women's tour cycling 2022

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Sprint | Chirk (15.3 km)

Sprint | llangedwyn (51.4 km), points at finish, qom sprint (2) hirnant bank (66.3 km), qom sprint (1) bryn-y-fedwen (94 km), team day classification, race information.

• Date: 09 June 2022
• Start time: 11:15 (12:15 CET)
• Avg. speed winner: 37.985 km/h
• Race category: WE - Women Elite
• Distance: 144.7 km
• Points scale: F-2.WWT.Stage
• UCI scale: UCI.WE.WWT.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 63
• Vert. meters: 1842
• Departure: Wrexham
• Arrival: Welshpool
• Race ranking: 0
• Startlist quality score: 935
• Won how: Sprint of small group
• Avg. temperature: 14 °C

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• Hirnant Bank
• Bryn-y-Fedwen

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Elisa Longo Borghini, inspired by Lizzie Deignan message, wins Women’s Tour

Borghini stepped up when it mattered to follow up her win in the Paris-Roubaix with success by just one second

The Women’s Tour crowned a new winner after Elisa Longo Borghini did enough to clinch victory in a scintillating sprint finish, which the Italian revealed was inspired by Lizzie Deignan’s triumph in the race three years ago. 

The Trek-Segafredo rider mastered a tricky bend with 250 metres to go before turning on the firepower to finish third behind stage winner Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) and Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope). The result was enough to pip Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) to the overall victory by a second, with Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram) in third. 

It was an astonishing ending to a topsy-turvy race in which Brown – tied on time with Longo Borghini heading into the final 142km stage from Chipping Norton to Oxford – became isolated in the peloton as it reached Oxford city centre, where sizable crowds were treated to a thrilling finale. Longo Borghini’s victory underlined Trek Segafredo’s dominance in Britain’s biggest women’s cycling race and followed up Deignan’s iconic 2019 win when the Briton – who is pregnant and not racing this season – rode to victory just two months after returning to competitive cycling following the birth of her first child. 

“Yesterday, Lizzie sent me a very nice message saying, ‘Remember my sprint in 2019?’” said Longo Borghini. “It was such a close battle again. It’s nice to have Lizzie a little bit in the background, even if she’s not racing and she’s waiting for a baby. It’s nice to have her in the team and have her around and to receive messages [from her].” 

It was far from plain sailing, though, for Longo Borghini, who slipped up on the first sprint of the day at Carterton after being outsmarted by Brown. The Australian executed a well-worked attack with Copponi to effortlessly earn a three-second cushion over Longo Borghini as the race leader. The race became more frantic when the unlikely trio of Ane Iversen (Hitec Products), Mieke Kroeger (Human Powered Health) and Alessia Patuelli (UAE Team ADQ) formed an aggressive breakaway with 20km until the finish. 

The group, aided by a strong tailwind, opened up a 36-second gap over the peloton before rolling through the second sprint at Burcot, meaning Longo Borghini had it all to do if she was to claw back any hope of victory. After the peloton had reeled in the trio, Brown’s momentum was briefly curbed when she suffered a rear-wheel puncture 15km from the finish. The 29-year-old dealt with the issue with a relative amount of calm, although it ultimately disrupted her laser focus at the crucial moment. In a different turn of fortunes, Longo Borghini’s team-mates rallied around her. 

The Italian is hardly renowned for her sprinting prowess, but stepped up when it mattered to continue her stellar season – this latest title coming just two months after her Paris-Roubaix triumph. “I wasn’t expecting it at all, to be honest,” she said. “I was really doubting myself. When you see such a team is motivated and they really believe in you, you want to give them back everything. They all did a perfect job. I know that around corners I’m pretty good. I let some riders go in [front of me] to take the draft and I sprinted my all.” 

The magnitude of what the Italian achieved was eloquently summed up by Niewiadoma, who was happy with her podium finish. “I feel like what Elisa did today on the finish line was amazing,” she said. “It was very inspiring to see her fight like that. She’s definitely a badass.”

Stage four: Borghini wins first mountain-top finish to close in on Women's Tour lead

Elisa Longo Borghini won a hilltop finish on Black Mountain to win stage five of the Women's Tour in Carmarthenshire.

The Italian (Trek-Segafredo) held off the challenge of Australia's Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), who retained her overall lead after finishing third behind fellow contender Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram).

The trio began the 106.6-kilometre stage, which started at Pembrey Country Park, at the top of the general classification and their podium finish ensures the battle for Women's Tour title will go down to the wire on the final day.

There is nothing to separate Brown and Longo Borghini at the top of the leaderboard, while Poland's Niewiadoma is just two seconds behind.

Early stage leader Joss Lowden was caught by 11 chasers 43km in, with the peloton, led by the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope team, just over a minute behind.

