AI quick summary
- The modern Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift launched in 2022, ending a 33-year gap without a true women's Tour.
- An earlier Tour de France Feminin ran from 1984 to 1989, won by Marianne Martin, Maria Canins and Jeannie Longo.
- In between, alternatives — La Grande Boucle Feminine and the Route de France Feminine — never matched the men's race in prestige or budget.
- Since 2022 the race has crowned Annemiek van Vleuten, Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma on some of the same climbs the men race.
/ 01
A women's Tour before there was a women's Tour
The idea of women racing the Tour is not new. In the 1950s there were unofficial stages for women during the men's race, and in 1984 the Societe du Tour de France ran the first official Tour de France Feminin on a reduced schedule, with the women riding stages ahead of the men. Marianne Martin, an American, won the inaugural edition. The Italian climber Maria Canins won twice.
That first era lasted only through 1989. The race was dropped — officially for budget reasons, less officially because the men's race simply absorbed all the oxygen. The women's peloton did not disappear. The Tour did.
/ 02
The lost decades
Between 1989 and 2022 there were attempts to fill the hole. La Grande Boucle Feminine ran in various forms from 1992 to 2009 — at one point a true 12-stage race — but ran out of money and credibility. The Route de France Feminine ran from 2006 to 2016. Neither was the Tour de France.
During this period the women's stage-racing calendar shifted to Italy, where the Giro d'Italia Donne (now Giro d'Italia Women) became the de facto biggest stage race in the sport. It carried that weight almost alone for two decades.
/ 03
The modern races — year by year
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift — recent winners
| Year | Winner | Team | Decisive moment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Annemiek van Vleuten | Movistar | Stage 8 — La Planche des Belles Filles ITT, won the race by collapsing on the line |
| 2023 | Demi Vollering | SD Worx | Col du Tourmalet attack on Stage 7 |
| 2024 | Kasia Niewiadoma | Canyon-SRAM | Alpe d'Huez — won overall by 4 seconds, smallest margin in modern stage racing |
/ 04
What the modern Tour is — and isn't
The Tour de France Femmes is not yet a Grand Tour. It runs 7-8 stages versus the men's 21, and the distances are roughly half. The prize money, once a fraction of the men's, was equalized for the overall winners from 2024 — a small but real step.
What the modern Tour does have is the brand and the parcours. Stages have finished on La Planche des Belles Filles, the Tourmalet, and Alpe d'Huez. The yellow jersey, the crowds, and the live television are the same machinery the men race under.
/ 05
The critics and the questions
There is genuine debate inside the women's peloton about how the Tour should grow. Some want it to reach ten stages and an individual time trial of 30km or more. Others want the race to stay compact, arguing that the smaller calendar suits the women's racing and protects rider welfare.
What nobody argues about is that the race belongs on the calendar. After a 33-year absence, the Tour de France Femmes is now the centerpiece of the women's season — and it has stayed there.
/ Sources