Fourteen UCI Women’s WorldTeams will take part in the entire calendar with the aim of succeeding Movistar Team Women’s Annemiek van Vleuten (NED), winner of the UCI Women’s WorldTour general classification in 2021 for the second time, and Team SD Worx (NED), crowned UCI Women’s WorldTour best team.
The first of 25 events will take place on the white roads of Tuscany. The famous Strade Bianche will award the first leader's jersey of the season. Traditionally, the Dutch have been successful in the Italian race. Last year, victory went to Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (Team SD Worx) on Piazza del Campo in Siena, after her compatriot and team mate Anna van der Breggen (2018) and Van Vleuten (2019-2020 with Mitchelton Scott) had won the three previous editions.
The following Saturday, the riders will head to the Netherlands for the 17th edition of the Ronde van Drenthe, in the Netherlands. The route is essentially flat but its challenges will crown a champion who is comfortable on the cobbles and has a good burst of speed in the event of an arrival in a small group, as was the case in 2021 with Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) on home soil.
The third event on the calendar will bring the women's peloton back to Italy on Sunday 20 March with the Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio, whose defending champion is none other than Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo).
A great spring of classics
Like the Strade Bianche, more and more classics now offer a women's event alongside the men's race. The Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne (24 March) has been in tune since 2018, while the other two Flanders Classics, Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields (27 March) and the Tour of Flanders (3 April) have been running women’s versions for 8 and 18 years respectively.
The Ardennes Cassics are also on the UCI Women's WorldTour calendar. Exceptionally, the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (10 April) will be contested between two cobbled classics. The Dutch event and Paris-Roubaix Femmes (16 April) have been reversed due to the first round of the French presidential election. The second edition of the women’s version of the Hell of the North will be raced without its first winner, Great Britain’s Elizabeth Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), who is pregnant with her second child.
‘There is a baby in mummy’s tummy!’
— Lizzie Deignan (@lizziedeignan) February 23, 2022
We are so grateful and excited that our family is growing, baby #2 due on Orla’s birthday in September ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Q4xYz1QdYL
The two pure Ardennes rendezvous, Flèche Wallonne Féminine and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, take their usual spots in the calendar: 20 and 24 April respectively. After Van der Breggen’s retirement, the Mur de Huy will crown a new winner for the first time since 2014. Then, Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) will head to Liège to defend her title, hoping to extend the Dutch domination of "La Doyenne", following four victories for Dutch riders already in five editions.
Spanish trips mark the end of the classics
After the classics, fans of stage races will find what they’re looking for, starting in May. The Spanish races Itzulia Women (13-15 May) and the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (19-22 May), followed by two events in Great Britain, the RideLondon Classique (27-29 May) and the Women's Tour (6-11 June), will follow one another all within a month.
July will offer two major events. The Giro d'Italia Donne, from 30 June to 10 July, is back on the UCI Women's WorldTour calendar. And expectations are immense for the first Tour de France Women avec Zwift.
Yellow jersey dreams
The start of the Tour will take place in Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and the first yellow jersey will be awarded on the Champs-Elysées podium on 24 July , the day of the men's arrival.
The women will then face the following seven stages, leading to a climax on the ramps of the Super Planche des Belles Filles, where the first winner in history will be crowned on 31 July.
A visit to Scandinavia before a busy end to the season
Canceled for the past two years, the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden and the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden TTT are back on the programme in 2022, in Sweden, on 6 and 7 August. Two days later, the peloton will travel to neighboring Norway to compete in the first six-day Battle of the North.
The 20th event on the calendar is more traditional: the GP Lorient Agglomeration in Plouay will celebrate its 20th anniversary on 27 August. It will be followed by another historic event: the Simac Ladies Tour (30 August – 4 September), which has been raced in the Netherlands since 1998.
Back to Spain, the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta will take place this year over five days: from 7 to 11 September. Last year’s red jersey was claimed by Van Vleuten.
The final sprint in China
The last European race will be held in Switzerland, with the first Women's Tour de Romandie, which will start in Lausanne on 7 October and finish in Geneva two days later.
Asia will then host the final fireworks. The end of the season will take place in China with the return of the Tour of Chongming Island (13-15 October) and the Tour of Guangxi (18 October). These two races will represent the last opportunities for the riders to put their name on the UCI Women's WorldTour winners list in 2022.