The leading group, which also included Shari Bossuyt, Christine Majerus, Krista Doebel-Hickok, Mikayla Harvey and Ellen van Dijk, had extended the gap to one minute, 20 seconds with 50km to go.

But the peloton caught the breakaway group with 23km remaining heading to the foot of Black Mountain.

Van Dijk set the pace up the long climb to the summit to stretch out the peloton, with all the contenders still in the group with three kilometres remaining.

Longo Borghini emerged strongest in the final push for the finish, with Brown and Niewiadoma close behind.

Saturday's final 142.9km-stage starts in Chipping Norton and finishes in Oxford city centre.

Stage three: Brown lands stage three to take overall lead

Thursday june 9 – wrexham to welshpool, 144.7km.

Australian Grace Brown claimed her first Women's Tour stage victory and the overall lead with two days to go after a sprint finish in Welshpool.

Brown, of the FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope team, was part of a three-rider surge at the end of the 90-mile fourth stage from Wrexham.

She held off the challenge of Elisa Longo Borghini, who despite making a break for the line eventually finished third behind Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma.

The 29-year-old Brown now leads Niewiadoma by four seconds and Longo Borghini by six heading into Friday's 66.3-mile queen stage in Carmarthenshire, which finishes with a 4.4mile climb to the top of Black Mountain, which has gradient of 21 per cent in places, in the Brecon Beacons.

DSM's Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes, the previous wearer of the yellow jersey and pre-race favourite, dropped back to eighth, 66 seconds behind the leader.

Elizabeth Holden, of the Le Col-Wahoo team, is the leading British rider in 21st overall place, a further 22 seconds adrift.

Stage two: Wiebes charges into leader's jersey back-to-back wins

Wednesday june 8 – tewkesbury to gloucester, 107.9km.

Lorena Wiebes claimed the leader's yellow jersey by sprinting to a second-successive victory on stage three of the Women's Tour.

The Dutch rider and pre-race favourite, who has bounced back from her opening-day crash in impressive fashion, took advantage of English DSM team-mate Pfeiffer Georgi's lead-out to cross the line first in Gloucester.

But the 23-year-old had to do things the hard way, battling back from being dropped by the peloton on an uncategorised climb with 20km of the 107.9km stage from Tewkesbury remaining to rejoin the front group with 9km to go.

"Today was a hard stage, with attacks from the beginning of the race," Wiebes said afterwards.

"The girls did a great job reacting to them all. On the first climbs we were in a good position and Leah (Kirchmann) and Franzi (Koch) kept the pace up because of the breakaway.

"On the second last climb I was with Charlotte (Kool) and Pfeiffer in the second group but when we started the last climb, they brought it back to the first group.

"We will go all-in tomorrow to try and make it three."

Wiebes has already won four of the last six Women's Tour stages - dating back to the race last year - and was again successful in the first Women's Tour leg to take place in Gloucestershire.

"I think we can be more than happy about today. It was a hard stage today and was not easy," Wiebes' DSM coach Albert Timmer said.

Lizzie Holden was the top British rider on stage three, finishing 16th, and is currently 22nd overall, 20 seconds behind the leader for Le Col-Wahoo.

Stage two: Wiebes bounces back to take another win in Essex

Tuesday june 7 – harlow to harlow, 92.1km.

Lorena Wiebes bounced back from an opening day crash to take victory on stage two of the Women's Tour.

The DSM rider underlined why she had been the hot favourite 24 hours earlier as she easily powered clear to win a sprint finish with room to spare at the end of the 92km stage that started and finished in Harlow.

Barbara Guarischi (Movistar) edged out Shari Bossuyt (Canyon-Sram) in a battle for second place, while stage one winner Clara Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) rolled home in sixth to retain the overall lead.

Wiebes, who came into this race on the back of her victory in the RideLondon Classique at the end of last month, finished down in 85th on Monday after a late crash, but had no such troubles a day later.

That was despite the Dutchwoman's team-mates being left out of position by a crash in the final 10km, leaving Wiebes to ride the wheels herself before launching her attack.

"If you smell the finish line, I guess you have more motivation," the 23-year-old said.

Wiebes' victory moved her up to third overall, four seconds off Copponi in yellow and one second behind Maike van der Duin (Le Col-Wahoo) in second place – although Wednesday's rolling stage from Tewkesbury to Gloucester could produce more significant gaps.

This stage had been animated by Sammie Stuart (Cams-Basso), the 31-year-old firefighter making her debut in the race, as she attacked midway through the day to go solo.

But after the Briton was caught with 20km to go, Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) tried a counter-attack, holding only a slim advantage over the peloton even as a crash split the chasing group, putting some of the DSM riders out of position.

The leading duo were caught inside the final three kilometres as the sprinters lined up, but once Wiebes attacked, nobody else could live with her power.

Stage one: Copponi takes early lead after crash-marred opening day

Monday june 6 – colchester to bury st edmunds, 142.1km.

