqualified'.
Here is the list of all the riders who pulled out of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes.
Tour de France Femmes 2026 abandons
Stage 1
- Laura Tomasi (Uno-X Mobility) - DNF, crash on stage 1
- Alison Avoine (Ma Petite Entreprise) - Finished over the time limit
Stage 2
- Brodie Chapman (UAE Team L'Imad) - DNS
- Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Premier Tech) - DNS, crash on stage 1
- Elisabeth Ebras (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) - DNF
- Marieke Meert (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) - DNF
- Sterre Vervloet (Lotto Intermarché Ladies) - DNF
- Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels) - DNF
Stage 3
- Dina Boels (Lotto Intermarché) - DNF
Stage 5
- Hannah Ludwig (Cofidis) - DNS
- Teuntje Beekhuis (Uno-X Mobility) - DNF
- India Grangier (St. Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) - DNS
Stage 6
- Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) - DNS
- Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv Alula Jayco) - DNS
- Eleonora Ciabocco (Picnic-postNL) - DNF
- Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech) - DNF
Stage 7
- Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) - DNS
- Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) - DNS
- Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) - DNS
- Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) - OTL
Stage 8
- Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) - DNS, illness
Stage 9
- Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime) - DNS
- Heidi Franz (St Michel-Prefernce Home-Auber 93) - DNS
- Paula Patiño (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) - DNS
- Alice Coutinho (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) - DNS
- Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) - DNF
- Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal) - DNF
- Alicia Gonzalez Blanco (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) - DNF
- Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) - DNF
- Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) - DNF
- Sophie von Berswordt (Volkerwessels) - DNF
- Morgane Coston ( Ma Petit Enterprise) - DNF
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