2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to begin in Switzerland

The 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will have its Grand Départ in Lausanne, Switzerland, its organiser ASO announced on Thursday evening.

It will be the second foreign start for the Tour in its short history after it began in Rotterdam in 2024, and raises the prospect of an Alpine stage as early as the third day.

The opening stage will be a loop around Lausanne, with a finish fit for punchy riders, while stage two, from Aigle to Geneva, will be a more traditional sprint stage. Stage three will begin in Geneva and head to France across the border, with mountainous options in almost any direction.

It also means that the Tour will not have a denouement in the Alps, as it did in 2024 on Alpe d'Huez and will this year at Châtel, close to the Swiss border. It opens the prospect of a return to the Pyrenees as in 2023, or potentially the Massif Central.

Lausanne has hosted the men's Tour de France six times before, most recently in 2022, when Wout van Aert won atop a 4.9km climb at 4.5% - potentially a taste of what is to come at next year's Tour de France Femmes.

The race will run from 1-9 August, with nine stages scheduled, the same length as this year. It will also begin the week after the men's race finishes, as opposed to running on straight after, as is the case this season.

Geneva has featured in the Tour de France 10 times before, the first time in 1913 - the second foreign city to feature in the race - while Aigle has hosted a start just once, in 2022. Cycling's governing body, the UCI, is based there.

Tour de France Femmes direct Marion Rousse was present at the announcement in Aigle on Thursday, alongside UCI president David Lappartient.

2026 will be the first of two editions of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to start abroad, with 2027's race set to begin in the UK, although little is known about the route of that yet. The men's race, also with a British start, begins in Edinburgh that season.