(Paris) The women’s Tour de France will leave Brittany on July 26, 2025 with an expanded format of nine stages, compared to eight until then, a sign that “the race is growing in step with the evolution of women’s cycling”, announced the director Marion Rousse Monday.
“The choice of Brittany seemed quite natural to us. They came to get us. And honestly we didn’t hesitate for long because in terms of the route, you can do cool things, the landscape is magnificent and what’s more, you’re talking to bike connoisseurs,” she said in an interview with L’Équipe, Le Parisien and AFP.
After leaving Paris in 2022, Clermont-Ferrand in 2023 and Rotterdam next August, the fourth edition will start from Vannes to reach Plumelec, a 95 km long stage with a final circuit of 14 km that the runners will take in three groups. times.
“A first step for punchers, with why not already some gaps in the general classification,” estimates Marion Rousse.
The second stage will leave Brest to arrive in Quimper after 130 km and, again, a loop in Quimper.
The Tour will then start on Monday from Gacilly to arrive at a location which will be revealed in October with the rest of the route.
“So there will be not eight but nine stages. It’s a strong message that we’re sending, which shows that the race is growing at the same pace as the evolution of women’s cycling, that it’s working and that we’re on the right track,” underlines the director of the event.
The women’s Tour de France had existed in different forms in the past before disappearing at the end of the 2000s due to lack of funding, and being reborn in 2022.
There was immediate success and in the future, the Women’s Tour will not refrain from further extending the duration of the race.
“But above all we must not go faster than the evolution of women’s cycling, that would be nonsense. We’re already going from eight to nine days and then we’ll see in a few years,” insists Marion Rousse.