Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to extend to nine stages in 2025

The 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is set to be the longest yet, with the race extending to nine stages, it was announced on Monday.

The fourth edition of one of the biggest women's races of the year will be the longest yet, adding an extra stage on. It was also announced that it will begin in Brittany, a return to France for the Grand Départ.

The official Tour X (formerly known as Twitter) account posted: "A Grand Départ from Vannes before crossing the Finistère the next day, the Tour de France Femmes will then return to Morbihan for the third stage and a total of nine stages on the menu for the 2025 edition!"

The 2024 race will begin with a stage from Vannes to Plumelec, before a second stage from Brest to Quimper. The third day will begin in La Gacilly before it leaves Brittany.

This year's race, which begins in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 12 August, takes place over just seven days, with stage two split into two halves, to keep it at eight stages. This is due to the Paris Olympics, with the race also moving dates from immediately post the men's event due to the games.

Last May, the race's director, Marion Rousse, told Cycling Weekly that there were no current plans to add further stages to the Tour, but the organiser will reconsider "when the time comes".

"We certainly don’t want to expand too quickly," she said. "There were women’s Tours de France before us, and since we’re a new edition, it means that what came before didn’t work out. 

"I want the race to still exist in 100 years' time, and not shut down in a few years."

"We have to take it little by little," she stressed. "We’re not closing the door on any possibilities. Of course, when the time comes, we’ll add more stages if we can."

Nine days will give the race more possibility of crossing France to the high mountains of the Pyrenees of the Alps without the need for long transfers, something the riders and fans will both appreciate.

At nine stages, the Tour would be longer than any current women's Grand Tour - the 2024 editions of the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d'Italia Women both have eight days, just like this year's Tour. However, the Giro has had ten stages in recent memory.