Clara Copponi won stage one of the Women's Tour in Bury St Edmunds after a dramatic late crash, with Britain's Alice Barnes coming home fifth.

Copponi (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) capitalised on the incident with 300 metres remaining, which took out several riders including Lorena Wiebes (DSM) and Coryn Labecki (Jumbo-Visma).

The crash occurred on the penultimate turn and Copponi emerged at the front of the sprint and held off Italian trio Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ), Elena Cecchini (SD Worx) and Arianna Fidanza (BikeExchange-Jayco).

The 141.9-kilometre opening stage, which began on wet roads in Colchester, had been delayed and restarted with 35km still to race due to a road accident involving a police motorcyclist and another vehicle in front of the peloton.

Britain's Danielle Shrosbree (CAMS-Basso Bikes), who led by one 1min 10sec seconds when the race was stopped, was caught by the peloton 15km from the finish.

In the final 500m, Wiebes appeared to be in prime position, but team-mate Charlotte Kool slid out on a narrow turn and took out Wiebes, Labecki, and Barbara Guarischi (Movistar) with her.

Copponi took full advantage, emerging on the wheel of Bertizzolo at the final corner and sprinting past 100m from the line.

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Women's Tour de France confirmed to return in 2022

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme says the race must not lose money or it won't continue

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The Tour de France organiser has confirmed that the revived women's Tour de France will take place shortly after the men's event in the summer of 2022.

The general director of Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), Christian Prudhomme, has officially confirmed that the women's Tour will return to the racing calendar for the first time since 1989.

The race has been rumoured to be in the pipeline for some time with UCI president, David Lappartient confirming last year that the event will happen in 2022 . 

>>> ‘We believe in women’s cycling, so we call it investing’: Tour de France director criticised for saying women’s races lose money

Prudhomme has now officially confirmed this news to The Guardian saying the event was set to take place this year, but with the Covid-19 pandemic and the Olympics likely taking all the best riders, they decided to hold off till 2022.

Prudhomme said: “The decision has been taken. There will be a Tour de France femmes in 2022 following closely after the [men’s] Tour.”

He continued that the women's race should have its own identity away from the male side of the sport and create its own history.

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“In my view, you have to put to one side the idea of parity between men and women," Prudhomme said. "Why? Because there was a reason why that race only lasted for six years, and that was a lack of economic balance. What we want to do is create a race that will stay the course, that will be set up and stand the test of time. What that means is that the race cannot lose money." 

Prudhomme said that every women's race that ASO organises loses money but it still continues to fund Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course, and will be running a first Paris-Roubaix later this year.

He added that if the women's Tour loses money then it will be much like the race in the 1980s and "die" again.

“If that balance had been achieved then, we would be on our 35th women’s Tour now," Prudhomme said. "The challenge is to set up a race that can live for 100 years. That’s why we want it to follow the men’s Tour, so that the majority of the channels which broadcast the men’s Tour will cover it as well.”

Women's cycling is on the up with new races added to the calendar for upcoming seasons, including the new six-day stage race 'Battle of the North' in Scandinavia alongside live coverage of the Giro Rosa. The British stage race, the Women's Tour, will also return to its position in the calendar after a year out due to Covid-19.

There has been no information about what the route will be like for the new Tour de France next year, but Prudhomme has said that they won't be looking for the hardest or steepest climbs but rather they will link to the past, which will potentially mean using some of the climbs made famous by the men's race.

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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!

I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.

It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.

After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.

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Who won the maglia rosa, maglia ciclamino, maglia azzurra and maglia bianca after the final stage?

By Joseph Lycett Published 26 May 24

The Belgian rider takes his third stage win of the race in the sprint ahead of Jonathan Milan

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Women's WorldTour – The definitive guide for 2024

Everything you need to know about the professional racing series teams, points, races and standings

Professional cycling showcases 28 top-tier women's events that make up the 2024 Women's WorldTour calendar. The season starts annually at the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race as part of a packed season of Australian summer racing that began the New Year.

The series then heads to the Middle East for the UAE Tour, a four-day stage race held in February, before going to Europe for the start of the Spring Classics at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which kicks off the 'opening weekend'. The next one-day races include highlights at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Femmes before they culminated at the Ardennes Classics in April.

Women's WorldTour 2024 - Comprehensive team-by-team guide Women's WorldTour bikes and tech: What are teams using in 2024? Join Cyclingnews for live coverage of the women's Spring Classics

The stage racing season begins in May with three back-to-back top-tier events that included the La Vuelta Femenina – moved from its traditional September spot on the calendar – along with Itzulia Women and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. The series then heads to the UK for RideLondon Classique and The Women's Tour, and then back to Europe for the Tour de Suisse.

Summer stage racing then moves into full swing in July with the revamped Giro d'Italia Women , followed by the quadrennial Olympic Games in Paris , and Tour de France Femmes , which has been moved to August in 2024.

