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Le Loop will soon be ready for sign up from 9am on Wednesday 1st November and there's never been a better time for women to ride the Tour de France route with Le Loop and 10 Loops to choose from.

Ride from 2 to all 21 stages of the Tour!

Our Picks:

• For relative newbies, check out Loops 1, 6 and 10 (short option)
• For women (and men!) looking for safety in numbers, choose from one of the Team Marie Loops: 4 or 5
• For the handle-bar chewers, head for the big mountains on Loops 5, 6, 7, 9 & 10 (long option)
• Fancy something unique and fascinating? Are you game, but not that game? Loops 2 & 8 are for you

Team Marie:

2 of our Loops are particularly welcoming to women, as part of our Team Marie initiative.

Our new Lead Cyclist is endurance cycling champion Emily Chappell, winner of the Transcontinental Race and The Strathpuffer says "What I'm going to enjoy most about my new role is the opportunity to make a difference - to be living, breathing, riding proof that events like this belong to women as much as to men, and to encourage and support all the other women who sign up to ride a few stages, or even the whole thing."

Our Team Marie Facebook Group is a place for women riders to make friends, swap training tips, compare tan lines, arrange get-togethers and social rides, and support each other towards their goal - be it completing the whole Grand Loop, riding a couple of spiky mountain stages, or spending a week on the bike in glorious scenery and good company.

Our Team Marie Loop Options are particularly welcoming to those who'd like as much supportive female company as possible (though there's nothing to stop women choosing any Loop they like and several will overlap with the Team Marie suggestions). Full Explanation: https://rideleloop.org/team-marie

Thanks to the support of Trek UK, we have a fleet of top quality carbon road bikes, including plenty of Women Specific Design (WSD) models.

Why Team Marie?

Le Loop is honouring the first female Tour de France rider, Marie Marvingt. In 1908, Marie was refused permission to cycle the Tour de France, so she did it anyway (on the same course, just slightly later) completing the whole tour in a year when only 36 of 114 men managed the same.In 2018, 110 years later, we're encouraging as many women as possible to take on 2 or more stages of the Tour de France ... because with our support and camaraderie, plus a little bit of Marie's determination, we can all share the amazing feeling of cycling multiple Tour de France stages.

How does it work?

Le Loop is a fully supported cycling challenge that follows the route of the Tour de France a week ahead of the pros. Amateur cyclist get to take on the entire gruelling ride themselves, or even 'just' take on a couple of stages without the pressure of a race. They can tackle the cols, cobbles and climbs 7 days ahead of the pro peloton and a week later, watch the pros in action on those same stages. The event supports the William Wates Memorial Trust, helping the UK's most disadvantaged young people to avoid a life of crime and violence and fulfil their potential. Riders commit to fundraising a minimum target depending on which Loop they choose. For the majority, this will be £1,200. To date, the Tour de Force/Le Loop has raised over £3 million. Our goal is to raise £400,000 a year. Read More: https://rideleloop.org/fundraising/ 

The 2018 Route:Le Loop 2018 will start in the Vendée - Pays de la Loire on Saturday 30th June and will end 21 stages and around 3,300km later in Paris on Sunday 22nd July. Read more about the route.