Tour de France Femmes a smash hit with French TV audience with nearly 20m viewers

France TV has revealed nearly 20 million French viewers tuned into the first ever Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift last week.

The eight-day race was given more than 22 hours of live coverage on France Télévisions. 

It garnered just under half the viewers that the men's race did, an impressive haul for a first edition.

The Tour de France Femmes on average, captured approximately a quarter of the French Television audience during the week, with 2.25 million viewers across TV channels France 2 & 3. There was a clear trend in the figures rising as the race went on.

The overall peak was when 5.1 million viewers tuned in to catch the finish atop La Super Planche des Belles Filles when Movistar rider Annemiek Van Vleuten sealed her overall victory. Stage eight made up 45.6% of the overall audience share. 

In comparison, France Télévisions confirmed that 41.5 million French viewers watched the men’s edition of the race won by Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). The daily viewing figures peaked at 6.4 million for the Bastille Day stage to Alpe d’Huez which was won by Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers).

The race was shown in seven European countries, with a more than 14 million viewer reached via Eurosport. 

It captured a huge 45% of the TV audience in the Netherlands at points as viewers made sure they caught the key action involving their riders Van Vleuten, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering. 

People were equally as engaged with the Tour de France Femmes via online. 

The official race website attracted 1.5 million unique visitors, and 2.8 million visits in total. More than 600,000 people visited the live race centre service on the platform.

Online videos from across official Tour de France Femmes accounts were viewed 22 million times, all showing that a high number of people were absorbing the race and the conversation around it. 

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) took victory on stage three which proved to be the most popular online, particularly with her comical post stage interview.