PARIS: The route for the inaugural women’s Tour de France was unveiled on Thursday with eight stages, embarking from the Eiffel Tower on July 24 next year. The first complete edition of the women’s version of cycling’s iconic race starts on the day the 109th edition of the men’s Tour ends. After a route that winds through northern France, the race culminates in the Planche des Belles Filles climb in the Vosges mountains. Race director Marion Rousse, a former French cycling champion and now a TV commentator, said it would be a varied course that would maintain suspense over the eight days. “It is coherent in a sporting sense, and we wanted to start from Paris,” she said of the 1,029km run. “With only eight stages we couldn’t go down to the Alps or the Pyrenees, the transfers would be too long. The stages obviously are shorter for the women than for the men’s races. The men can go 225 kilometres,” she said. Christian Prudhomme, the president of the Tour de France organisers, was equally enthusiastic.