The biggest theatre for women’s pro cycling raises the curtain on Saturday for nine days of racing at the Tour de France Femmes avec Swift. The pageantry of international riders and swirl of new team colours will blend quickly during the Grand Départ in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the first yellow jersey will be awarded after a climb above Lake Geneva.
There are 13 riders from North America on nine teams in the field, representing Canada, Cuba, Mexico and the United States. Five of those competitors make their debut at this Grand Tour.
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) is still just 24 years old and has competed in all four previous editions of the modern Tour de France for women, the most appearances of any in this continental contingent. Her teammate and USPro road champion Kristen Faulkner returns for a third time. The same goes for USA’s Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Canadian Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), who have each raced three times at the Tour.
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What eludes these Grand Tour veterans is a first-time stage win at the world’s biggest stage race. It’s hard to believe many of these accomplished riders have yet to post a result from the Tour.
Here is a look at the abundance of talent from across North America who will compete over the next nine days, August 1-9, to support team leaders and grab opportunities for stage wins at the Tour de France Femmes.
Canada
Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly)
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres has her eyes focused and legs primed for the mountains at this hilly Tour de France. The abundance of climbing is suited to her attacking style, and she said recently: “I’m mostly excited about stage five and the stage in Nice, but any stages where I can try to be aggressive, I am looking forward to”.
The Canadian climber has started in all four of the previous editions of the revived Tour de France Femmes, last year finishing eighth across hilly terrain into Ambert on stage 6, and then helping French teammate Cédrine Kerbaol to eighth overall in the GC after the final three mountain stages. She’ll support Kerbaol again, but this time has the jersey as World Champion for added inspiration.
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The 24-year-old Canadian hasn’t won a race yet in the rainbow stripes, though she’s had top 10s at Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina and Giro d’Italia stage races. At the Giro, she had the best placement in the GC for EF Education-EasyPost in 12th, so she can provide leadership if needed.
Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)
Isabella Holmgren makes her debut at the Tour de France Femmes and is expected to excel with her climbing skills on seven of the nine stages. The best young rider from this year’s Giro d’Italia Women, the 21-year-old Canadian headlines the 26 riders expected to make up the under-23 youth competition at the Tour, and will be a favourite for the white jersey.
Lidl-Trek is counting on her all-around skills as a one-two punch with Niamh Fisher-Black for both stage and GC performances.
“Mont Ventoux will show the best climbers of the Tour, and we have good chances there with Bella and Niamh on the start line,” said Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Lidl-Trek’s lead sports director. “We start the race with a first priority for stage wins, and then we see where we can end up on GC with Bella and Niamh both being co-leaders.”
The Lidl-Trek team hopes she will invigorate a roster of veterans who, surprisingly, have yet to capture a stage win at the Tour over the last five years.
Sarah van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Visma-Lease a Bike has set up its squad to support the Tour de France Femmes title defense for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but also given freedom to riders like 24-year-old Canadian Sarah van Dam to go for stage wins, Team Manager Rutger Tijssen saying, “if you’re racing at the front, you’re always in contention for victory”.
This is Van Dam’s second consecutive appearance at the French Grand Tour, returning with strong performances across the Spring Classics and into Vuelta España and Tour de Suisse Women.
In the two stage races she landed six top 10s on stages, including seventh overall in Switzerland. While the massive mountain climb to Mont Ventoux may not be her ideal ascent, she can help launch team leader Ferrand-Prevot there and look to thrive across other hilly terrain during the week.
Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)
Former Canadian road champion Alison Jackson comes to her fourth Tour de France Femmes, this time leading the hunt for stage wins for French ProTeam St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. Her speciality comes in one-day races, no matter the distance or the surface, having taken her signature Classics victory in 2023 at Paris-Roubaix Femmes. But she’s also won a stage at the Vuelta España and taken several podiums at international gravel races.
She is a dangerous rider if allowed to steal away in a breakaway, which almost landed her a win on stage 7 at this year’s Giro d’Italia, ending one spot off the podium in a four-rider sprint, but with the consolation prize as most combative rider. After a handful of races at home in Canada, where she went fourth this time at road nationals, the 37-year-old spent three weeks in Colorado training at elevation with her teammates in preparation for the Tour de France.
Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne Monbana MyPie)
Another rider who should vye for the white best young rider’s jersey is 22-year-old Kiara Lylyk. She made her first appearance at the Tour last year when the Mayenne Monbana MyPie squad flew under the branding of Winspace Orange Seal.
Lylyk has a gold medal from Team Pursuit from the 2023 Pan American Track Championships, and that same year earned her first UCI top five as an elite rider at Tour de Gatineau.
She comes into the race in good form with a fifth place on the hilly opening stage at Volta Catalunya and followed with four stage top 10s at Volta a Portugal.
Nadia Gontova (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)
The reigning Canadian time trial champion is Nadia Gontova, makes her second appearance at the Tour but this time with Liv-AlUla-Jayco. Riding last year she as the top performer on the ProTeam Winspace Orange Seal squad, Gontova finished 10th on the final stage and went 23rd overall.
