Coryn Rivera now leads the Women's WorldTour (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The UCI announced Thursday an expansion of the Women's WorldTour for 2018, with three races added to the top-level series: the newly created Trois Jours de La Panne, the Tour of Guangxi and the long-running Emakumeen Bira.
The three additions bring the number of events to 23 and 52 days of racing for next season.
The women's Trois Jours de La Panne in Belgium's West Flanders region will take place on March 22, 2018, in conjunction with the men's Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, and will be broadcast live on television.
The Tour of Guangxi debuts this season on October 24 as a UCI 1.1-ranked event, and is part of the UCI's partnership with Wanda Sports that also includes the newest men's WorldTour stage race, the Gree-Tour of Guangxi (October 19-24).
The Emakumeen Bira has taken place for 30 years, and has become one of the premiere stage races on the women's calendar. It will bridge the month-long gap between the Amgen women's race and the OVO Energy Women's Tour in 2018.
Tracey Gaudry, the UCI vice-president and president of the UCI Women's Commission, highlighted the achievements that the Women's WorldTour has made. "All these developments show the scale of progress we are now seeing in women's road cycling with three new events coming to complement the already established global narrative of the UCI Women's WorldTour, greater broadcast exposure and social media cut-through. A huge amount has been achieved over the past two seasons in collaboration with race organisers, teams, riders, partners and media, and I'm confident that this journey of progress will continue in the season ahead."
2018 UCI Women's WorldTour calendar
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3 March: Strade Bianche (Italy) 11 March: Women's WorldTour Ronde Van Drenthe (the Netherlands) 18 March: Trofeo Binda – Comune di Cittiglio (Italy) 22 March: Trois Jours de La Panne (Belgium) 25 March: Gent Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium) 1 April: Tour of Flanders (Belgium) 15 April: Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (the Netherlands) 18 April: La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (Belgium) 22 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (Belgium) 4-6 May: Tour of Chongming Island UCI Women's WorldTour (China) 10-13 May: Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women's Race empowered with SRAM (USA) 19-22 May: WWT Emakumeen XXXI. Bira (Spain) 13-17 June: OVO Energy Women's Tour (Great Britain) 6-15 July: Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile (Italy) 26 July (TBC): La Course by Le Tour de France (France) 28 July: Prudential RideLondon Classique (Great Britain) 10 August: Crescent Vårgårda TTT (Sweden) 12 August: Crescent Vårgårda (Sweden) 16-19 August: Ladies Tour of Norway (Norway) 25 August: GP de Plouay – Lorient Agglomération (France) 28 August-2 September: Boels Ladies Tour (the Netherlands) 16 September: Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta (Spain) 21 October: Tour of Guanxi Women's WorldTour (China)
