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The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is coming up fast, and this year promises to be something special. The winners of the last three editions will all be on the starting line, and all three are serious contenders for the yellow jersey again. Demi Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney will arrive in Lausanne with the same goal: taking the overall win.
The wild thing about this year’s race is that, even beyond the three past winners, several high-level riders could remain in close contention for the yellow jersey until the final stage. There are also a few wild cards who could shake things up in a big way.
Thanks to smart course design and a field that makes choosing a fantasy team nearly impossible, this race promises to be a nail-biter until the final lap around Nice on Sunday, August 9. With 22 teams fielding seven riders each, 154 women will be on the starting line in Lausanne when the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins on August 1. Here are the riders we’ll be watching.
Yellow Jersey ContendersDemi Vollering
No list like this would feel right without Demi Vollering, and she has made it clear that she wants a second Tour victory. She won this year’s Giro d’Italia Women, but more importantly, she also took the queen of the mountains jersey at the same race, underscoring her climbing ability.
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She missed out on the Tour victory last year when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot attacked on the Col de la Madeleine and put minutes into the peloton, so Vollering has clearly been preparing to race her up Mont Ventoux this year.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
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Last year’s winner has once again flown under the radar since early in the season. Even when she was racing, we didn’t see much of her at the front. But we know Ferrand-Prévot is capable of extremely singular focus, so it’s likely that her nearly three-month break from racing was part of her preparation for defending the yellow jersey and becoming the first repeat winner of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney
This is a surprisingly controversial call, even considering that she has won the race before, but we’re going with it. Canyon//SRAM has seemingly had a bit more of a power struggle this year, with riders such as Zoe Bäckstedt and Antonia Niedermaier producing great performances at the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de Suisse Women. Meanwhile, Niewiadoma-Phinney has stayed under the radar and, in some cases, taken on more of a domestique role.
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But that may have been part of the team’s strategy, building up the rest of the squad while saving Niewiadoma-Phinney’s legs for this race. It worked for Ferrand-Prévot last year, so maybe it will work for Niewiadoma-Phinney this year.
Anna van der Breggen
The Team SD Worx-Protime rider is back with a vengeance after briefly retiring from racing and becoming a team director. She decided she still had more racing in her legs and launched a comeback, but no one was sure how it would go. It turns out van der Breggen has still got it.
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She smashed the time trial at the Giro d’Italia Women last month and finished third overall. If she can produce another great time trial and avoid losing too much time on the Mont Ventoux stage, she has a solid chance of taking the yellow jersey.
Marlen Reusser
The Movistar rider could do serious damage to the GC standings in the time trial, but she has proven over the past year that she’s not a one-hit wonder. The 2025 time trial world champion is capable of winning a stage race as well, as she showed at this year’s Tour de Suisse Women.
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With the race starting in Switzerland, Reusser will also have plenty of national pride on the line. That could give her serious momentum through the opening three stages and into the time trial on Stage 4. I’m expecting her to wear the yellow jersey for at least one of the first four days, even if she can’t hold onto it once the race reaches the mountains.
Elisa Longo Borghini
Longo Borghini is one of the few riders who made the big gamble of racing both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de Suisse Women this season. That’s two stage races in quick succession shortly before the Tour de France Femmes. But she tends to be the type of rider who gets stronger the more she races.
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Her Tour went badly last year due to illness, and she dropped out after only two stages, so she’s likely planning a revenge tour. The UAE Team ADQ rider also has a secret weapon in La Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi. The only potential problem is that the team could find itself with two women capable of chasing the overall victory if Blasi has a strong opening few stages.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar
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The AG Insurance-Soudal rider dropped to 16th overall at the Tour last year, but she won a stage and finished on the podium four times. She may return this year with more knowledge and better tactics. She would be a bit of a wild-card pick for the yellow jersey, but under the right circumstances, she could do it.
Stage HuntersLily Williams
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Human Powered Health is having its best year ever, and Williams is poised for a sprint-finish victory. The team is in a sweet spot. It won’t have serious GC aspirations, but it is strong enough that a stage victory is well within reach, allowing riders such as Williams to focus all their energy on chasing one.
Magdeleine Vallières
EF Education-Oatly’s world champion has been a bit under the radar for the past three months, but she started the season incredibly strong. However, she has at least two teammates who are equally capable of winning a stage: Cédrine Kerbaol from a sprint and Kristen Faulkner from a breakaway.
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That could make for some great racing, or it could spread the team’s resources too thin, depending on how it plays its cards.
Marianne Vos
Once the GOAT, always the GOAT. While Visma-Lease a Bike’s Vos will largely serve as Ferrand-Prévot’s road captain and is still returning from an injury, she can never be discounted in a sprint finish. There are a few opportunities for her at this race.
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Last year, we were treated to a master class in Vos and Ferrand-Prévot working together and sharing the glory. History may repeat itself.
Puck Pieterse
If the young Fenix-Premier Tech rider had more of a squad around her, I would have ranked Pieterse as a GC contender. That’s not to say her team isn’t strong, but it often seems as though she gets caught in breakaways where she could use a teammate or heads into sprints against riders who have lead-out support.
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Still, she could absolutely take a stage victory and will likely finish inside the top 10, or higher.
Paula Blasi
The UAE Team ADQ rider is low-key a favorite to win this whole race. She burst onto the Women’s WorldTour scene this year by winning the Vuelta España Femenina and the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina (she also won the climber’s jersey at both races).
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She’s still young, so it’s unlikely that she’ll be targeting the overall victory. But her triathlon background should serve her well in the time trial, and she will be a serious threat to win stages if she’s not in the overall GC fight.
Lotte Kopecky
The Team SD Worx-Protime rider is always one to watch. This course doesn’t offer many truly flat sprint stages, but that may work to Kopecky’s advantage. She’s a strong all-around rider as well as an excellent sprinter.
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She won the points jersey at La Vuelta Femenina this year and finished fourth at Paris-Roubaix. She will be a threat on almost any stage, not just the flat ones.
Elisa Balsamo
ELIAS ROM
The Lidl-Trek rider won the green points jersey at the Giro d’Italia Women this year and will be one to watch whenever a stage comes down to a sprint.
Molly writes about cycling, nutrition and training with an emphasis on bringing more women into sport. She’s the author of nine books including the Shred Girls series and is the founder of Strong Girl Publishing. She co-hosts The Consummate Athlete Podcast and spends most of her free time biking and running on trails, occasionally joined by her mini-dachshund.