London will provide the backdrop for a landmark moment in cycling history as it hosts the first team time trial in the women’s Tour de France next year.
The best riders in the women’s peloton will race against the clock as teams, on a central London circuit of approximately 18km, pass the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Tower Bridge, culminating in a finish on the Mall.
“The team time trial has always been one of the most exciting and spectacular formats in cycling, and we are very proud that the first one will take place in London,” the race director Marion Rousse said. “It’s a huge moment in the history of the race.”
Although the men’s race visited London in 2007 and 2014, 2027 is the inaugural visit of the Tour de France Femmes to the capital, with the team time trial providing a showcase finale to three days of UK-based racing.
Cat Ferguson, a roadside spectator during the celebrated visit of the men’s Tour in 2014, will be among the leading favourites to wear the race leader’s yellow jersey when the women’s race makes its first visit to central London.
Inspired by her childhood experience of the festival atmosphere of the 2014 Tour’s UK stages, Ferguson, a junior world champion in both the road race and time trial, has now become one of the brightest young talents in the women’s peloton and finished second overall in the 2025 Tour of Britain.
“I watched the men’s race in 2014 from the side of my home roads, sitting there with my parents, as a young kid,” the 19-year-old from Skipton said at the launch of the London stage, “and this feels like a full circle moment for me. I will do everything to be there.
“I would like to think that I can be an example, that if we’d had a women’s race in 2014 it would have inspired many more young girls. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve next year.”
The decision to bring the women’s race, televised to more than 90 countries around the world, to London was described by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, as building a “better London for everyone” and an inspiration to “the next generation of women cyclists”.
The 2027 Grand Départ’s first stage takes the peloton from Leeds to central Manchester, where a sprint finish, that may well suit Ferguson’s turn of speed, is predicted.
The toughest terrain comes on the second stage to Sheffield, which will feature almost 3,000m of climbing in 96 miles and includes the sharp ascents of Winnats Pass and Snake Pass.
Lucy Jones, project director for the Grand Départ, said the organisers expect the Tour de France Femmes to be the “highest-attended women’s sporting event in the UK”.
For London-born Flora Perkins, now with the Fenix-Premier Tech team, the stage in her home city is “a special moment”.
“People don’t always realise that London is a great place to ride a bike,” Perkins said. “I really hope the Femmes makes London even more of a bike city.”
