The 2026 road cycling season is about to get into full swing. Australia is kicking the action off with their National Championships – and soon the whole world’s top women riders will be there for the Santos Tour Down Under (17-19 January), the first event of the 2026 UCI Women’s WorldTour calendar. The stage race will be followed by the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Women (31 January), the first one-day race of the year’s comprehensive schedule.
From Australia, the UCI Women’s WorldTour peloton will head to the United Arab Emirates, then Belgium, Italy and beyond. In total, 27 events (16 one-day races, 11 stage races) in 11 countries make up the 2026 calendar in the leading series of female road cycling. The season will end in China with the Tour of Chongming Island (13-15 October) and the Tour of Guangxi Women’s WorldTour (18 October) to wrap up the competition.
Traditional start to the year
The Santos Tour Down Under and the Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Women have been staples of the UCI Women’s WorldTour for some years. The stage race followed by the one-day race, on roads that most recently witnessed the 2025 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, tick many boxes for riders and fans alike: it’s the first outing of the season, meaning everyone is pumped with excitement as new faces, wearing new kit, try to set the tone for an exhilarating year.
In 2025, these two Australian events notably propelled Noemi Rüegg (EF Education – Oatly) and Ally Wollaston (FDJ–Suez) to their best road seasons to date. Both are set to kick off their seasons again in Australia, and the same goes for Rüegg’s team-mate Women Elite road race UCI World Champion Magdeleine Vallières Mill.
From Australia, the action moves to the UAE Tour Women (5-8 February) and its mighty challenges. From wind-swept desert roads to stunning peaks, who will succeed Italian icon Elisa Longo Borghini, who dominated last year’s event to start a brilliant first year wearing the colours of UAE Team ADQ?
European spring
The European campaign will naturally start in Belgium, during the ‘opening weekend’, as Classics experts face off in the Omloop Nieuwsblad (28 February). It will be the start of a series of 12 one-day races all the way to the tenth edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (26 April).
Before they reach the Ardent City, the stars of the UCI Women’s WorldTour will notably battle in Italy, with unmissable rendezvous such as Strade Bianche Donne (7 March), Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio (15 March), and Milano Sanremo Donne (21 March), that made its acclaimed return to the calendar in 2025.
Belgium will then be the focus point with the Ronde van Brugge – Tour of Bruges (26 March), In Flanders Fields – in Wevelgem (29 March), and the Ronde van Vlaanderen (5 April), as well as a new introduction to the UCI Women’s WorldTour: Dwars door Vlaanderen / A travers la Flandre (1 April), stepping up from the UCI ProSeries calendar.
Before heading back to Belgium for La Flèche Wallonne Femmes (22 April) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, the peloton will battle on the French cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift (12 April) and the Dutch hills of the Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (19 April).
A reshuffled string of stage races
As has become tradition in recent years, May will be the Spanish month with three prestigious stage races: First, the expanding Vuelta España Femenina by Carrefour.es (3-10 May) with an eighth stage added to its route, then Itzulia Women (15-17 May) which will enable puncheurs to show their worth, followed by the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (21-24 May), where climbers will try to take over.
Then, it will already be time for the Giro d’Italia Women (30 May-7 June), formerly scheduled in July, but now coming right after the men’s Giro and adding a ninth stage. The battle for the Maglia Rosa will be rapidly followed by the Copenhagen Sprint (13 June), a one-day race that captured hearts in its very first edition last year. Stage racing will resume with the Tour de Suisse Women (17-21 June, with one more stage compared to 2025), ahead of a small break without UCI Women’s WorldTour races as riders gear up for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (1-9 August), starting from Lausanne and heading to Nice, via Mont Ventoux.
Leading into the UCI Road World Championships (to be held in Montréal, Canada, from 20 to 27 September), the UCI Women’s WorldTour battles will continue with the ever-spectacular Lloyds Tour of Britain Women (19-23 August, up to five stages from four last year), Classic Lorient Agglomération (29 August) and Tour de Romandie Féminin (4-6 September), ahead of the closing races in China.