Late season racing begins with the one-day GP de Plouay followed by a series of stage races: Tour of Scandinavia and Tour de Romandie in September, then the Simac Ladies Tour, Tour of Chongming Island and the one-day Tour of Guangxi in October.

Check in after the 2024 Women's WorldTour races for our full reports, results, galleries, news, features and analysis. Subscribe to Cyclingnews.

Women's WorldTour 2024 - Standings

Women's worldtour - history.

The Women's WorldTour series replaced the former one-day World Cup in 2016 and has grown to include 28 races – with a mix of one-day and stage races – to offer the women’s peloton and cycling fans 10 months of professional bike racing. 

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An exceptional season saw Demi Vollering (SD Worx) win the individual overall series at the end of last year. Now-retired Annemiek van Vleuten won the series title three times – 2018, 2021 and 2022. Other previous winners of the individual elite women's ranking include Lizzie Deignan in 2020, Marianne Vos in 2019, Anna van der Breggen in 2017 and inaugural champion Megan Guarnier in 2016.

Many familiar faces have left their marks as winners of the best young rider classification, including Shirin van Anrooij in 2023 and 2022, Niamh Fisher-Black in 2021, Liane Lippert in 2020, Lorena Wiebes in 2019, Sofia Bertizzolo in 2018, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig in 2017, and Kasia Niewiadoma in 2016, and all have gone on to become main contenders in the elite women's ranks.

The teams classification has been dominated by one team, SD Worx (formerly Boels Dolmans), which won the series seven times in the last seven seasons from 2016-2019 and again in 2021-2023. Trek-Segafredo, now called Lidl-Trek, is the only team to have broken their winning streak, taking victory in 2020.

2024 Women's WorldTour - Calendar

2024 women's worldtour - teams.

• AG Insurance-Soudal
• Canyon-SRAM Racing
• Ceratizit-WNT
• Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
• Fenix-Deceuninck
• Human Powered Health
• Liv-AlUla Jayco
• Roland Cycling
• Team SD Worx
• Visma-Lease a Bike
• UAE Team ADQ
• Uno-X Pro Cycling

In a  reset of the Women's WorldTeams , the UCI has awarded 15 new licences for the 2024-2025 seasons, with AG Insurance-Soudal and Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling moving up to the top tier for the first time.

To find out more about the teams, view Cyclingnews' comprehensive 2024 Women's WorldTour team-by-team guide .

The women's teams now face a relegation system as the sport's governing body introduced a new 'sporting' requirement, which added together each team's UCI points across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. However, this new points requirement was taken into consideration alongside the other four criteria: administrative, ethical, financial, and organisational. 

The UCI  introduced minimum salaries for Women's WorldTeams  in 2020, and those increased to €35,000 (employed) / €57,400 (self-employed) in 2024. The salary structure for a new professional increased to €29,270 (employed) / €47,986 (self-employed).

The highest-ranked three Continental women's teams on the UCI World Ranking receive automatic invitations, while the remaining Continental women's teams are invited at the discretion of the organisers. A maximum of 24 teams are permitted to start each event on the Women's WorldTour.

For stage races of six stages and more of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, such as the Giro d'Italia Women, Tour de France Femmes, La Vuelta Femenina, Tour of Scandinavia, Simac Ladies Tour, and Women's Tour, teams will start with seven riders and two team support vehicles .

2024 Women's WorldTour - Points

Points are awarded for the final classification of each event according to the following scale to the top 40 placed riders. The rider with the most points in the individual classification wears the series leader's jersey.

For team time trial events and stages, the points on the scale are awarded to the team. These points are then divided equally between the riders finishing the event or the stage. Stages and half-stages offer a maximum of 50 and a minimum of six points to the top 10 placed riders. Points awarded for stages are recorded on the last day of the event. 

A rider who wears a race leader's jersey on each stage is awarded eight points.

On the final classification, the event's top 3 best young riders (under-23) are awarded 6, 4, and 2 points. 

The team classifications include both Women’s WorldTeams and Women’s Continental teams. The team classification is calculated by adding the individual classification points scored by all the riders of the team in the UCI Women’s WorldTour individual ranking.

More information regarding the Women's WorldTour can be found below.

Women's WorldTour - Guide to the races

Women's Tour Down Under - January 12014, Australia

The Women's Tour Down Under, which was cancelled in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic - was the season opener in January and has been elevated to the top tier of races for the first time since it began in 2016. The three-day race is held annually in and around Adelaide and, for the first time, includes a finale on Willunga Hill in 2024.

Cadel Evans Road Race - January 27, Australia

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race returned in 2023 after two years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has formed part of the Women’s WorldTour since 2020. 

UAE Tour Women - February 8-11, United Arab Emirates

The inaugural event was held in 2023 as the women's peloton headed to the Middle East for the four-day race, which offers three sprint opportunities and a summit finish on stage 3 atop Jebel Hafeet.

