Women's WorldTour – The definitive guide for 2026

Overview

Professional cycling showcases 27 top-tier women's events that comprise the 2025 Women's WorldTour calendar.

In previous seasons, riders and teams competed for top-tier racing points to put toward the individual, youth and team standings. However, as of 2025, there was no longer a leader's jersey for the individual and youth standings. Instead, all points go toward the UCI Road World Rankings for individuals, teams and nations.

The Women's WorldTour 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.

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The series then heads to the Middle East for the UAE Tour Women, a four-day stage race held in February, before landing on European soil to start the Spring Classics at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which kicks off 'opening weekend' at the end of February.

There are four Monuments on the calendar that start with Milan-San Remo Women, and move on to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Femmes before culminating at the Ardennes Classics final at Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the end of April.

The late-spring stage racing season annually begins in May with three back-to-back top-tier events, including the La Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. The peloton will contest the second of three Grand Tours at the Giro d'Italia, which has moved to a new date at the end of May-early June.

The teams then stopover in Denmark for the one-day Copenhagen Sprint before summer stage racing begins at the Tour de Suisse.

The third and final Grand Tour of the year will take place in August at the Tour de France Femmes. That will be followed by the Tour of Britain in late August and then the Tour de Romandie in September.

Late-season races will take place at the one-day GP de Plouay, and while the Simac Ladies Tour is no longer a top-tier event, the peloton will end the season at the Tour of Chongming Island and the one-day Tour of Guangxi.

Rankings

UCI Road World Ranking - Individual (as of May 19, 2026)

UCI Road World Ranking - Teams (as of May 19, 2026)

History

Women's WorldTour - History

The Women's WorldTour series replaced the former one-day World Cup in 2016 and has grown to include 27 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.

An exceptional season saw Lotte Kopecky win the individual overall series at the end of 2024, and she was the last rider to win the series. Her former teammate Demi Vollering took the top honours the year before, in 2023.

Now-retired Annemiek van Vleuten won the series title three times – 2018, 2021 and 2022. Previous winners of the individual elite women's ranking also 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, Niamh Fisher-Black, Liane Lippert, Lorena Wiebes, Sofia Bertizzolo, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, and Kasia Niewiadoma, and all have gone on to become leading contenders in the elite women's ranks over the years.

The teams' classification has been dominated by one team, SD Worx-ProTime (formerly Boels Dolmans), which won the series eight times in the last eight seasons from 2016 to 2019 and again from 2021 to 2024. Trek-Segafredo, now called Lidl-Trek, is the only team to have broken their winning streak, taking victory in 2020.

Calendar

2026 Women's WorldTour - Calendar

Teams

2026 Women's WorldTour - Teams

• AG Insurance-Soudal
• Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
• Team Picnic-PostNL
• EF Education-Oatly
• FDJ United-SUEZ
• Fenix-Premier Tech
• Human Powered Health
• Lidl-Trek
• Liv-AlUla Jayco
• Movistar
• Team SD Worx-Protime
• Visma-Lease a Bike
• UAE Team ADQ
• Uno-X Pro Cycling

Women's teams underwent a relegation system based on five criteria: a new 'sporting' requirement (an accumulation of points), along with demonstrated and documented administrative, ethical, financial, and organizational standards.

The UCI then announced only 14 teams met the criteria for 2026 after the closure of Ceratizit, Roland Le Dévoluy was relegated to the third-tier, and EF Education-Oatly was promoted to the top-tier.

Get to know the top-tier squad in Cyclingnews' complete guide to the 2026 Women's WorldTeams.

The UCI introduced a second-tier of Women's ProTeams last year that now comprises seven squads: Cofidis Women Team, Laboral Kutxa Fundacion Euskadi, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93, Volkerwessels Cycling Team, Lotto Intermarche Ladies, Ma Petite Enterprise, Mayenne Monbana My Pie, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 and VolkerWessels Cycling Team.

There are currently 36 third-tier Continental Women's Teams registered with the UCI.

Historical moments of note on the Women's WorldTour: The UCI introduced minimum salaries for Women's WorldTeams in 2020, which have gradually increased over the previous five seasons. That same year, the UCI also introduced a maternity leave clause that allows women to take the time needed away from competition during pregnancy. The UCI also introduced mandatory live television and live streaming for all events that are part of the Women's WorldTour, increasing visibility of the sport and building new audiences.

New regulations were introduced by the UCI in 2026, which govern the teams allowed to participate in Women's WorldTour races. For the first time, WorldTeams will be required to compete in all three women's Grand Tours and are permitted to skip only one of the remaining 24 WorldTour races in 2026.

Races

Women's WorldTour - Guide to the races

Women's Tour Down Under - 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.

Cadel Evans Road Race - Australia

The Victorian race was first held in 2015, and the Deakin University Elite Women’s Road Race was added to the Women’s WorldTour calendar in 2020. The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race returned in 2023 after two years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UAE Tour Women - 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 offered three sprint opportunities and a summit finish on stage 3 atop Jebel Hafeet.

Spring Classics

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Belgium

The long-running Classics curtain-raiser Omloop het Nieuwsblad joined the WorldTour for its 18th edition as part of the 'opening weekend' in 2024. 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 - 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.

Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio - 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.

Milan-San Remo Women - Italy

The top-tier peloton lined up in Genoa along the picturesque coast of the Mediterranean for what marked a historic moment in women's cycling, the return of Milan-San Remo Women in 2025. It had been 20 years since the women's field has been offered the opportunity to compete in the race that was formerly called La Primavera Rosa held from 1999 to 2005.

Classic Brugge-De Panne Women - 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 - 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.

Dwars door Vlaanderen - Belgium

Often referred to as the test event before the Tour of Flanders, Dwars door Vlaanderen is making its debut on the Women's WorldTour in 2026. Won by the likes of Elisa Longo Borghini, Marianne Vos, Chiara Consonni and Demi Vollering, in more recent years. It is one of the most important races in the spring block and lead-up to Flanders.

Tour of Flanders Women - 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 - 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, Alison Jackson (EF) won in 2023, Lotte Kopecky in 2024 and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in 2025. 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 - 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 - 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 - Belgium

Liège-Bastogne-Liège concluded 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 - 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, 2024 and 2025.

Itzulia Women - 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 offered 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 - 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.

Giro d’Italia Women - 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. In 2024, the race was reduced to seven stages but included a mountaintop finish at Blockhaus. In 2025, the route included three summit finishes - Aprica, Valdobbiadene and Monte Nerone.

Copenhagen Sprint - Denmark

New to the calendar in 2025, Lorena Wiebes won the inaugural edition on a flat, technical route from Roskilde to Copenhagen.

Tour de Suisse Women - 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.

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - France

The rebirth of the Tour de France avec Zwift marked a history-making moment in the sport during the 2022 season, and was won by Annemiek van Vleuten at La Planches des Belles Filles. Once again hosting the best riders in the world, in 2023, Demi Vollering secured the overall victory when the route included the Col du Tourmalet, and in 2024, Kasia Niewiadoma won the yellow jersey atop Alpe d'Huez. The fourth edition of the modern incarnation of the women's Tour de France will feature Col de Madeleine, Col de Joux Plane, and a mountaintop finale at Châtel won by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Women’s Tour of Britain - 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 four-day race returned under new organisers in 2024 and 2025, moving to a late-summer date in 2026.

Late-season rounds

GP de Plouay - Classic Lorient Agglomération - 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 de Romandie - Switzerland

Now in its fourth 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 stage race of the top-tier series in Europe.

Tour of Chongming Island - 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 - 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.