{"id":2083975,"date":"2026-08-06T14:53:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2083975"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:53:33","slug":"enormous-desire-for-full-tv-coverage-of-tour-de-france-femmes-stages-says-race-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2083975","title":{"rendered":"Enormous Desire for Full TV Coverage of Tour de France Femmes Stages Says Race Director"},"content":{"rendered":"
Watch the Femmes is a Tour de France Femmes\u2019 tagline and a movement by the race\u2019s title sponsor Zwift. It is on posters and printed on cycling caps.<\/p>\n
The only problem is, it is not possible for anyone to sit on their couch and see the race fully.<\/p>\n
Not even close, in fact.<\/p>\n
Only three of the 2026 edition\u2019s nine stages are being broadcast in full: stages 1, 5 and 9. French coverage did not start Thursday until 3.50pm local time, by which time\u00a0 75 of the 153.4 kilometers of stage six had already been raced.<\/p>\n
In the dead time, viewers have missed events like an early-stage crash for Demi Vollering on day three and today, an opening two hours of early attacks on constant up-and-down roads, Anna van der Breggen being dropped and riders abandoning.<\/p>\n
Compared to start-to-finish coverage of the men\u2019s Tour every single day, it feels like a jarring throwback.<\/p>\n
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Without moving pictures, race followers are driven to their cycling websites of choice, the Tour\u2019s website or social media to try and seek out snippets of information.<\/p>\n
Considering showing stages in full in the future<\/b><\/h2>\nTour de France Femmes race director Marion Rousse<\/span> (Photo: Alex Broadway\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As the race\u2019s fifth edition heads towards its conclusion in Nice, the desire for gun-to-tape coverage appears to be growing.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the race, independent labor organization The Cyclists\u2019 Alliance (TCA) slammed the current status quo. \u201cFor the biggest race in women\u2019s cycling, partial coverage is no longer enough,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demand is undeniable and we are asking for the coverage to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked a lot with France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions [who produce the race broadcast] and we\u2019re giving real consideration to show stages in their totality in the future,\u201d race director Marion Rousse told Velo<\/i>, Cycling Weekly <\/i>and numerous French media Wednesday before stage 5 in M\u00e2con.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the women deserve it and because it works well in terms of audience numbers. It\u2019s moving in the right direc.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over two million watch opening stages of 2026 race<\/h2>\nA French success last year for Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot brought over seven million viewers at times. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
2.17 million people watched the race opener Sunday on leading channel France 2, a 27.6% audience share. 2.17 million viewers to France 2 on Saturday, only 533,000 fewer than the men\u2019s first stage.<\/p>\n
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Last year, the race averaged a viewership of 2.7 million in its home country. A peak of 7.7 million tuned in on the race\u2019s final day to watch Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot win.<\/p>\n
The race director called the\u00a0grand d\u00e9part\u00a0<\/em>\u201cspectacular\u201d, adding that \u201cthere\u2019s a real reflection to be had\u201d about extending TV coverage.<\/p>\n
Desire from the cycling community<\/h2>\n
\u201cIt makes me happy because in the first edition, the question was if the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift would work or not,\u201d Rousse says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now, within five years, everyone wants stages broadcast in full. I\u2019ve received an enormous number of messages from cycling fans who want to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, we already know that it has happened for a short time in the men\u2019s race, and there were years and years without start-to-finish coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
In line what she has also talked about in recent days in terms of growing the race\u2019s number of stages, Rousse does not want to rush things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed to get settled in [as a race] and to not move too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_7354-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 6, 2026 09:11AM Watch the Femmes is a Tour de France Femmes\u2019 tagline and a movement by the race\u2019s title sponsor Zwift. It is on posters and printed on cycling caps. The only problem is, it is not possible for anyone to sit on their couch and see […]<\/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-2083975","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\/2083975","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=2083975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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