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 included highlights at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Femmes before they culminated at the Ardennes Classics in April.
The stage racing season began 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 went to the UK for RideLondon Classique and The Women's Tour, and then back to Europe for the Tour de Suisse.
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.
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Standings
Women's WorldTour 2024 - Standings
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Ranking as of July 18, 2024
Pos.
Rider Name (Country) Team
Points
1
Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx-ProTime
3578
2
Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
3289
3
Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3259
4
Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-ProTime
2364
5
Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek
1858
6
Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
1599.71
7
Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
1579
8
Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM
1570
9
Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich PostNL
1341.14
10
Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-SUEZ
1277.57
History
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.
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.
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.
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.
Points
2024 Women's WorldTour - Points
World Champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) (Image credit: Getty Images)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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
Tour de France Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Image credit: Getty Images)
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
