Tour de France Femmes 2026: Mont Ventoux awaits for first time

Riding under Niewiadoma-Phinney on the Canyon-SRAM team is Britain’s Zoe Backstedt, who is making her Tour debut.

The 21-year-old Welsh rider has an impressive roster of achievements already, with seven wins to her name this season, and a rich family history routed in the Tour.

Her father Magnus won the 19th stage of the 1998 Tour de France.

Backstedt will be aiming for the Tour’s stage-four time trial in Dijon, after winning British road race and time-trial titles this year, although her main priority will be supporting the general classification aspirations of her team-mate.

Her sister Elynor (UAE Team L’imad) will also be riding.

Five other Britons start the race.

Picnic-PostNL have three-time British national road race champion Pfeiffer Georgi on their roster giving her team options on the harder transitional stages.

Team-mate Josie Nelson is another British rider capable of turning a hard stage into a result with enough finishing speed to become dangerous when a smaller group reaches the line.

Alice Towers (EF Education-Oatly) was British road champion in 2022, and has strength in the climbs.

Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Robyn Clay (Picnic-PostNL) complete the starting British riders, mainly on supportive duties.

One notable absentee is 20-year-old Cat Ferguson of Movistar, who misses out on her Tour debut after medical checks revealed two fractures in her ankle.