Mont Ventoux will make its debut in the modern Tour de France Femmes in 2026, but it is not the first time women have raced competitively on the Giant of Provence.
That distinction matters.
The current Tour de France Femmes, launched in 2022, has never previously visited Ventoux. Instead, each edition has built its GC battle around another of France’s landmark climbs: Super Planche des Belles Filles in 2022, the Col du Tourmalet in 2023, Alpe d’Huez in 2024 and the Col de la Madeleine in 2025.
The 2026 Tour de France Femmes route continues that pattern with Mont Ventoux as the headline mountain of Stage 7.
But women’s professional cycling has been here before.
Nicole Cooke attacked on Mont Ventoux in 2006
One of the most important previous women’s performances on Ventoux came from Nicole Cooke.
During the 2006 Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, Cooke attacked her rivals on Mont Ventoux during the stage between Valréas and L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.
The British rider used the climb to put major time into her GC rivals, reaching the summit with a substantial advantage and laying the foundations for her overall victory in the race.
It is a useful piece of context because it shows that Ventoux has a women’s racing history stretching well beyond the modern Tour de France Femmes.
That history simply received far less attention.
Marta Cavalli won on Ventoux in 2022
There is also a much more recent example.
A women’s edition of the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge was held in 2022, with Marta Cavalli taking the victory.
The race started from Vaison-la-Romaine and gave the women’s peloton a dedicated event built around the mountain rather than using Ventoux as one climb within a longer stage race.
Cavalli’s victory came during one of the strongest seasons of her career, the same year in which she won Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne.
The women’s Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge did not become a long-running fixture, but its 2022 edition means Ventoux is not unfamiliar territory to women’s professional racing.
So why is the 2026 stage being treated as a first?
Because it is a first for the Tour de France Femmes.
The modern race began in 2022 and Mont Ventoux has not appeared during its first four editions.
That puts Stage 7 of the 2026 Tour in the same category as the first modern visits to the Tourmalet and Alpe d’Huez. The mountain itself is not new to women’s cycling, but its place at the centre of the biggest women’s stage race in the world is.
The sequence has become one of the defining features of the modern Tour.
In 2022, Annemiek van Vleuten finished the job on Super Planche des Belles Filles after taking control of the race the previous day.
A year later, Demi Vollering dominated the summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet to take yellow.
In 2024, Alpe d’Huez provided the extraordinary final battle between Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, with Niewiadoma-Phinney ultimately preserving four seconds and winning the Tour.
Then in 2025, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot used the Col de la Madeleine stage to establish the decisive advantage on her way to overall victory.
The Tour de France Femmes winners list shows how central the biggest mountain stage has been to every edition so far.
Mont Ventoux becomes the next mountain in that progression.
Why Ventoux matters in the 2026 Tour
The attraction of Mont Ventoux is obvious.
Stage 7 finishes at 1,910 metres after the decisive ascent from Bédoin, with the officially categorised section measuring 15.7km at 8.8%.
Our full Tour de France Femmes 2026 Mont Ventoux guide looks in detail at the climb, the Stage 7 route and why the Giant of Provence could decide the yellow jersey.
The length and severity of the ascent mean the GC favourites cannot simply bluff their way through it.
By Stage 7, the classification will already have been shaped by the 21km Dijon time trial. Riders such as Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser could arrive with time in hand, while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Paula Blasi and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney may need to attack.
Ventoux is the obvious place to do it.
That is why its arrival in the Tour de France Femmes matters even though women have already raced there.
Has the Tour de France Femmes climbed Mont Ventoux before?
No. The 2026 Tour de France Femmes will be the first edition of the modern race to use Mont Ventoux.
But yes, Mont Ventoux has previously featured in elite women’s cycling.
Nicole Cooke raced over the mountain during her victorious 2006 Grande Boucle Féminine campaign, while Marta Cavalli won the women’s Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge in 2022.
So Stage 7 is not the beginning of women’s racing history on Ventoux.
It is the moment that history finally intersects with the modern Tour de France Femmes, bringing one of cycling’s most recognisable mountains into a race that has deliberately built its identity around the sport’s great climbs.
