UCI Women's World Tour
| Current season, competition or edition: 2025 UCI Women's World Tour | |
| Sport | Cycling |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2016 |
| Organising body | Union Cycliste Internationale |
| No. of teams | 15 |
| Country | International |
| Most recent champion(s) | Individual: Demi Vollering (NED) Teams: SD Worx (2023 UCI Women's World Tour) |
| Most titles | Individual: Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) (3 titles) Teams: SD Worx (7 titles) |
| Official website | UCI.org |
The UCI Women's World Tour is the premier annual female elite road cycling tour. As of 2025, the tour includes 27 events in Europe, Asia and Oceania – with one-day races such as Strade Bianche Donne and Paris–Roubaix Femmes, stage races such as Women's Tour Down Under, as well as week long stage races (sometimes referred to as a "Grand Tour") such as Tour de France Femmes.
History
From 1998, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) held the UCI Women's Road World Cup, a series of 8 to 10 one-day races held predominately in Europe. Although similarly branded, races did not have the same level of coverage as men's races.[1] Many classic cycle races did not stage equivalent women's races – with the Tour of Flanders for Women first held in 2004.
In September 2013, Brian Cookson was elected president of the UCI – with his manifesto setting out improvements for women's cycling including a minimum wage, better television coverage, new races and better relationship between the UCI, teams and race organisers.[2] Le Tour Entier – an activist group to improve women's cycle racing – published a manifesto in 2013 calling for a women's Tour de France as well as other improvements for women's cycling including creation of a women's World Tour.[3]
In December 2014, the UCI held a summit to discuss how to increase the coverage of women's cycling, attended by the UCI Women's Working Group, event organisers and the UCI Women's Teams.[1][4]
In March 2015, the UCI announced that the UCI Women's Road World Cup would be replaced by the UCI Women's World Tour from 2016, creating an equivalent season long competition to the men's UCI World Tour.[5] The Women's World Tour would have:[4][6]
- a large increase in the number of racing days, with stage races as well as one-day events
- an increase in the maximum length of stages and races
- minimum levels of prize money
- top 15 teams designated as UCI Women's World Teams, automatically invited to events
- a minimum and maximum number of riders per team, depending on the event
- races broadcast on live television or via streaming
- race organisers providing media information in English and/or French
- an individual and teams champion at the end of each season
The announcement was welcomed by teams, with Wiggle-Honda stating that the "new structure for women’s cycling has been accepted with open arms" and that the teams and the UCI "all seem to be on the same page and working towards the same goals together".[5]
The calendar for the inaugural season was announced in September 2015, including many of the longstanding one-day events from the UCI Women's Road World Cup (such as Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Tour of Flanders) as well as established stage races such as the Giro d'Italia Femminile.[7] The UCI called the series "a major step forward" for professional women's cycling.[7][8] Identical branding for both the Women's World Tour and the UCI World Tour was introduced.[8]
Between 2016 and 2024, the tour contained an individual women's elite classification and youth classification, with the leader of each wearing a distinctive jersey – burgundy jersey for the individual classification and a light blue jersey for the youth classification.[9]
From 2020, a two-tier system of teams was introduced, with the top-tier of teams required to have a minimum salary of €15,000 for riders, as well as insurance and rights including maternity leave.[10] This was welcomed by The Cyclists' Alliance – a union of professional riders.[11] Several UCI WorldTeams set up female squads, including Movistar (launched 2017), Trek–Segafredo (launched 2018) and Jumbo–Visma (launched 2020).
