Tour de France Femmes: A brief history of the events which paved the way

On June 17th, 2021, history was made when ASO - the organisers of the prestigious Tour de France - announced the launch of a brand-new women’s Grand Tour to sit alongside their flagship men’s race. This brand-new race, named the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, held its inaugural edition a year later, following the men's race, and kept Tour fever very much alive. A second edition in 2023 provided an even more challenging and dynamic route that delivered an equally as enthralling contest over the eight days.

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The reaction to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift before it had even hosted its first edition was very promising, with several former and active pros touting it as the next big thing for women’s cycling. Multiple World Champion Anna van der Breggen said that it had, “long been a dream for many of us to compete in a women’s Tour de France”, a statement echoed by an eventual stage winner at the first ever edition, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, “this is a day that we’ve waited for, for a long time.”

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Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won one of the most exciting stages of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes

The first women's Tours de France

While the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift may have been the first organised by ASO in their current state, several Tour-associated women’s stage races have been held in France previously. The first took place way back in 1955 in Normandy and saw the Isle of Man’s Millie Robinson emerge victorious. That particular event was a one-off, however, and a consistent, annual stage race wasn’t held until 1984 with the launch of the Tour de France Féminin.

The Société du Tour de France, an organisation that would later become part of ASO in 1992, organised the Tour de France Féminin and helped it to become one of the most prestigious stage races on the women’s calendar. Due to trademark disputes with ASO in the late 80s though it cut ties with the men’s race, changed its format and calendar position, and took up the new name of Tour de la C.E.E Féminin.

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Jeannie Longo (left), a three-time winner of the Tour de France Féminin, cut the ribbon marking the inaugural edition alongside director Marion Rousse (centre)

This new race ran for a further four editions, through to 1993, before it was completely axed from the calendar. In the meantime, in 1992, a new women’s Tour de France was established under the name Tour Cycliste Féminin. Organised by Pierre Boué, this race didn’t bear any association with ASO either, but unlike the Tour de la C.E.E it stuck around for much longer - from 1992 to 2009.

Several legendary riders won the Tour Cycliste Féminin - or La Grande Boucle as it was more commonly known as - during these years, including Dutch star Leontien van Moorsel who won the first two editions, five-time Giro Donne winner Fabiana Luperini who won three editions in a row, and former GCN presenter Emma Pooley who won the last edition in 2009. Despite having such an illustrious winners list, the race was continually downgraded in its latter years, to the point where the final edition featured just four stages.

La Course and the modern race

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La Course put a spotlight on women’s cycling during the busiest time of the cycling season

A return of the women’s Tour de France, of sorts, came about in 2014 when ASO launched La Course, but in its one-day format it never really filled the void left by the aforementioned stage races. Now, decades on from the last proper women’s Tour de France, we have a new event that aims to showcase the best of women’s cycling to the world - the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Instant success isn’t guaranteed, but ASO appear to be much more committed to the project this time around, with the men’s Tour director Christian Prudhomme stating in an interview following the launch, “the goal is to organise a race that will still exist in 100 years, that I can watch when I’m old and using a walker.” There may have only been two editions of the race so far, but already it looks well on its way to achieving that goal.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all seven stages the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from Monday, August 12 to Sunday, August 18, plus daily expert analysis on The Breakaway. As always, territory restrictions will apply.