She’s proven that climbing is her forte, earning second on GC at last year’s Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées just a year after taking the same GC position at UCI stage races Tour of the Gila and Vuelta a Colombia.
While her only victory this year has been in the ITT at nationals, she’s had top 20 results on GC at Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de Suisse.
United States
Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly)
Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner has won stages at the Giro and Vuelta but her quest to complete the set at all three Grand Tours remains unfinished business. Her EF Education-Oatly team remains winless as well at the Tour de France, so taking each stage as a one-day race could have a double effect.
The 21km ITT on stage 4 is a prime day for the 33-year-old who won the Pan-American time trial to begin her season. Like her teammate Vallieres, Faulkner can also take advantage of breakaway opportunities on hilly terrain.
“As a team, I know we want to win a few stages, and I’d love to win a stage myself. It will be very hot so I’m really trying to acclimate to heat as much as possible. But I think it’s going to be difficult, no matter what,” Faulkner said in a team statement.
The 33-year-old US rider won’t be wearing the familiar stars-and-stripes jersey she’s held for two consecutive years, travel issues keeping her away USPro Nationals this year, and instead she focused on a European summer campaign at the Vuelta and Giro. After the last few weeks back in the US for altitude camp, Faulkner is one to watch each day at the Tour.
Lily Williams (Human Powered Health)
An Olympic Champion on the track, Lily Williams is on another track this year, which is a pathway to a UCI road victory. She has two runner-up results at her last stage races – Tour de Suisse Women and Giro d’Italia Women, and this year’s Tour de France has a handful of finishes suited to her ability to cover some climbing and save a kick at the end.
“I think the harder sprint definitely suits me more,” she said after her stage 3 at the Giro, where she launched early and managed to gap the field with eventual winner Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek). There are a number of stages at the Tour that have similar terrain with rolling hills, a couple of late categorised climbs and then a punchy finish, including stage 1 in Switzerland with a 2.5km uphill finale. An eighth Grand Tour has lots of opportunities for Williams.
Natalie Quinn (Mayenne Monbana MyPie)
This French team features two North Americans on the Tour roster and Natalie Quinn is the US representative alongside Canadian Kiara Lylyk. Last month at the Volta a Portugal, both landed in the top 15 on GC, with Quinn the better of the duo in 11th overall
Quinn is a Tour debutant at age 24 and looks to make an impact on the favoured hilly terrain. She won the mountains classification at the 2025 Volta a Portugal. At the end of last season she earned sixth in a stacked field at Maryland Cycling Classic. Most recently, she finished ninth at a hilly La Périgord Ladies in France.
Heidi Franz and Caroline Wreszin (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)
When French road team St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 committed three weeks to a training camp for the Tour de France Femmes, they went in the unlikely direction of the US for high elevation in Colorado. With team sponsors in the Boulder area and several team members from North America, it was a welcome experience for US riders Heidi Franz and Caroline Wreszin.
Both Franz and Wreszin make their Tour debuts this year, and for 10-year veteran Franz it is a welcome opportunity to showcase her all-around skills. While most of her success had been in the US, with GC win at Redlands Bicycle Classic and podiums at Joe Martin Stage Race, she’s built endurance on gravel with podiums at RADL GRVL, Nordic Gravel Series, then going 13th overall at UCI Gravel World Championships. Last year she won the mountains classification at Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées and was third overall at Volta a Portugal.
The 25-year-old Wreszin has a powerful engine for the time trial, finishing in the top 10 the last two years at USPro ITT nationals. The challenging mid-stage ascent will suit her climbing ability.
Look for both US riders to get in the action to help Alison Jackson get into late breaks, and to look for their own strikes.
Cuba
Arlenis Sierra (Movistar)
All-rounder Arlenis Sierra has a growing medal count of Cuban national championships, winning both the road race and time trial titles in the same year four times. She then stopped racing after the double wins in 2024 to focus on growing her family and had a son, Marck, in March 2025. The 33-year-old is back in a big way for Movistar this year, coming second at Clasica de Almeria, riding to ninth at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and taking top 10s on stages at Vuelta España and Giro d’Italia.
The versatile Cuban rider will support Movistar team leader Marlen Reusser at this Tour, a second for Sierra. If Reusser falters in the the GC standings, look for Sierra to have a green light for an abundance of opportunities across hilly terrain where she thrives.
Mexico
Romina Hinojosa (Lotto-Intermarché)
Another debutant at this year’s Tour is Romina Hinojosa of Lotto-Intermarché, who makes just a second Grand Tour start in her burgeoning career after riding Vuelta España last season when the Lotto team was on the Continental level.
She’s a solid climber who has finished with two silver medals at Mexican Road Nationals and now gets a chance to improve on the ProTeam level. The 23-year-old took on the Classics in Belgium this spring for the first time, calling it “a dream come true”, and had modest results, then improved after with fifth at the Internazionale cycling Festival, a time trial in Italy, and top 20 in GC at Volta a Portugal. Her main goal will be to support team leader Sandrine Tas at the Tour.
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