With the Vuelta and Giro behind them, the Women’s peloton head to Switzerland for the Grand Départ of this year’s final Grand Tour showdown at the Tour de France Femmes. A race the team has fond memories from, with multiple stage wins and the white jersey classification, they head to the 2026 edition full of motivation, despite an unlucky season so far.
A punchy hill-top finish will see the first yellow jersey fight on the streets of Lausanne, before the sprinters should get their chance the following day. Returning to French soil on stage three, it should also be another stage for the fast women in the bunch, but a lot of cumulated climbing might make for a tougher stage. The individual race against the clock returns the following day and will be a key early marker for those in the GC battle. A few challenging hilly days follow where the break opportunists might sniff out their chances, before the big stand-out GC day and the finish on Mont Ventoux, before the race heads into the closing weekend. Saturday’s stage could reward those fast finishers who’ve made it this far but be wary of a punchy rise in the finale which might tempt some attackers. The final day is one not to miss with laps around Nice and the surrounding climbs, where the climbers and GC riders will leave everything on the road to try and shake things up one last time.
Team Picnic PostNL coach Callum Ferguson expressed: “The Tour de France Femmes has been one of our biggest goals and target races of the season, so we head into it filled with motivation. However, we’ve also had our fair share of bad luck this season so far and that’s influenced our preparations. Eleonora will be our GC finisher, but we will take it day-by-day with her and without pressure after the unlucky season she’s had. On paper there look to be a few sprint stages, and we will go into them with Mia as our finisher. Overall, we will look to continue building on the good foundations we’ve been building and grab opportunities with two hands when they arise.”