Elvin, also from Canberra, says the event will catapult women's cycling onto the world stage.

The race, which will be called Tour de France Femmes, was announced by Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme, last week.

Elvin rates the course highly, with its variety of sprint stages, medium hill stages and a couple of great climbing stages to round off the race.

"And it goes without saying, local Chloe Hosking who's one of the best sprinters in the world, and has been for a very long time will be super keen to see the sprint stages on the Tour," Elvin said.

"Because they're on the start of the Tour, it gives sprinters an opportunity to earn the yellow jersey to wear. For someone like Chloe to win the very first ever yellow jersey on day one, to win the first-ever yellow jersey on the Tour de France Femmes is a big deal.

"For Canberrans, we'll be all going for Chloe."

The Tour de France Femmes will start on July 24 and go until July 31. The race will kick off at the Champs-Élysées on the same day as the men will finish their race.

It will be held across eight stages with cyclists enduring a tough mountain climb at La Planche des Belles Filles to finish the race.

"It is an event that can really change the landscape of women's cycling. It's been a sport that progressing quite nicely in the last five or 10 years. But to have an event such as this one to get so much international attention. It is really the world stage that women's cycling gets to perform on," Elvin said.

"Because the regular Tour de France, the men's version, is one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

"It is already a huge platform for men's cycling and for us to be able to leverage that coverage and attention is going to accelerate the progress in the sport. It is a really important event to have on our calendar."

The original women's Tour de France was canned in 1989 after a brief five-year stint alongside the men's race.

The announcement comes after years of women participating in La Course, a specialist one or two-day event held in conjunction with the Tour since 2014. But La Course was a showcase event and didn't afford women the opportunity to compete in a proper stage race.

"I was really lucky to be on the start line on the very first one in 2014 and got to do a few additions. And it was such a big deal back then but that year [2014] we were kind of promised it would be turned into a multi-day race," Elvin said.

"It took until now to finally be moving away from a one day race. It has been a long time coming and promised for a long time.

"Earlier this year when we heard it had been happening, we were a bit in disbelief because we had been promised it for so long."

For Elvin, who retired in 2020, the announcement of the Tour de France Femmes is a little bittersweet.

"I'm definitely going to stay retired, but it is funny to think, maybe I should [race again]. The great thing about women's cycling is that it is becoming so professional now, and we're getting big races," Elvin said.

"A few weeks ago we got the first-ever Paris-Roubaix for women. It was something that I always wanted to do, but unfortunately, I retired a year too soon.

"As any athlete knows, no matter what sport, there's always another big race, and it is really hard sometimes to know when to end. So you'll just have to accept that you'll be a bit sad when you miss big things that finally come through, especially for women.

"But that's okay, I'm still going to be cheering and watching and really excited for my friends who are out there."