Lizzie Holden has been selected to ride in the inaugural edition of the women’s Tour de France which gets underway this weekend.

The Tour de France Femmes will begin in Paris on Sunday and continues for eight stages, culminating in La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges mountain range situated in the east of the country.

Holden forms part of a six-strong Le Col-Wahoo team for the debut edition of the event alongside Majo van’t Geloof, Maike van der Duin, Jesse Vandenbulcke, Eva van Agt and Gladys Verhulst.

While the Tour de France Femmes will be the first running of the event in its current guise, various versions have been held over the last few decades.

Indeed, Holden joins fellow cyclists Millie Robinson and Marie Purvis (nee Morgan) on the select list of Isle of Man women who have competed in different iterations of the iconic French race. The latter became the first British rider to win a stage of the Tour de France Féminin when she won a stage of the 1993 race, following it up with another stage win in the 1995 edition.[

Once Le Tour ends, Lizzie will hotfoot it back to the UK to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games where she will ride in the women’s time trial on Thursday, August 4 before tackling the road race on Sunday, August 7.

Similarly, Commonwealth Games-bound trio Mark Cavendish, Ben Swift and Sam Brand are all set to ride in the Tour of Poland from July 30 until August 5 before heading to Birmingham for the men’s road race.