Little more than two weeks into the new year, the stars of the peloton already face the first events of the 2025 UCI Women’s WorldTour. As is tradition, the new season starts in Australia, with the Santos Tour Down Under (17-19 January), to be followed by the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (1st February), before moving to the Arabian Peninsula for the UAE Tour Women (6-9 February) ahead of the first European events.
The 28 races on the calendar of the 2025 UCI Women’s WorldTour make for 79 days of racing around the world, visiting 12 countries from Australia to China, where the series will conclude with the Tour of Chongming Island (14-16 October) and the Tour of Guangxi (19 October).
The season comes with exciting novelties, including the introduction of two one-day races, Milano-Sanremo (Italy) and Copenhagen Sprint (Denmark). The stakes are very high in a decisive year: the current UCI Women’s WorldTour licences expire at the end of the season, and teams will need to meet the sporting criteria for the ranking to obtain licences for the new three-year cycle (2026 - 2028).
Milano-Sanremo returns to the Classics
The Australian action shall set an exhilarating tone for the season with local stars and international contenders battling it out on punchy courses, featuring the iconic finish up Willunga Hill on day 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under. Last year, it was the perfect springboard for Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) to launch herself to UCI Women’s WorldTour success, at 23 years old.
The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race is also the perfect place to make a name for oneself, just as Rosita Reijnhout (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) did, winning at 19 years old in 2020.
The early season action will continue with the UAE Tour Women - where Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime) displayed her improved climbing abilities - before the stars of the UCI Women’s WorldTour settle in Europe for a string of 11 one-day races, from the Omloop Nieuwsblad (1st March) all the way to Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (27 April).
In between usual fixtures of the calendar - Strade Bianche Donne (8 March), Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio (16 March), Classic Brugge-De Panne (27 March), Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (30 March), Ronde van Vlaanderen (6 April), Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift (12 April), Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (20 April) and La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (23 April) - riders and fans will enjoy a new rendezvous, with the return of a women’s race at Milano-Sanremo, 20 years after the previous edition.
Stage races including the Giro and the Tour
After the Classics, the rest of the European spring will be filled with stage races, starting with a strong block of competitions in Spain: the Vuelta España Femenina by Carrefour.es (4-10 May), Itzulia Women (16-18 May), the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (22-25 May), the Tour of Britain Women (5-8 June) and the Tour de Suisse Women (12-15 June).
The field will turn to the summer with an unprecedented one-day race - Copenhagen Sprint (21 June) - before the Giro d’Italia Women (6-13 July), followed by the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (26 July-3 August). After it was moved in 2024 due to the Olympic Games, the race for the Maillot Jaune aligns again with the men’s edition. And there will be one more stage (9) for riders to battle it out as they aim to succeed Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing), crowned in the most thrilling fashion in 2024.
All the way to Guangxi
Four more stage races will bring very different action on contrasting terrain: the Tour de Romandie Féminin (earlier than usual - 15-17 August - so as not to clash with the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships taking place in Swiss Romandie, in Valais, ) takes the riders through the Alps, the Tour of Scandinavia (19-24 August) exposes them to windy challenges, the Simac Ladies Tour (7-12 October) brings back a Classics feeling and the Tour of Chongming Island (14-16 October) usually favours fast and daring riders.
Audacity is also well repaid in the Classic Lorient Agglomération - Ceratizit, as illustrated by the successes of Mischa Bredewold (Team SD Worx-Protime) in 2023 and 2024. It will be the 14th and penultimate one-day race of the UCI Women’s WorldTour 2025, eventually concluding with the Tour of Guangxi (19 October), 10 months from now.