The 2020 season was extensively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in two-thirds of the races on the calendar being either postponed or cancelled outright.[12] The UCI ProSeries was also launched in 2020, as a second-tier tour below the World Tour.[13]
The UCI has ensured that events have live television or streaming coverage[14] – the Giro d'Italia Donne was removed from the 2021 calendar after failing to provide adequate live television coverage for the 2020 edition of the race,[15] and the RideLondon Classique was warned that it would be demoted to the UCI ProSeries if live television was not provided for all stages, as only the final stage of the 2022 edition of the race was broadcast.[16][17] Riders from The Cyclists' Alliance – a union representing the female peloton – stated that live TV coverage for races was their biggest priority, rather than prize money.[18]
In 2022, the Tour de France Femmes was staged for the first time, becoming the biggest stage race on the calendar.[19][20] In 2023, the Challenge by La Vuelta increased in length to 7 days, becoming La Vuelta Femenina.[21] As of 2025, many of the UCI World Tour races hold equivalent races for women, including all three Grand Tour races.[22]
From 2023, the minimum number of riders and members of staff in each team was increased, with the minimum wage having risen to over €30,000.[10][23] In July 2023, UCI Women’s World Tour announced a precautionary ban on trans women from competing.[24]
From 2025, the Tour is no longer a ranking competition in its own right, with the rankings having been removed from the UCI's Road Race regulations. The distinctive jerseys for the leaders of the youth classification and individual women's elite classification are no longer used.[25][9] Media noted that "the Women’s WorldTour leader’s jersey never fully captured public attention".[9]
From 2026, the UCI will award more ranking points to the week long stage races and monuments than other stage or one-day races in the Tour.[26]
Events
As of 2025, the calendar features 27 events, with:[22]
- La Vuelta Femenina, Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes, the longest and biggest stage races in the women's calendar. Some media and teams have referred to these events as Grand Tours, as they are the biggest events in the women's calendar.[27][28][29]
- 6 other stage races and 14 one-day races in Europe
- 1 stage race and 1 one-day race in China
- 1 stage race and 1 one-day race in Australia.
Compared to the UCI Women's Road World Cup, the Women's WorldTour features stage races as well as one-day races.[30] The maximum distance was increased, with one-day races having a maximum length of 160 kilometres, and average stage race stage distance having a maximum length of 140 kilometres. Race organisers are allowed to apply for special dispensation to have longer stages.[30] Campaign groups such as Le Tour Entier and The Cyclists' Alliance continue to push organisers and the UCI to allow for longer stage races for women.[31][32][33]
For events to be considered they must have reached the following criteria:[4]
- UCI Class 1 Road status
- Dates of candidate events must not clash with existing Women's World Cup and Class 1 events
- Dates and locations of candidate events must fit with the narrative of the season, whilst also providing some logic for the travel of teams
Winners by race
2016–2021
2022–
Victories
Updated: 2025 season: 21 June 2025
| Rank | Rider | No of wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) | 20 |
| 2 | Demi Vollering (NED) | 18 |
| 3 | Anna van der Breggen (NED) | 17 |
| 4 | Lorena Wiebes (NED) | 15 |
| 5 | Lotte Kopecky (BEL) | 12 |
| 6 | Lizzie Deignan (GBR) | 10 |
| Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) | ||
| Marianne Vos (NED) | ||
| 9 | Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (NED) | 6 |
| Elisa Balsamo (ITA) | ||
| 11 | Jolien D'Hoore (BEL) | 5 |
| Katarzyna Niewiadoma (POL) | ||
| Marlen Reusser (SUI) | ||
| 14 | Marta Bastianelli (ITA) | 4 |
| Coryn Rivera (USA) | ||
| Kirsten Wild (NED) |
Riders in italics are no longer active.
Teams in italics are no longer active.
