The only way is up for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.<\/p>\n
It started out as an eight-stage race on its debut in 2022 and upped to nine last year.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s racing\u2019s leading race could have more stages in the very near future.<\/p>\n
UCI president David Lappartient does not think the growth is too fast and wants to consolidate its popularity with development.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have also maybe live TV from the start to the finish which was the case today [stage one] and not for the other stages,\u201d the Frenchman told Wielerflits.<\/i> \u201cBut we can already see the organizer ASO is trying to improve every year. So there will be some more stages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sounds pretty official, then.<\/p>\n
There is little doubt for many members of its peloton too that there is room for more growth to make the sport\u2019s most prestigious race longer and even more compelling.<\/p>\n
But what is the magic number for the racers? The nine-stage status quo? 21 like the men\u2019s Tour? Or something in between? Velo\u00a0<\/em>asked the bunch.<\/p>\n 2025 Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge winner and Tour animator Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) told Velo<\/i>: \u201cI think two weeks would be great because then we could add a rest day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t get to have one, a day where we can really enjoy the moment like the men\u2019s last day. So if they make it a bit longer, maybe there\u2019s more time to make the racing.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Lidl-Trek leader Niamh Fisher-Black would welcome a 12-stage Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n \u201cI like it\u2019s getting longer already,\u201d she says. \u201cPersonally, I think actually it could get a little bit longer. It just suits me and my personal strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) is another rider who thinks a dozen would be just right.<\/p>\n Historically, the sport\u2019s grand tours have been a test of stamina, staying power and recovery.<\/p>\n Fifth overall last year, Fisher-Black came on strong in the attritional Alpine last two days in 2025, making her move from eighth overall on the last day.<\/p>\n \u201cI tend to be stronger in the last few days, but I don\u2019t think it needs to get much longer than 12 days, two weeks,\u201d the New Zealander said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think by the end of that first week, you really start to see the difference that fatigue makes, and so I think it makes it exciting enough.\u201d<\/p>\n After years of campaigning for this blue riband race, the sport has had its Tour de France Femmes since 2022.<\/p>\n But not everything has to have parity with the men\u2019s sport or be compared, especially given the risk of growing too fast without crucial infrastructure in place.<\/p>\n As they say in these parts, vive la diff\u00e9rence<\/i>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think every day we have so many fans tuning in online and in person and I wouldn\u2019t want to dilute that by having a Tour that\u2019s too long,\u201d double Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) says.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, I do feel that the sport is growing and can support more stage races.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI also don\u2019t necessarily believe that more stages is better,\u201d she says. \u201cJust because the men have more doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s better. I don\u2019t necessarily think we need to look to men\u2019s racing as what we need to be or the North Star we should strive for.\u201d<\/p>\n Faulkner wants to make sure if extra stages do get added, it\u2019s because it\u2019s good for the women\u2019s sport rather than a copy and paste job.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of why I love women\u2019s racing is because every day matters and every moment matters in a stage,\u201d the 33-year-old said. \u201cI just really don\u2019t want to lose that. I personally enjoy races that don\u2019t feel so controlled, I wouldn\u2019t enjoy racing if it were like the men\u2019s \u2013 I prefer our racing style.\u201d<\/p>\n Her compatriot Heidi Franz (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) did La Course par le Tour de France in 2021, back when it was a one-day showcase.<\/p>\n Doing the full-on stage race for the first time, the American wants a fortnight of action.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I think I would really enjoy two weeks. We\u2019ve never had a two-week race before, since the 1980s or something, you\u2019ve got to go back a long time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The Ore-Ida Women\u2019s Challenge in Idaho ran to 17 days in the 1980s and the women\u2019s Tour de France in the same decade had several editions with 18 stages, albeit covering shorter distances than the modern iteration, taking place ahead of the men\u2019s event.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve come so far in the last five years, I think we can pretty easily build up in the next few years to a two-week tour,\u201d Franz says.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, the resources and the structure of the sport needs to grow alongside that. The energy and just pure resources that it takes to do two weeks is a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big increase from nine to 14. But I think we can get there for sure. I\u2019d like to give that a good test.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/is-more-stages-better-tour-de-france-femmes-stars-pick-their-magic-number\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8A_8544-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 6, 2026 02:56AM The only way is up for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. It started out as an eight-stage race on its debut in 2022 and upped to nine last year. Women\u2019s racing\u2019s leading race could have more stages in the very near future. UCI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2080174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2080174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2080174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2080174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2080174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Le Court-Pienaar: give us 14 stages and a rest day<\/h2>\n
![\"Kimberley](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226561656-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Let fatigue and stamina tell<\/h2>\n
![\"Niamh](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288877430-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
More stages is not necessarily better<\/h2>\n
Back to the future<\/h2>\n