Three Irish cyclists to make historic Tour de France Femmes debut

Irish cyclists Mia Griffin, Fiona Mangan and Lara Gillespie have been selected for the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, making history as the first Irish women ever to compete in the race.

The Roland Cycling team announced that Griffin was selected for the Tour on Monday night. Hailing from Kilkenny, Griffin was crowned the women’s elite national road race champion last month. She boasts a 2024 Olympic run where she set a new Irish national record time in the Team Pursuit, and she was the first Irish cyclist in 11 years to win the Rás na mBan last year.

On Tuesday, the Winspace Orange Seal team announced Mangan's selection for the tour. The Limerick cyclist was the first Irish woman to finish a Grand Tour in 2023 at La Vuelta Femenina in Spain. She won the Irish National Road Series in 2021 and claimed national titles in both the time trial and road race in 2024. Mangan took her first international stage win earlier this month at the Volta a Portugal, the first win of the season for her team.

UAE Team ADQ announced Gillespie's selection this afternoon. Wicklow native Gillespie won gold in the infamous elimination race (known colloquially as "the devil") at the 2025 UEC European Track Championships, becoming Ireland's first elite European Track Champion. The multi-talented cyclist also holds Irish National Champion titles for road, track and cyclo-cross, and raced the team pursuit at the Olympics last year.

The Tour de France Femmes is an annual women's cycle stage race in France, put on by the same organisation as the Tour de France. Attempts at women's equivalents to the Tour de France were held sporadically between 1955 and 2009, each facing struggles with finances, media coverage and sexism. Following a rise in public support for women's sports, the first Tour de France Femmes was held in 2022 and has run every year since.

2025 will be the first year an Irish woman has competed in the Tour or its associated races. Offaly cyclist Megan Armitage was selected for the tour in 2023 by the Arkéa team, but suffered a head injury during training that forced her to withdraw.

The nine-stage Tour de France Femmes will begin this Saturday, July 26 and will run through August 3.