Spring Classics

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - February 24, Belgium

The long-running Classics curtain-raiser Omloop het Nieuwsblad joined the WorldTour for its 18th edition as part of 'opening weekend' last year. Flanders Classics currently oversees six of the most popular Spring Classics, beginning with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders, Scheldeprijs and Brabantse Pijl. 

Strade Bianche Women - March 2, Italy

After the Spring Classics opener at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the Women’s WorldTour resumes at Strade Bianche in Siena, Italy. The race takes riders onto the white gravel roads routed throughout the scenic Tuscany region and finishing at the Piazza del Campo in Siena. 

Ronde van Drenthe Women - March 10, Netherlands

The sprinter-friendly route between Assen and Hoogeveen is made up of a series of loops over cobbled sectors and four trips up the VAM Berg, with 50km to the finish line. Riders who have historically done well in this race are powerful one-day specialists on flatter terrain.

Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio - March 17, Italy

The series headed back to Italy for the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio. The women's field traditionally races through the hills surrounding Cittiglio before finishing on 17.8-kilometre circuits around the city. Each lap includes a climb through Orino, but the wide-open roads to the finish line often cater to a reduced group sprint.

Classic Brugge-De Panne Women  - March 21, Belgium

This is a race traditionally well suited to sprinters. The route begins in Brugge and passes through Leeuw, Koekelare and Schoorbakke, and then the contest moves on to two finishing circuits in De Panne.

Gent-Wevelgem Women  - March 24, Belgium

The second of six Flanders Classics events after Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Gent-Wevelgem is one of the flatter one-day races and typically sees a clash of the sprinters. The start of the race was moved from Ypres' Grote Markt to the Menin Gate and included several main climbs, such as the Beneberg, Kemmelberg and Monteberg en route to the finish in Wevelgem.

Tour of Flanders Women  - March 31, Belgium

The Tour of Flanders, one of the most prestigious of the Spring Classics, begins and ends in Oudenaarde. It covers a combination of cobbled sectors and steep climbs, including the more decisive climbs near the end of the race – Kruisberg/Hotond, Oude Kwaremont, and the Paterberg – before the finish line in Oudenaarde.

Paris-Roubaix Femmes  - April 6, France

The inaugural Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2021 was a day written into the history books for both women's cycling and for the  first winner of the Paris-Roubaix Femmes  -  Lizzie Deignan .  Her teammate, Elisa Longo Borghini, followed up with another win for Trek-Segafredo in the 2022 edition and Alison Jackson (EF) won in 2023. The 116km route from Denain to the Roubaix Velodrome includes 17 sectors of cobbled roads, with two of the pavé sectors rated at the maximum difficulty level – Mons-en-Pévèle and the Carrefour de l'Arbre.

Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition  - April 14, Netherlands

The first of the three Ardennes Classics. The race starts and finishes in Maastricht and includes a hilly course that finishes on three 17.8-kilometre circuits that feature the Geulhemmerberg, Bemelerberg and Cauberg. From the top of the Cauberg, there is roughly 1.7km to the finish line.

La Flèche Wallonne Femmes - April 17, Belgium

La Flèche Wallonne is the oldest and the second of the three one-day races that form the women's Ardennes Classics. The series has only been in place for women since 2017, when Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition made its return after a 14-year hiatus, followed by the long-running La Flèche Wallonne and the debut of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The one-day women's race is famed for its finale on the Mur de Huy, which the women's peloton climbs three times. Now-retired Anna van der Breggen won a record seven consecutive titles at La Flèche Wallonne.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes  - April 21, Belgium

Liège-Bastogne-Liège concludes the Ardennes Classics week before riders turn their attention to the stage racing season. The race started in Bastogne and, for the first time last year, ascended the Côte de Mont-le-Soie, before tackling the Côte de Wanne and Côte de la Haute-Levée. The final climbs, Côte de La Redoute and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, were tackled before the finish in Liège.

Stage Races

La Vuelta Femenina  -  April 29-May 5, Spain

In a major shake-up for the former Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, organisers changed its name to La Vuelta Feminina, expanded to seven stages, and moved to May in 2023. The event started as a one-day race in Madrid in 2015 and expanded to two stages in 2018, and a third stage was added in 2020. The race was further expanded in 2021 to four stages, and in 2022 to five stages, and seven stages in 2023 and 2024.

Itzulia Women - May 10-12, Spain

In its third edition of the Women's WorldTour, hosted by the same organiers of the one-day race in Clásica San Sebastián, the race offer three challenging stages through the mountainous Spanish Basque Country. It is organised by OCETA, which also runs the long-standing six-day Itzulia Basque Country men's stage race.