Season results
Between 2016 and 2024, the tour contained an individual women's elite classification and youth classification, with the leader of each wearing a distinctive jersey – burgundy jersey for the individual classification and a light blue jersey for the youth classification.[9] Since 2025, the UCI women's road world rankings, which includes points earned in races that are not part of the WorldTour, has superseded the points allocations for this series of races as the official rankings table for the sport.[9]
Individual ranking
Youth ranking
Team ranking
| Year | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Boels–Dolmans | 2894 pts | Wiggle High5 | 2245 pts | Rabo–Liv | 1853 pts |
| 2017 | Boels–Dolmans | 3273 pts | Team Sunweb | 2153 pts | Wiggle High5 | 1824 pts |
| 2018 | Boels–Dolmans | 4329.99 pts | Mitchelton–Scott | 4119.02 pts | Team Sunweb | 3321.99 pts |
| 2019 | Boels–Dolmans | 4045 pts | Team Sunweb | 2946 pts | Trek–Segafredo | 2547.98 pts |
| 2020 | Trek–Segafredo | 4380.98 pts | Boels–Dolmans | 3177.02 pts | Team Sunweb | 2876.98 pts |
| 2021 | SD Worx | 8572 pts | Trek–Segafredo | 5263 pts | Movistar Team | 5043 pts |
| 2022 | SD Worx | 9803.02 pts | Trek–Segafredo | 7998.98 pts | Team DSM | 7536 pts |
| 2023 | SD Worx | 19251.52 pts | Canyon–SRAM | 9007.22 pts | Lidl–Trek | 8787.53 pts |
| 2024 | Team SD Worx–Protime | 14384.03 pts | Lidl–Trek | 9840.98 pts | Canyon–SRAM | 7744 pts |
| 2025 | Team ranking abolished | |||||
Participating teams
As of 2025, the fifteen Women's WorldTeams were automatically invited to compete in events, with the top two UCI Women's ProTeams listed on the 2024 UCI World Ranking (EF Education–Oatly and VolkerWessels Women Cyclingteam) also invited automatically. Other ProTeams and Continental women's teams were invited by the organisers of each race.[37]
Current UCI Women's WorldTeams (2025 season)
Women's WorldTeams were introduced in 2020, with teams automatically invited to World Tour events.[38]
Current UCI Women's ProTeams (2025 season)
UCI Women's ProTeams were introduced for the 2025 season, creating a structure similar to that of the men's teams.
| Team | Country | Seasons in World Tour | Became Women's ProTeam | Previous team name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkéa–B&B Hotels Women | France | 2020– | 2025 | Arkéa Pro Cycling Team (2020–2023) |
| St. Michel–Preference Home–Auber93 | France | 2022– | 2025 | St. Michel–Auber93 (2022–2023) |
| Cofidis | France | 2022– | 2025 | |
| EF Education–Oatly | United States | 2024– | 2025 | EF Education–Cannondale (2024) |
| Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi | Spain | 2021– | 2025 | |
| VolkerWessels Women Cyclingteam | Netherlands | 2016– | 2025 | Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Team (2016), Parkhotel Valkenburg–Destil (2017), Parkhotel Valkenburg (2018–2023) |
| Winspace Orange Seal | France | 2019– | 2025 | Charente-Maritime Women Cycling (2019–2020), Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime (2021–2023), Winspace (2024) |
Former UCI WorldTeams
Teams in italic are no longer active.
| Team | Country | Seasons in World Tour | Became Women's WorldTeam | Previous team name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liv Racing TeqFind | Netherlands | 2016–2023 | 2020 | Rabo–Liv (2016), WM3 Pro Cycling (2017) WaowDeals Pro Cycling (2018), CCC Liv (2019–2020) Liv Racing (2021), Liv Racing–Xstra (2022) |
| EF Education–Tibco–SVB | United States | 2016–2023 | 2022 | Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank (2016–2021) |
References
- ^ a b "New WorldTour part of a shake-up of women's road racing – Cycling Weekly". Cycling Weekly. 12 March 2015.
- ^ O'Shea, Sadhbh (2016-07-25). "The future of women's cycling: a Q&A interview with Brian Cookson". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Women's Tour de France campaign gathers pace with the launch of Le Tour Entier website". road.cc. 2013-09-15. Retrieved 2022-07-23.
- ^ a b c "2016 UCI Women's Worldtour Candidates Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ a b Rogers, Owen (2015-03-12). "New WorldTour part of a shake-up of women's road racing". cyclingweekly.com. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "UCI Women's Racing – Bicycling". bicycling.com. 13 March 2015.
