Tour Femmes records highest audience share in France despite limited live coverage
France Télévisions says 32.9% of television viewers watched its live coverage of the 2026 race.
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The 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift recorded a record television audience share of 32.9% in France, with 23.2 million people watching at least one minute of the nine stages, according to broadcaster France Télévisions.
Live coverage recorded an audience share of 32.9%, the highest in the event’s history, as Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) claimed overall victory for the second time in her career, following runner-up finishes in 2024 and 2025.
By comparison, the men’s Tour de France averaged a 35.1% audience share and was the highest-rated event among French television channels in July.
The biggest audience for the women’s race came during Stage 7, when 5.1 million viewers watched Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) win on Mont Ventoux. The 2024 Tour champion claimed her first stage victory in the race and moved into the yellow jersey with two stages remaining.
France Télévisions reported that 19.8 million people watched at least one minute of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes, followed by 19.7 million in 2023.
The figure was 18.3 million in 2024 before rising to 25.7 million in 2025, when the total included viewers of the nine race stages and the accompanying Vélo Club programme. In 2026, 23.2 million people watched at least one minute of the race.
The record audience share in 2026 came despite the women’s Tour receiving less live television coverage than the men’s race. Only three of the nine stages were set to broadcast from start to finish, while the remaining stages received partial live coverage.
As a result, some moments during the race were not shown live on television. Among them was a crash during the opening phase of stage 3 involving Vollering, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech), Noemi Rüegg and Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly).
Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse reflected positively on the 2026 edition, pointing to the high level of public and television engagement throughout
"We feel like we take a step forward every year," Rousse told RMC Sport. "It was only our fifth edition, but what I have seen since the start in Switzerland is genuinely the Tour de France. It is exceptional because we started from very far behind."
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