The Bretagne Ladies Tour, cancelled in 2025, will make its return to the calendar in 2026 in a more compact version. Reported by ouest-france.fr, organisers confirmed that the race will take place across four stages, one in each Breton department, as a way of balancing economic challenges with the desire to keep the race alive.
Loïc Déniel, president of the organising committee, admitted that the 2025 cancellation was down to a €40,000 shortfall in the budget. The solution has been to reduce overnight stays and streamline logistics. “By reducing the format, we also reduce the number of overnight stays. We are saving money, and that is precisely what is being asked of us, in a complicated political and economic context. We have no choice,” he explained. The event is already confirmed on the UCI calendar for 2026 and will retain its traditional May slot.
A key feature of the race will remain: a time trial stage, something increasingly rare in the women’s calendar. With the prestige of past winners and its reputation as a stage race that rewards versatility, the Bretagne Ladies Tour will continue to hold significance even in its shorter format.
The race has long attracted some of the biggest names in women’s cycling. Grace Brown, the Olympic champion and two-time defending winner in 2023 and 2024, retired earlier this season but her victories cemented the event’s reputation as a proving ground for international talent. Vittoria Guazzini (2022) and Audrey Cordon-Ragot (2019) are other recent winners, with the latter’s home triumph in the French tricolore one of the most memorable moments in the event’s history. Earlier editions were dominated by riders who went on to shape the sport: Anna van der Breggen won in 2012, Elisa Longo Borghini in 2014, and multiple French champions such as Magali Le Floc’h and Catherine Marsal triumphed during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The race itself has experienced interruptions before, notably between 2020 and 2021 and again in 2017 and 2018, but the organisers have consistently managed to bring it back to life. Stretching back to the mid-1980s, the Bretagne Ladies Tour has become part of the cultural and sporting identity of the region, providing a platform for both local riders and future global stars.
Photo Credit: NICOLAS CREACH / LE TELEGRAMMEWhile Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, fresh from her Tour de France Femmes victory, is unlikely to appear given her WorldTour-only schedule, Déniel notes the level of interest her name generates. In the future, he hopes the race might once again welcome the French national team, just as it did when Cordon-Ragot won in 2019.
The 2026 return marks another chapter in a race that has always balanced tradition with adaptation. Its reduced format may be a practical solution, but its history and prestige ensure it will remain an important fixture on the international women’s calendar.