- ^ a b Weislo, Laura (2015-09-24). "UCI announces 2016 Women's World Tour". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ a b "New logos unveiled for UCI WorldTour and UCI Women's WorldTour". road.cc. 2015-10-24. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Mathew (2025-02-01). "UCI quietly removes Women's WorldTour leader jerseys for 2025". ProCyclingUK.com. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ a b Jones, Amy. "Five years on – is the Women's World Tour working?". Rouleur. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "UCI Women's Reforms: A Step Forward for Our Sport | The Cyclists' Alliance". 2018-09-30. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Calendrier International UCI / UCI International Calendar - Route / Road - Situation dans le contexte actuel de la pandémie du coronavirus (Covid-19) / Situation in the current context of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic" (PDF). UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
- ^ "Women's professional road cycling enters a new dimension in 2020". www.uci.org. 10 January 2019. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ Knöfler, Lukas (2022-05-30). "Teams and riders dissatisfied with lack of live coverage at RideLondon Classique". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ^ Frattini, Kirsten (28 September 2020). "Giro Rosa surprised to lose Women's WorldTour status". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
- ^ Ronald, Issy (2022-06-17). "RideLondon Classique stripped of WorldTour status for limited live TV". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ^ Frattini, Kirsten (1 October 2022). "RideLondon keeps Women's WorldTour status despite failing to meet live TV requirements". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ Ostlere, Lawrence (22 July 2022). "'It changes everything': Why the Tour de France Femmes is a historic moment for women's cycling". The Independent. ISSN 1741-9743. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
I think if you asked everyone in the peloton what's more important, the prize money or the TV coverage, I think most would say TV coverage.
- ^ Macur, Juliet; Jaques, Monique (2022-07-27). "For Women's Cyclists, It's a Steep Climb to Tour Equality". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
- ^ Whittle, Jeremy (2023-07-25). "'The gulf is widening': the long road to pay parity for female cyclists". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
- ^ Matilda Price (2022-06-17). "Four events added to Women's WorldTour calendar for 2023". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
As well as the addition of races, there has been some reshuffling of the calendar, most notably the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta – registered in 2023 as 'La Vuelta Femenina' – has moved to May, and will be seven stages long.
- ^ a b Weislo, Laura (4 October 2024). "UCI rolls out 2025 road calendar with Copenhagen Sprint added to men's and women's WorldTour". Cycling News. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
- ^ Jones, Amy. "Women's WorldTeams salaries: a delicate balance". Rouleur. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
- ^ "Transgender women barred from female events as UCI takes 'precautionary measure'". BBC Sport. 2023-07-14. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
- ^ "Part 2 Road Races" (PDF). UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. 29 December 2024. pp. 105–106. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
- ^ Price, Matilda (2025-06-20). "UCI points update brings Women's WorldTour system in line with men's, designating women's Monuments and boosting Tour de France Femmes". Cyclingnews. Retrieved 2025-06-20.
- ^ Frattini, Kirsten; Price, Matilda (2022-08-02). "9 conclusions from historic 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
- ^ Goldman, Tom (22 July 2022). "After more than 30 years, a multiday women's Tour de France is back". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
After the Tour de France femmes avec Zwift announced its record $250,000 purse, another women's grand tour event, the Giro d'Italia Donne, matched the Tour's prize money amount.
- ^ "All info on the 2022 Giro Donne, the first women's Grand Tour of the year for the Movistar Team | Movistar Team". Movistar Team. 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
- ^ a b Sadhbh O'Shea and Kirsten Frattini (19 August 2015). "2016 Women's WorldTour: Rules, organizers' requirements and live broadcasting". Cyclingnews.com.
- ^ Rogers, Owen (2022-07-31). "Seven woman teams a possibility at the 2023 Tour de France Femmes". cyclingweekly.com. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
- ^ Ostlere, Lawrence (22 July 2022). "Why the inaugural Tour de France Femmes 'changes everything'". The Independent. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
I think if you asked everyone in the peloton what's more important, the prize money or the TV coverage, I think most would say TV coverage.
- ^ Frattini, Kirsten (16 October 2021). "A closer look reveals the inequity at Tour de France Femmes". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "Road – Calendar". UCI.
- ^ "Classifications". UCI.
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- ^ "Registration of UCI professional teams for the 2025 season". www.uci.org. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
- ^ Frattini, Kirsten (2019-12-10). "UCI confirms seven of the eight Women's WorldTeams for 2020". Cyclingnews. Retrieved 2025-04-15.