'It's a pinch-me moment' - British teenager to make Tour de France Femmes debut as race's youngest rider

At just 19 years old, and still in her first season as a pro, Imogen Wolff is quickly ticking off the calendar’s biggest races; she rode Milan-San Remo in March, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April, and then her first week-long stage race in the Vuelta Femenina in May.

Now, she’s about to go even bigger. This Saturday afternoon, Wolff will make her debut at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, a milestone neo-pros rarely expect so early in their careers. She'll also do so as the youngest of the 154 riders in the race.

“I’m really excited, looking forward to getting going,” Wolff tells Cycling Weekly at the Grand Départ in Brittany. “I want to race against the best field in the women’s peloton, and I think that’s what we have at this race. I feel really, really lucky.”

After emerging as one of the most promising junior talents in 2024, Wolff graduated straight to the WorldTour with Visma-Lease a Bike this season. Her palmarès counts two junior world titles on the track, a junior British time trial championship, a podium in the junior time trial at the UCI Road World Championships and, already in her pro career, an elite stage victory at a race in Spain.

The call-up to race the Tour, she explains, came shortly after the Vuelta, two months ago. “I knew maybe it was a possibility, and I just really wanted to prove that I deserved a spot on the team,” she says.

“My coach flew out to Girona – he’s also got a place there – and we rode together, and he was like, ‘How’s your French?’” she smiles. “It was a really nice moment. I rang my parents straightaway and told them.”

On the morning before her Tour debut, Wolff’s mother sent her photos from the men’s race in 2014, when she and her family watched at the roadside. That year, the event started in Yorkshire, with the peloton passing only a handful of miles from their home.

“I still ride the climbs in the route all the time,” Wolff says. “My dad and I used to do bikepacking trips, head to France, bikepack to the men’s stages and try and get as many freebies from the caravan as possible. It was always a really special feeling.

“Growing up, it was always a dream to ride here, and for so long, it wasn’t possible. Then the women’s race came in, and I still didn’t think it was possible. [Being here] is a pinch-me moment.”

Over the next nine days, the teenager will be on “full domestique duties” for her Visma-Lease a Bike team-mates. She’ll help last year’s green jersey winner Marianne Vos in the sprints, and support Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in her bid for the GC.

“It’s nice to already be doing these big races, to have the experience and the learning,” Wolff says.

How does she feel about being the peloton's youngest member? “It's cool,” she smiles. “It means I have a lot less experience, but I’m lucky there’s a lot of girls on my team that have so much experience – I can learn from them.

“The pressure is low for me. I just want to enjoy it and, it’s cliché, but take it day by day.”