Vuelta a Burgos Feminas - May 16-19, Spain

Vuelta a Burgos Feminas was upgraded to the Women's WorldTour in 2021 and now concludes the triple top-tier stage races offered in May with four hilly stages. The three top-tier stage races are held in conjunction with a magnificent series of one-day races in the country that include Emakumeen Nafarroako Women's Elite Classics, Navarra Women's Elite Classics, Gran Premio Ciudad de Eibar, Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, and more.

RideLondon Classique - May 24-26, Great Britain

RideLondon Classique has transformed from its origins as a one-day event into a three-day race. RideLondon has been held as a one-day race and was added to the inaugural Women’s WorldTour calendar in 2016, but was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021. The RideLondon Classique became a three-day event in 2022 and continued with this format in 2024.

Women’s Tour - June 4-9, Great Britain

Organisers, SweetSpot, brought parity to the event’s prize fund with the men's Tour of Britain, which was set at €97,880 across six days of racing in 2019. They also announced a five-year plan to offer live coverage of the women’s race, which is required to be part of the top-tier series. However, due to challenges surrounding the pandemic, they were forced to reduce the prize fund. Organisers aim to return to prize money parity . The 2023 edition was cancelled, and the six-day race returns in 2024.

Tour de Suisse Women - June 15-18, Switzerland

Taking place in eastern Switzerland, the Tour de Suisse Women was held in 2023 for the first time in four editions as a Women's WorldTour event. The first Tour de Suisse for women was held i n 2001 as a five-day event, but went away for 20 years before relaunching as a 2.1 ranked women's race taking place on the opening weekend of the men’s eight-day WorldTour Tour de Suisse. In 2021, Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) won the title, followed in 2022 by Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo). Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) won the overall title in 2023.

Giro d’Italia Women - July 7-14, Italy

The Giro d'Italia Donne has been officially rebranded as the  Giro d'Italia Women  in 2024, with new race organiser RCS Sport taking over the management of the race on a four-year contract through 2027. It will celebrate its 25th anniversary. The event traditionally offers 10 days of racing and iconic mountain passes such as the Stelvio, Zoncolan, Gavia, and Mortirolo. This year's race has been reduced to seven stages but will include a mountaintop finish at Blockhaus.

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - August 12-18, France

The rebirth of the Tour de France avec Zwift marked a history-making moment in the sport during the 2022 season, and won by Annemiek van Vleuten. Once again hosting the best riders in the world, in 2023, Demi Vollering secured the overall victory. The third edition of the modern incarnation of the women's Tour de France will be held after the Paris Olympic Games with eight stages across seven days between Monday, August 12 and Sunday, August 18. Organisers offer a total of 946.3km of racing that includes three flat stages for the sprinters, one individual time trial, two hilly stages, two mountain stages and a crowning conclusion atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez.

Late-season rounds

  Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée Ceratizit  - August 24, France

It marks the beginning of the wind-down to the season, Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée CERATIZIT - better known as the GP de Plouay. Organisers introduced a new parcour for the 2022 edition with a 159.5km route that included an opening 127km loop. The race then finished on 2.5 laps of an 11.7km local circuit around Plouay.  The laps included three times the climb of Le Lezot (900m at 5.5%, 14% section) and two times la bosse de Rostervel (1,500m at 4.5%, 10% section). 

Tour of Scandinavia - August 27-September 1 - Norway/Denmark -  [Cancelled]

Organisers of the former Ladies Tour of Norway revealed their plans to move ahead with the long-awaited 'Battle of the North' in 2022. The event takes place across Denmark and Norway with a name change to the Tour of Scandinavia and has risen to become one of the most popular stage races with a mountaintop finish at Norefjell. Organisers cancelled the 2024 edition due to lack of funding, but aim to return in 2025.

Tour de Romandie - September 5-9, Switzerland

Now in its third edition, the women's version of the Tour de Romandie takes the peloton into the Swiss mountains. The women's four-day event marks the penultimate race of the top-tier series in Europe before the peloton headed to China for the return of the Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi.

Simac Ladies Tour  - September October 8-13, Netherlands

The biggest stage race in the Netherlands, joining the Women’s WorldTour in 2017, and it is heading into its 24th edition. Organisers annually welcome the top women’s teams to compete in six days of late-season racing. Former winners include Leontien van Moorsel, Petra Rosner, Kristin Armstrong, and Annemiek van Vleuten, Lorena Wiebes, to name a few, while Marianne Vos has won the overall title four times.

Tour of Chongming Island  - October 15-17, China 

The Tour of Chongming Island returned after a three-year hiatus in 2023. The race has traditionally been well-suited to sprinters because it includes three flat stages, and that was the case again this year. Although the race was normally held in May, it moved to an October date and was the last stage race of the season.

Tour of Guangxi  - October 20, China

The Tour of Guangxi, also cancelled in 2020, 2021 and 2022, marked the conclusion of the 2023 Women's WorldTour. In the last edition held in 2019, the women raced 146 kilometres with a start and finish in Guilin. The route was mainly flat, and it catered to the sprinters.

