The place to watch the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is right here on SBS. Replays, mini stage recaps, highlights and live streaming can be found on the and the available for download on and .
What is the Tour de France Femmes and how does it relate to the men's Tour de France ?
The men's Tour de France is one of the biggest annual sporting event in the world and has been running since 1903. The women's is in its third edition, though there have been equivalent races on and off over the last 40 years.
The eight-stage Tour de France Femmes would normally start on the same day as the final stage of the men's event, but due to the Olympics in Paris this year, the event will instead start nearly three weeks after the conclusion of the men's race. The Femmes will start on August 12 and run through to August 18.
22 teams and 154 riders will race the eight-stage Tour de France Femmes which starts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and finishes atop the iconic Alp d'Huez, a steep, long and decisive climb in the stunning French Alps.
The Tour is an event where you should always expect the unexpected - like when last year's winner Demi Vollering found herself having to battle through time penalties and early stage aggression from her opponents and the elements, to take the eventual victory in Pau.
Until 2022, it had been several years since women had a multi-stage version of the Tour to race in, but it certainly hasn't been for a lack of riding, and racing, extraordinary distances in other events.
During the Tour, the race passes through add to the spectacle. Fans and field art line the roads and bring the local countryside to life.
In the past, an estimated 12 million fans have cheered on the men's peloton as they traverse 3,400 kilometres over three weeks of racing, something that has been exciting to see happening again after the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With an extra week of racing scheduled for the Femmes, we're sure there will be lots of stories, history, regional recipes and dramatic landscapes to enjoy alongside the cycling.
The aim of the game
The biggest prize is the Yellow Jersey - in French, le Maillot Jaune. It will be awarded to the rider who has the least cumulative time over the eight stages of the Tour de France Femmes. The riders race one stage per day, with the clock stopping on their individual times each time they complete a stage. The leader of the race will be updated after each stage and it's not uncommon to see the overall lead switch between a few different riders and teams over the duration of the event.
It is almost always a climber that wins the yellow jersey, with the biggest potential for time gaps coming in the mountain stages where the bulkier physiques of the sprinters struggle as the road tilts upwards. But the need to be an all-rounder- at least to some extent - is very important, with time trials (individual efforts against the clock over shorter routes), descents and tricky cobbled roads all factors that have decided races in the past.
Another important ingredient to a rider winning the maillot jaune is the cooperation of their teammates. Cycling is one of the few sports where the sponsor's name is the team name for the duration of their endorsement.
While cycling looks like an individual sport with one person on the podium receiving the plaudits and prizes, the team's domestiques (French for servants) do all of the 'grunt' work to protect their leader and ensure they arrive at the decisive moments of the race with energy to spare.
Then it's the leader's job to jump clear of the other contenders for the yellow jersey, get to the finish as fast as possible and gain time on their rivals. Sounds simple enough, but the tactics of how that is accomplished are far from straightforward and why cycling is often described as 'chess on wheels'.
The 22 teams in the Tour de France Femmes have their own objectives going into the race. Each team is owned as a commercial interest and rather than operating as national teams, riders of all nationalities mix within squads.
Squads are still registered to a country and often there will be a tendency to a particular nationality within teams based on sponsorship. Australian-registered squad Team Jayco-AlUla, for example, has traditionally featured Aussies in large numbers but also includes riders from other nationalities.
As commercial businesses, their main job is to show their sponsors in the best light and teams try to do that by winning stages and wearing the yellow jersey. Failing that, there are other jerseys to fight for; the green sprinter's jersey is the next most prestigious, then the red polka dot jersey for the king or queen of the mountains and the white jersey for the best young rider. The best young rider award goes to the fastest woman under 23 years old.
What not to ask! (A selection of questions to avoid if you don't want to reveal your ignorance)
What's the point of sitting in that big bunch there, why don't they go off by themselves?
Probably the biggest tactical consideration of cycling is drafting, being shielded from wind resistance by the riders in front, to give yourself an easier ride. You can save about 30 per cent of your energy output sitting behind a good draft and then only come to the fore when it is a critical stage in the race.
Why are those riders going off the front at the start of the race then? Isn't it too early to win, won't they get too tired in the wind?
Yes, they will, and the vast majority of the time these early attackers, known as 'the break', won't win. However, they will accomplish a number of objectives with the seemingly suicidal move:
- For smaller teams it's simply valuable getting their sponsor's name on TV regularly.
- There are smaller prizes available along the route, there are spots along the course where the first rider over the line gets points for the King/Queen of the Mountains jersey (a snazzy red polka dot top) or the Sprint Jersey (a less spiffy green jersey).
- The slim chances of a break staying away are quite frankly the best chance some of the lesser riders are going to have of winning a stage.
Why did they attack there?
If there's one question that will out you as a novice, it's this one. There's always a reason for an attack, it's simply up to you to come up with the reason within the greater scheme of the race. Don't worry if you get it wrong, the professionals do as well.
If rider X is so good, why won't they win Stage Y?
