Lorena Wiebes powered to victory on the opening stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes on 1 August, outsprinting Kim Le Court and Demi Vollering on an uphill finish in Lausanne to take the first yellow jersey of the race The Guardian.

It was Wiebes' sixth stage win in the Tour de France Femmes — the race's overall standings are known as the GC (general classification) — and it put the 27-year-old SD Worx-Protime rider four seconds clear of Le Court and six ahead of Vollering after the first day. Wiebes also claimed the inaugural yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes back in 2022, when she won a sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées riding for Team DSM letourfemmes.fr.

The stage splintered on the Côte de Villars-le-Comte, a third-category climb at the 83-kilometre mark, where rolling roads and high temperatures shredded the peloton (the main pack of riders). Numerous riders lost contact on the climb. A quartet of breakaway riders went clear and was only caught with six kilometres remaining, on the lakeside approach to Lausanne's uphill drag — the Côte Saint-François, which served as the final test before the line The Guardian.

Vollering, riding for FDJ United–Suez — a team that added Red Bull as its latest sponsorship partner ahead of the race — led into the final 600 metres. Kim Le Court surged past her in the closing metres, but Wiebes came around them both to win. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot crossed the line eighth, ten seconds behind the race leader.

French rider Océane Mahé of the Ma Petite Entreprise team took the lead in the Queen of the Mountains classification (the competition for points awarded on designated climbs) from one of the day's four breakaways.

This win carries particular weight for Wiebes after a bruising spring. In May, she won the opening stage of the women's Giro d'Italia, only to be stripped of the victory and the pink race leader's jersey because her bike weighed in at slightly under the UCI's 6.8-kilogram minimum. SD Worx-Protime team manager Danny Stam said a legal case against the UCI over the disqualification is pending, with the team's lawyers still working on it The Guardian.

Stage two on 2 August runs from Aigle to Geneva's Quai du Mont-Blanc, a route Wiebes said looks well-suited to her strengths. The 2026 Tour de France Femmes covers 1,174.7 kilometres of racing in total letourfemmes.fr.

For now, the yellow jersey is back where Wiebes clearly feels it belongs — on her shoulders.