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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews , overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

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Women's Tour 2022 cycling starts in Essex and Suffolk

• Published 6 June 2022

Clara Copponi stays ahead of Italy's Sofia Bertizzolo in the final sprint in front of the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds

The Women's Tour 2022 cycle race has got under way as it navigated its way through Essex and Suffolk for its opening stage.

Dozens of the world's top female riders set off from Colchester's Northern Gateway Sports Park.

They finished on Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds via Brantham, Hadleigh, Needham Market and Stowmarket.

The opening 142.1km stage was the first of six across the country and it was won by French rider Clara Copponi .

Full results on the Women's Tour website , external

The stage had to be stopped temporarily at about 14:20 BST, with about 35km to go, to allow the medical services to attend an incident ahead of the race route , external .

The opening stage of the Women's Tour 2022 started at Colchester's Northern Gateway Sports Park, just across the A12 from Colchester United's stadium

The first sprint stage was in Holbrook in Suffolk with a climb past the village's church as they headed towards the Orwell Estuary

The cyclists completed a downhill stretch through Freston in Suffolk, and headed along the River Orwell estuary at Wherstead...

...before passing under the Orwell Bridge

The route then passed through Bildeston in Suffolk twice, where a Queen of the Mountain section took place on its first visit

Clara Copponi on the podium after crossing the finishing line on Angel Hill in Bury St Edmunds

Stage Two of this year's race takes place on Tuesday , external and starts and finishes in Harlow, taking in Great Dunmow, Chipping Ongar and Epping.

Last year, Essex hosted the penultimate stage of what is considered to be Britain's biggest and longest-running international women's cycling stage race.

The final leg was then held in Suffolk, where world champion Elisa Balsamo crossed the finish line first in Felixstowe.

Children invited to design Women's Tour start flag

Crowds line streets for final leg of Women's Tour

Cavendish champions female racing at Women's Tour

The opening stage of this year's event follows the four-day bank holiday weekend in the UK to celebrate Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.

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• Needham Market
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Women's Tour

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For Women’s Cyclists, It’s a Steep Climb to Tour Equality

A women’s Tour de France is back after 33 years — a sign of progress, contestants say, for a sport sorely in need of it.

Supported by

By Juliet Macur

Photographs by Monique Jaques

• July 27, 2022

MEAUX, France — After winning Stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, the Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos pulled on the Tour leader’s yellow jersey for the first time and explained that no, actually, this special moment was not something that had always been a dream for her.

As a child, Vos had attended the Tour de France every summer and camped with her family along the course for the entire three weeks, shouting encouragement as the riders sped across flat roads, pedaled up curvy mountain passes and flew down steep slopes. That was where Vos, an Olympic gold medalist and winner of numerous world championships, fell in love with cycling. But the race was only for men, so it was never her goal to win it.

Over time, though, as she became one of the most accomplished women’s cyclists in history, it dawned on her: Why should men get all the media attention, fan adulation and money that only the Tour de France can bring?

This realization was partly how the Tour de France Femmes was revived this week after a 33-year absence. Vos was a major force in lobbying to bring back the women’s race, which was held once in 1955, then again from 1984 to 1989, before it disappeared again for a generation.

Not until Sunday, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and under a searing summer sun, did the women — 144 racers from 24 teams — get back on their bikes for a race associated with the Tour, the most prestigious race in cycling.

“Of course, you can say maybe it has taken too long, but yeah, but I’m just happy it’s here,” said Vos, who kept the yellow jersey on Tuesday after finishing second in Stage 3. It was her second runner-up finish in three days. “I think the time is right.”

For some cyclists and women’s rights advocates like Vos, the time has been right for at least a decade.

In 2013, Vos and three other cyclists — the American Kathryn Bertine, a women’s cycling advocate from Bronxville, N.Y.; the British former time-trial champion Emma Pooley; and the four-time Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington — were so sure it was the right time for a women’s Tour that they formed a group called Le Tour Entier (French for the Whole Tour) to rally public support for holding one.

Their efforts to convince the Amaury Sport Organisation, or A.S.O. — the company that runs the Tour — worked, but only to a point.

A.S.O. agreed to host a race in 2014 that was clearly not the Whole Tour, considering that the first edition of the race was about 2 percent as long as the men’s race. The event, called La Course by Le Tour de France, was a one-day circuit race held on the final day of the men’s Tour, in Paris. Vos won that day, then won again in 2019.

A.S.O. was supposed to add three to five race days to that one-day race until the women’s race reached parity with the 21-day men’s race, Bertine said in a telephone interview on Monday, but that never happened. La Course was replaced altogether this year by the eight-day Tour de France Femmes — longer than La Course but not nearly as long as the men’s Tour.

