AAVC Tour de France Femmes Game Starts August 1!
Laurens De Jong
Let's all play!
It is time to play the 2026 AAVC Tour de France Femmes Game. Demi Vollering, arguably the most dominant stage racers in women’s cycling, finished second in the 2024 and 2025 editions. She’s back, stronger than ever. Will she win it this time?
For our game, it doesn’t matter much. I expect everyone to pick Vollering. But this year’s Tour Femmes will be worth watching. Hopefully we’ll see the entire Mont Ventoux stage on August 7 — I’m not interested in wildfires causing cancellations.
Never played before? TL;DR? Go to the entry form HERE and pick your 18 riders for this year's Tour de France Femmes game. If you're concerned about rules, you can find them HERE. Register as soon as possible, preferably before the race starts on August 1. But many of you know that if you're demonstrably honest, I will let you play even if you're late. If you're late and I find your starting list questionable, then I will ask questions.
To all the new recruits, and everyone who hasn’t played in the past because they thought you have to be an expert: and to all our friends outside the Ann Arbor Velo Club: just give this game a go. Read the links below and pick 18 riders. Cycling is a team sport, playing this game is a team sport. We all enjoy the outcome, regardless of who wins. The more teams we have, the more we get to follow riders that otherwise would go unnoticed.
If you play the game, you'll also receive the daily award*-winning AAVC Stage Reports. If you want to receive those but don't want to actually pick your 18 favorite riders, then you can be added to the mailing list HERE.
Helpful links and tips.
The trick with a short stage race like the Tour de France Femmes is to pick riders who score points early. Saturday’s winner will be in the yellow jersey: that’s 45 points. If she’s in the yellow until the time trial, that’s 20 more points.
We start with a kind-of-sprinter’s stage; stage 2 will be a full-on bunch sprint kind of day; stage 3 is probably a breakaway kind of day; and then stage 4 is the individual time trial.
I don’t think you can win this game if you don’t have at least three good sprinters; I’d recommend four or five. I wouldn’t pick more than two time trial specialists, if any. You can just bet the farm on general classification riders.
Startlist on Pro Cyclist Stats (it’s what I use to create the registration form): https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist
PCS also uses their own ranking to break down the GC contenders, sprinters, other experts. It can be misleading because past success may not indicate that a rider is peaking for the Tour. Use this as a general guide to start selecting your riders:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist/top-gc-riders
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist/sprinters
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist/tt-specialists
For
inspiration on stage hunters, also check:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist/classic-riders
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france-femmes/2026/startlist/climbers
Cycling
Flash (an automated English-language version of the popular Belgian site
wielerflits.be, watch out for mistranslations though) has preview for the
general classification as well as the green jersey:
https://cyclingflash.com/news/tour-femmes-2026-preview-of-general-classification-favorites-epic-duel-between-ferrand-prevot-and-vollering-1
idlprocycling breaks down the favorites for each stage: https://www.idlprocycling.com/cycling/tour-de-france-femmes-2026-preview-after-the-mens-tour-de-france-its-time-for-vollering-vs-ferrand-prevot
If you read French or Dutch, then there’s a reasonable amount of coverage of the Tour Femmes. Because we live in a world of Google Translate and AI, I will post links to those sources.
touretappe.nl lists eleven favorites: https://www.touretappe.nl/tour-de-france-femmes-2026/kanshebbers-tdf-2026-vrouwen/
indeleiderstrui has a preview of all classifications on one page: https://www.indeleiderstrui.nl/wielrennen/favorieten-punten-berg-en-jongerenklassement-tour-de-france-femmes-2026-wiebes-tegen-vos-en-nog-veel-meer-strijd
My thought is that if you can't think of 18 riders, make sure you play the game to learn more about pro cycling. Let's all play!
Enter your 18 riders using the Google Form HERE as soon as possible.
Allez le Tour!
-laurens
* No actual award has ever been given.