A trap that lots of newcomers to the sport fall into is thinking there is just one type of 'good cyclist' who should excel all the time, similar to a lot of other sports, where the champion athletes are consistently winning at each race or event they attend. In the Tour de France, the essential elements of the sport change every day with the changes in scenery.
Cycling is set to a backdrop of frighteningly tall mountains, wide farmland vistas and inner-city sprint finishes. The type of athlete it takes to win each is very different, which is why you'll see a rider like men's sprinter Max Walscheid, 92 kilograms, dominate in flat races, whilst men's climber Esteban Chaves, 55 kilograms, is only formidable when the road goes steeply uphill.
Interestingly, powerful sprinter Lorena Wiebes and unstoppable climber and time triallist Demi Vollering are similar in height and weight, but Vollering prepares more for endurance riding, while Wiebes is an explosive athlete for the sprint finishes.
Where and when is the 2024 women's Tour de France again?
This year's route starts in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and heads south from there, through Belgium, the Vosges and Jura mountains, before finishing in the French Alps.
It covers 946 kilometres and saves the most divisive two stages for last, with a mountain-top finish on the storied climb of the Grand-Bornand, finishing with an almighty climb up the Alpe d'Huez for Stage 8.
Every moment of the eight-stage race will be broadcast LIVE and FREE on SBS and SBS On Demand, and on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker App.
What's the best way to watch?
It's up to you! Dip a toe in the water by catching up with the in the morning, or pedal along on a home trainer while the cyclists are going hammer and tongs up a climb (it's good for exercise motivation!). Nothing compares to the live event however, and there's little better in the world than curling up on the couch with a beverage and a healthy (or unhealthy) selection of tour snacks for a few hours as the clock passes midnight.
The hashtags on are #sbstdf and #couchpeloton, and regularly feature irreverent takes and fun reactions on what's happening over in France. It's a welcoming community and it gets especially excited for the Tour de France Femmes!
The key to the numbers and symbols you'll see during a cycling broadcast Source: SBS
Glossary
Your handy guide to the specialised terminology of the cycling world.
Bidon - Water bottle, though can contain energy drink mixtures, soft drink, tea, etc.
Chute - Normally followed by an exclamation mark, denotes a crash has occurred.
Couch peloton - A group of cycling fans in Australia and other parts of the world who gather together on Twitter with the hashtag #couchpeloton to enjoy all things bike racing but also have fun during the wee hours of the morning watching the Tour de France.
Cross-wind - A cross-wind comes from the side and can split the peloton up if the wind is strong enough and the pace is on.
Domestique - One of the workers within the team who sacrifices their own chances for the benefits of their team leader. Super-domestiques are a sub-class of these that are generally acknowledged to be good enough to be one of the leaders themselves. Duties involve getting bottles, protecting leaders, driving the peloton, and giving a wheel or even their bike to a team leader in need.
Drafting - Sitting behind another rider or riders to gain an aerodynamic advantage.
Echelon - The snake-like diagonal formation that riders adopt in the presence of strong cross-winds.
The Escapees - Normally refers to a group of attackers. Also called 'the break' or 'the breakaway'.
Flamme Rouge - The banner with the red flag hanging from it denotes that there's one kilometre remaining on the stage.
Full-gas - Also known as 'dropping the hammer', or 'putting it in the gutter' depending on the situation. Basically means that someone has just decided to set a fast tempo and everyone else needs to match the pace or be dropped.
Grupetto - Also known as the 'autobus', a group that forms off the back of the race in the mountains, normally comprises the sprinters and larger riders who don't excel on the climbs.
Head-wind - When the wind blows directly into the riders' faces. Slows the race down and makes it even more important to draft.
Leadout - The train of riders for a team that has a specialist sprinter. The train lines up with their chosen sprinter at the rear and works hard to set them up perfectly in the final kilometres of the race.
Maillot jaune - The yellow jersey.
Maillot vert - The green jersey.
Maillot à pois rouges - The polkadot jersey.
Musette - A small shoulder bag that contains food and bidons, normally picked up from the feed zones.
Peloton - The main bunch of riders.
Puncheur - A type of rider that excels at explosive efforts, can attack late into a race and stay away until the finish.
Rolling turns - Also known as 'swapping off', it refers to the common practice of riding on the front for a while and then letting someone else come through as you slot back in further down the line and work back up to the front to do more work. Refusing to roll turns in a breakaway can lead to some heated words being exchanged.
Rouleur - A stronger, larger type of rider that excels on flatter courses that require outputs of sustained power.
Sprinter - Normally a more muscular rider, capable of putting out the immense amounts of power that it takes to win a flat finish from within the peloton.
Sticky bidon - The practice of giving a rider a slight pull from a team car as a mechanic or soigneur within the car holds a bidon and the rider holds on, giving them a brief rest. Tolerated to a certain degree, too sticky a bidon is regarded as cheating.
Tail-wind - When the wind comes from behind the cyclists. Has the effect of speeding up the race, making it slightly more likely that attackers will succeed and harder for those trying to hang on in the peloton.
starting from July 24, with full stages available on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker App, SBS and streaming service . The on the SBS Sport website is your place for highlights, opinion and analysis throughout the Tour.
