The sight of a Tour de France winner being congratulated by the race's yellow-clad hostesses is familiar to most sports fans but it will be given a 21st century twist with the addition of "podium boys" – or hosts, as the French term them – when a women's race returns to the Tour de France on the Champs Elysées on 27 July.

"Those who make it on to the podium can look forward to kisses from podium boys!" read a statement from Le Tour de France. In the long term, however, the most important element revealed at Tuesday's launch of La Course is the extent of television coverage the race will enjoy: the two-hour event is expected to be broadcast in 147 countries, with 12 channels across 104 of those countries showing it live.

It is, the organisers believe, the most exposure a women's cycle race will receive apart from at the Olympic Games and it should provide a dramatic calling card for teams in search of sponsorship cash.

"We need a showcase and one has been provided for us," said the world champion, and probable race favourite in July, Marianne Vos, who was named patron of the race at the presentation at Paris's Hotel de Ville. "I'm delighted that Amaury Sport Organisation have understood and provided what we need."

The race itself will feature 120 cyclists starting at 12.45pm and covering 13 laps of the Tour's finish circuit up and down the Champs Elysées, turning at Place de la Concorde and at the Arc de Triomphe, with a total distance of 90 kilometres.

The race's creation stems from the Tour's decision to hold the final stage of the men's race later in the evening than was the case up to 2013. The finish last year was 9.30pm, and this year's is due to finish around 7.30pm. The upshot is that fans will get a full day's action to watch in Paris.

La Course's flat profile will not make it one of the harder events on the women's calendar but, with €22,500 for first prize – equal to that on offer for the men's stage finish later in the day – it could well be the richest. The race will also include an intermediate sprint on every lap for points counting towards a sprinters' prize.

The Tour has not featured women's racing since the last women's Tour de France was run alongside the men's event in 1989, and the inception of La Course by Le Tour is the fruit of some assiduous campaigning led by the group Le Tour Entier, which last July launched a petition calling for the return of the women's Tour de France. The petition drew more than 80,000 signatures and was followed by meetings with the Tour de France organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation, brokered initially by Brian Cookson, who made expanding women's cycling a key part of his manifesto in his successful campaign to become president of the Union Cycliste Internationale.

By December 2013, it was clear that progress had been made although ASO waited until early February to confirm that the event would take place.