The Tour de France Femmes begins in Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday, with its first ascent of Mont Ventoux to come.

The Tour de France Femmes begins in Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday - but it's the race's first ascent of the iconic Mont Ventoux that is really exciting fans. Riders will cover 1,175km across nine stages - the most since the event returned to the World Tour calendar as a stage race in 2022. That includes the stage-seven slog up one of the most iconic climbs in the sport's history - to the telecommunications and meteorological tower on the top of Provence's Mont Ventoux. Ventoux has been an iconic mountain stage for the men's Tour for generations, won by legendary figures such as Eddy Merckx, Marco Pantani and Chris Froome. Alongside in-form rivals such as the Netherlands' Demi Vollering of FDJ-Suez United, last year's winner Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of Visma Lease a Bike will be hoping to steal a march. "I've climbed Mont Ventoux quite a lot in the past," said the Frenchwoman. "But also since I've known it will be in the Tour de France, I went there quite a few times." Such trips are useful for Ventoux - a stage that has put paid to many a Tour-winning dream in the past. In 1967, British cyclist Tom Simpson died there. Team Visma-Lease a Bike will wear a special-edition jersey featuring 15 drawings created by children, illustrating their cycling dreams