“I do believe that the social pressure put on A.S.O. was the reason they finally, after eight years, decided to finally augment the women’s race,” said Bertine, who made a documentary called “Half the Road” that discussed the gender inequities in cycling. “My biggest fear is that this race will stay eight days long for another eight years because it’s frightening to look at the A.S.O.’s track record on this. They are dinosaurs who resisted this for a long, long time.”

Bertine lamented that women’s cycling went backward not long after the women’s Tour was held in 1984.

Six women’s teams raced that Tour at the same time as the men, with the women starting 35 to 45 miles out front each day. They rode 18 of the 21 stages, including climbing the intimidating Alpe d’Huez, and all but one of the women finished. Marianne Martin of Boulder, Colo., became the first American — female or male — to win the Tour de France.

On Sunday in Paris, wearing a sleeveless yellow dress the same color as the Tour leader’s jersey, Martin, 64, was at the start of the Tour de France Femmes to cheer the women’s racers. She recalled riding past thousands of fans at the 1984 Tour, just hours before the men’s race came into the city, and feeling the thrill the men had experienced annually since the race began in 1903.

People shouting. Flags waving. Cowbells ringing. She had never seen anything like it. On Sunday, the atmosphere felt the same — and that was exhilarating, she said.

One night at that 1984 Tour, she joined a men’s team for dinner and noticed that their hotel was much nicer and their food was much better than that of the women. Yet she was unfazed.

“I didn’t care because we were at the Tour de France and I got a massage every day and we were fed and got to race our bikes every day in France,” Martin said. “I didn’t have expectations for more.”

She recalled winning about $1,000 and a trophy. The men’s winner, France’s Laurent Fignon, won more than $100,000. This year, there is also a yawning disparity between men’s and women’s prize money.

The women will get about $250,000, with the overall race winner receiving about $50,000. On the men’s side, the purse was more than $2 million, with Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard winning more than $500,000 for finishing first.

There’s still a long way to go for women to achieve parity in the sport. The international cycling federation, for example, caps how far they can ride in one day, a distance that is much shorter than the men’s maximum. (The women’s Olympic road course, in another example, is 60 miles shorter than the men’s.) The men’s minimum salary on the WorldTour is higher than the women’s, and the budgets for women’s teams are often a pittance compared to the men’s.

Linda Jackson, owner of EF Education-TIBCO-SVB women’s cycling team, said the road to the top of the sport — and to equality — will take both time and a calculated plan for success, especially when building something sustainable.

Jackson, a former investment banker, started her team in 2004, with the goal to someday race in Europe. Her squad is competing on the women’s WorldTour and also in the Tour de France Femmes this year.

There are many signs that the sport is on the upswing for women, she said, including more races, more TV coverage and higher minimum salaries that help riders focus solely on their training (which means a higher level of competition).

It also was crucial that Zwift, a fitness technology company, signed a four-year contract as the marquee sponsor of the Tour de France Femmes. In 2020, the company paired with A.S.O. to host a virtual Tour de France during the pandemic, and viewership numbers for the women’s events were so high that Zwift eventually made a commitment to help A.S.O. bring the women’s Tour back to life.

“A.S.O., in particular, doesn’t do this because, ‘Equality for women, wow, wouldn’t it be good to have?’” Jackson said. “They are doing it because they see the growing momentum in the sport.”

She added: “They aren’t going to have a women’s Tour in 20 years if they lose money for three to four years. A.S.O. has to break even at least.”

Media exposure is the most important component for the race’s success, Jackson said, and with two and a half hours of live television coverage a day at this women’s Tour, “this one race has the potential to change our sport forever.” Kathrin Hammes, who rides for Jackson’s team, said: “People pay attention when they hear about the Tour de France. It’s the one race that everybody knows.”

Many of the women racing the Tour said an eight-day event was a good start, but that they already are hoping for more. The Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten, a race favorite, said she is ready for a three-week challenge, just like the test the men endure. She added that she would be “super excited” for an epic climb like the one up Alpe d’Huez because that would be another milestone for women’s cycling.

For now, the racers have several days left before reaching the final stages, which will be held in the Vosges Mountains and will end with a painful climb up La Super Planche des Belles Filles, a summit that is at times included in the men’s Tour.

And Vos — who has done nearly everything there is to do in cycling — has a few days left before she can look back and appreciate her roles as a racer and an advocate who helped make the entire event happen.

Maybe she will remember young girls cheering her name as they lined up along the course and watched the peloton take off on Stage 2. Or the group of men from a Brie-making society wearing creamy yellow cloaks and matching flat-topped hats who asked her for a selfie.

But early in the race, Vos said she could not think of anything but the many miles ahead.

“I’m so grateful for everybody who put their energy into making this race happen,” she said. “But I’m also focused on racing now. I will let it sink in and think about what happened maybe in the end, after the season, or in a couple of years even.”

Riding away, she said, “All I know now is that the Tour de France is bigger than sports.”

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