The five GC favourites for the Tour de France Femmes

Since the creation of the race - in its current form, at least - no one has won twice, will that change this year? With this year's race now just days away, we take a look at the overall contenders for that coveted yellow jersey.

Vollering was distraught when she could only manage second place behind Annemiek van Vleuten in the first edition in 2022, but Van Vleuten consoled her, telling the younger woman she would take her place someday. 

It’s fair to say Van Vleuten was right. The following year, Vollering won the race emphatically and has been the dominant stage racer in the women’s peloton ever since. She’s not raced too much this year, but has 10 wins to her name already, including Strade Bianche, Itzulia Women and the Vuelta España Femenina, where she dominated the climbs, taking both mountain top finishes.

Other than crashing out of the Dutch national road race championships, she’s not raced since the Tour de Suisse, where she showed vulnerability, losing a two-up sprint and a hilly stage, both to Marlen Reusser (Movistar).

Injuries sustained in that crash notwithstanding, Vollering will have been focusing on rest, recovery and honing her form to regain the yellow jersey she lost so narrowly to Kasia Niewiadoma last year, and she remains the overwhelming favourite.

Kasia Niewiadoma might be almost ever-present in the top 10 of the biggest races, but she has never been a serial winner, though the victories she does take tend to be big ones. Last year was the perfect example of that. 

She began 2024 with a string of top 10s, scoring at most of the Classics, where she won La Flèche Wallonne, having finished in the top 10 on eight occasions. She was eighth at the Olympic road race, with fourth place at the Tour de Suisse her best stage race result. 

And then there was the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Despite having a poor time trial, she looked after herself through the opening days before inheriting the overall lead from Vollering, keeping it with, you’ve guessed it, a series of top 10s in the hillier days. Never was her gritty, resilient nature more evident than her yellow jersey defence on the final stage to Alpe d’Huez, where she confirmed her win by just four seconds.

Though her only victory has come in the Polish national championships, this year has very much been a cut and paste, her best results being fourth at Flèche Wallonne and third at the Tour de Suisse behind Vollering and Reusser. Can she convert that form into a second yellow jersey? 

After a terrible 2024 season, ruined by illness and injury, over the winter Marlen Reusser recovered, switched teams and has returned better than ever. She has always been a class act, and is always among the best time trialists in the world, but this season she has been able to live with the best in the mountains.

In May she used her huge engine to take victory at the Vuelta Burgos, and she was close to matching Vollering in the mountains of the Vuelta Femenina a few weeks earlier, before beating her twice at the Tour de Suisse. But those Swiss roads, close to the Dutch woman’s adopted home, are not the long Alpine passes she will encounter in France.

And, while Vollering has been resting and training since finishing second in Switzerland, Reusser has been on it at the Giro d’Italia Women. In Italy she held the race lead for a while, but ultimately took second place on GC after falling short on one of those long climbs, though whether that was her legs or a tactical miscalculation we will never know.

A podium is possible, even likely, but a win might be a ride too far.

One of the most complete riders in the peloton, this year’s Tour de France could be tailor made for the Italian champion. 

Longo Borghini is a master at positioning, a more than decent climber and has vastly improved her sprint in recent years. Always an active and aggressive rider, her tactical instincts have improved too, taking opportunities which she might previously have squandered.

That was certainly evident when she recently won a second consecutive Giro d’Italia, taking the lead with a brave move on the queen stage to Monte Neroni, which, had it gone wrong may well have seen her off the podium. Then, she spoke of consistency, something she is known for. Indeed, she has finished outside the top 10 only three times in her last 19 race days, since winning Brabantse Pijl in April.

However, the Tour de France has not been a happy hunting ground, of two previous participations she finished sixth in 2022 and failed to finish a year later. And while she now races less than in previous years, what was the physical and emotional toll of that Giro win? 

Another class act, Lotte Kopecky has transformed herself from a world-beating track rider to the road rider with possibly the widest spread of skills in the peloton.

Her career has been a bit of a slow burn though, her first WorldTour victory not coming until she was 24 years old, a bunch sprint at the 2020 Giro. However, she was already mature then, and has since been prolific, he grand tour GC successes coming at the 2023 Tour de France avec Zwift, where she was second behind team mate Vollering, and last year’s Giro d’Italia Women where she was also second behind Longo Borghini.

This year has been poor though. The world champion struggling with injury and illness and has only two victories to her name, the Belgian TT title and  third Tour of Flanders.

Her recent appearance at the Giro was nothing short of disastrous, back pain limiting her when climbing and she can only be a factor at the Tour if she is fully recovered.

Her SD Worx-Protime squad have downplayed expectations, insisting that she will begin the race targeting only stage wins - but they haven't entirely ruled out a tilt at GC if she emerges in a solid position from the opening phase of the race.

• Dark horses for the GC
• The five favourites for the green jersey