Femmes on bikes: what the 2026 Tour de France Femmes means for every woman who rides

Every year the Tour de France Femmes shows that women’s cycling is no longer a promise but a reality with millions of eyes on it. The 2026 edition ran from 1 to 9 August and had a historic first: the Grand Départ was held in Switzerland, with an opening stage around Lausanne and a second from Aigle to Geneva before crossing into France.

Liv was there for the fifth year running as an official partner of the race. The brand sponsors the white jersey of the best young rider — a concrete way of backing the riders coming up behind — and also supports the Liv AlUla Jayco team, which races in the women’s WorldTour. Its motto says it all: more women on bikes.

What is interesting is that the mission does not stop at the finish line of the big races. Before the start in Switzerland, Liv Switzerland ran an open group ride with a local shop, with one of the team’s professionals riding alongside everyone who turned up. In 2024, when the Grand Départ was in the Netherlands, the Rotterdams Peloton project taught 154 women to ride using bikes the brand contributed, and they then rode together to the start of a Tour stage.

That is the heart of it: the spectacle of the professional peloton inspires, but what actually changes lives is the first time a woman gets on a bike and finds out she can. It is the same story everywhere, including on our own rides, where more and more women show up unsure and leave wanting to come back.

Women’s cycling grows because the ones already riding pull in the ones still thinking about starting. A friend who invites you along, an easy beginners’ ride, a bike that feels made for you. Every one of those adds to the same peloton.

So if you have been wanting to give it a go for a while, this is a good moment to think it over. Plenty of women are opening the road ahead, and there is room for one more.