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.
