London to host historic first team time trial for Tour de France Femmes in 2027

London will provide the backdrop for a landmark moment in cycling history as it hosts the first team time trial in the women’s Tour de France next year.

The best riders in the women’s peloton will race against the clock, as teams, on a central London circuit of approximately 18km, passing the Houses of Parliament, London Eye and Tower Bridge, and culminating in a finish on the Mall.

“The team time trial has always been one of the most exciting and spectacular formats in cycling, and we are very proud that the first one will take place in London,” race director Marion Rousse said. “It’s a huge moment in the history of the race.”

Although the men’s race visited London in 2007 and 2014, 2027 is the inaugural visit of the Tour de France Femmes to the capital, with the team time trial providing a showcase finale to three days of UK-based racing.

Cat Ferguson, a roadside spectator during the celebrated visit of the men’s Tour in 2014, will be among the leading favourites to wear the race leader’s yellow jersey when the women’s race makes its first visit to central London.

Inspired by her childhood experience of the festival atmosphere of the 2014 Tour’s UK stages, Ferguson, a junior world champion in both the road race and time trial, has now become one of the brightest young talents in the women’s peloton and finished second overall in the 2025 Tour of Britain.

“I watched the men’s race in 2014 from the side of my home roads, sitting there with my parents, as a young kid,” the 19-year-old from Skipton said at the launch of the London stage, “and this feels like a full circle moment for me. I will do everything to be there.

“I would like to think that I can be an example, that if we’d had a women’s race in 2014 it would have inspired many more young girls. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve next year.”

Cat Ferguson has established herself as one of the brightest young talents in the women’s peloton. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images

The decision to bring the women’s race, televised to over 90 countries around the world, to London was described by the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, as building a “better London for everyone” and an inspiration to “the next generation of women cyclists”.