The Tour de France 2026 is coming this summer, promising more women's cycling TV coverage than ever before.

Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled an expanded broadcast plan, and every available kilometer of the Tour de France Femmes will stream live for the first time through all race dates.

Tour de France 2026 Dates and Route Details

The fifth edition of the race kicks off August 1st with a Swiss Grand Départ and wraps nine stages later on August 9th in Nice.

The route totals 1,175 kilometers, and 154 riders will fight for the top spot. The opening stage in Lausanne sets the tone immediately with a time trial, putting individual climbers on the clock before the mountain stages reshuffle the standings. The final push into Nice is expected to settle who takes the yellow jersey.

Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot of France is the one to watch this year. No rider has ever won back-to-back Tour de France Femmes titles, and she's positioned to change that.

For Tour de France 2026 TV coverage, HBO Max, Eurosport and TNT Sports will carry all nine women's stages. In the UK, Channel 5 will air daily highlights through a TNT Sports partnership.

And, for first time viewers, a few preview programs will offer context before racing begins.

How to Watch Tour de France 2026 TV Coverage

The Cycling Show's 30-minute season preview airs July 2nd on Eurosport, TNT Sports, and HBO Max.

Then on July 15th, Road to Yellow — a dedicated women's race preview — features rider interviews with Ferrand-Prévot, Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini, Lorena Wiebes, and more.

The Tour de France Femmes confirmed its course for 2026 this week, setting up next year's event as the longest iteration of the race in the women's tour history.

The 2026 course will run in nine stages starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 1st and continuing through the finish line in Nice, France, on August 9th.

Cyclists will cover a total of 1,175 kilometers, with 18,795 meters of climbing.

The course will feature three flat stages and three hilly stages as well as two mountain stages and one individual time trial, with riders tackling Mont Ventoux — an iconic climb from the men's event — for the first time.

Though 2026 will only by the fifth edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes, the race will make its debut in a standalone time slot one full week after the men’s race ends, with recent record viewership fueling the move to separate the races rather than continue the previous tactic of scheduling the two events back-to-back.

"We no longer need men for the Tour de France Femmes to exist,"  said race director Marion Rousse at Thursday's course unveiling. "There's no need to have the men's race as a platform to launch the women's race. Now people are waiting to see us."

"People have embraced us," Rousse continued. "The new dates, separate to the men, prove it."

The 2025 Tour de France Femmes came in hot, as Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt crossed the finish line to become the race’s first French winner in 36 years — all in front of a record audience.

Cyclist Jeannie Longo was the most recent Frenchwoman to win the race back in 1989, though then it called the Tour de France Feminin. No French athletes has won the men's Tour de France since 1985 champion Bernard Hinault.

This year's Tour de France Femmes drew a total of 25.7 million French viewers across linear and digital platforms, up 33.6% from 2024 to make this year’s edition the most-watched in event history.

An average of 4.4 million French viewers tuned in on Sunday to see Ferrand-Prévôt clinch the yellow jersey in the final stage of the race.

After picking up a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Ferrand-Prévot also became the first woman to win the Tour and the Paris-Roubaix cycling race in the same calendar year.

"I came back on the road after my Olympic title and I said I will try to win the Tour de France in the next three years," said Ferrand-Prevot after Sunday's finish.

"My teammates worked super hard for me all week long. I just want to say thank you and congrats to them, to my entire team."

The Tour de France Femmes was resurrected in 2022 after a 33-year suspension, with interest in the women’s cycling event soaring ever since.

The Tour de France is going to have a women’s race.

After years of female cyclists calling for a women’s version of the race, including petitions and some even riding every stage of the men’s race, they will now have a Tour de France to call their own. 

While there’s no word on what the route and length of the race will be, it is known that the race will start on Paris’ iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard after the conclusion of the men’s race.

There had been a women’s race from 1984-1989, but a so-called “lack of economic balance” led to the race’s failure. Zwift, an online fitness platform, has signed on in a four-year sponsorship. 

The “Tour de France Femmes” is scheduled to start on July 24, 2022.