The 2026 Lloyds Tour of Britain Women takes place from Wednesday 19 August to Sunday 23 August, with the peloton racing across five stages from Cockermouth in Cumbria to Royal Leamington Spa.
Nineteen teams are due to take part, including 13 Women’s WorldTour squads, British Continental teams and the Great Britain Cycling Team. The individual rider selections can continue changing in the days before the race through injury, illness and late team decisions, so the live FirstCycling start list below should be treated as the most up-to-date version of the field.
For the wider race context, ProCyclingUK’s Tour of Britain Women 2026 route guide covers all five stages, while the Beginner’s guide to the Tour of Britain Women 2026 explains the classifications, route and type of racing to expect. Both pages are live.
Tour of Britain Women 2026 start list at a glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Race | Lloyds Tour of Britain Women 2026 |
| Dates | 19-23 August 2026 |
| Classification | UCI Women’s WorldTour |
| Number of stages | 5 |
| Teams | 19 |
| Riders per team | Up to 6 |
| Maximum peloton | 114 riders |
| Opening stage | Cockermouth to Cockermouth |
| Final stage | Royal Leamington Spa |
| Start-list status | Provisional until the race begins |
The move to five stages is new for 2026, following the expansion first confirmed after the 2025 edition. ProCyclingUK covered that development when the Tour of Britain Women was approved to expand to five stages in 2026.
Tour of Britain Women 2026 full start list
The live start list below contains the latest published riders for every team competing in the 2026 Tour of Britain Women.
Team selections can still change before Stage 1, so this embedded list is preferable to a static list of names that may become outdated after late substitutions.
Data powered by FirstCycling.com
Which teams are racing the Tour of Britain Women 2026?
The Tour of Britain Women field contains 19 teams, with a particularly strong Women’s WorldTour presence.
- FDJ United-SUEZ
- UAE Team L’IMAD
- Team SD Worx-Protime
- Team Visma | Lease a Bike
- Canyon SRAM
- Lidl-Trek
- Fenix-Premier Tech
- AG Insurance-Soudal
- Movistar Team
- Liv AlUla Jayco
- Human Powered Health
- Uno-X Mobility
- Team Picnic PostNL
- Hitec Products-Fluid Control
- DAS-Hutchinson
- Handsling Alba Development Road Team
- O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes
- Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team
- Great Britain Cycling Team
The mix gives the race considerably more depth than simply having one or two dominant WorldTour squads surrounded by domestic teams. Several of the strongest teams in women’s cycling are represented, while the British Continental selections get five days of racing directly against WorldTour opposition.
For more background on how Britain’s leading women’s stage race developed from The Women’s Tour into the modern Tour of Britain Women, see ProCyclingUK’s brief history of the Tour of Britain Women. The history page is live and follows the race from its first edition in 2014 through the British Cycling relaunch and five-stage expansion.
How many riders will start the Tour of Britain Women 2026?
Each of the 19 teams can select up to six riders, creating a maximum field of 114.
The actual number on the start line can be slightly smaller. Late illness or injury can force withdrawals after the period in which teams are able to make replacements, while provisional selections can change several times before the race begins.
That is why the FirstCycling embed above is the main start-list element on this page. Rather than manually reproducing more than 100 rider names and risking the article becoming incorrect after one late substitution, it can continue reflecting the latest published team selections.
This follows the same approach used on ProCyclingUK’s full start list for Tour de France 2026 and full start list for Tour de France Femmes 2026, where the FirstCycling embed provides the live rider field and the surrounding article supplies the race context.
Can the Tour of Britain Women start list still change?
Yes. The start list should be considered provisional until immediately before the race.
Teams can replace riders because of illness, injury, recovery or changes to their racing programmes. That is particularly relevant in 2026 because the Tour of Britain Women begins only ten days after the Tour de France Femmes finished in Nice, leaving a relatively short turnaround for riders scheduled to compete in both races.
Any late changes should appear in the embedded start list without requiring the full article to be rewritten.
What does the 2026 route demand from the start list?
The five-stage course is designed for much more than pure sprinters.
Stage 1 around Cockermouth combines almost 160km of racing with climbing, exposed Cumbrian roads and a short cobbled sector. Stage 2 from Clitheroe to Blackpool offers a clearer opportunity for the faster riders, although the Lancashire hills create possibilities for teams to make the race harder before reaching the coast.
The first major GC test comes on Stage 3 from Mold to the Great Orme above Llandudno. The finishing climb gives punchier riders an opportunity to create meaningful gaps because there is no descent afterwards on which dropped riders can recover. The Great Orme itself has long been a familiar road to ProCyclingUK, with our guide to climbing around the Great Orme covering its gradients and distinctive coastal setting.
Stage 4 from Llanidloes to Hay-on-Wye then provides the largest amount of accumulated climbing, while the Royal Leamington Spa finale still contains enough short, steep terrain to matter if the overall classification remains close.
The full Tour of Britain Women 2026 route guide looks at where the GC is most likely to be decided and which stages favour sprinters, attackers and stronger all-rounders.
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Photo Credit: Getty -
Photo Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Ally Wollaston returns as defending champion
The 2025 Tour of Britain Women produced one of the closest overall battles in the history of the race.
Cat Ferguson entered the final stage in Glasgow with a three-second advantage, but Ally Wollaston used bonus seconds to overturn the deficit and win the race by four seconds.
ProCyclingUK’s report on Wollaston’s dramatic 2025 Tour of Britain Women victory remains live and shows why intermediate sprints and finishing bonuses can become just as important as the obvious climbs when GC gaps are small.
The extra fifth stage and increased amount of climbing should change the rhythm of the 2026 race, but another close general classification would make the same bonus-second battles important again.
When does the Tour of Britain Women 2026 start?
Stage 1 takes place on Wednesday 19 August, starting and finishing in Cockermouth.
The race then moves south through Lancashire before two important stages in Wales. Stage 3 finishes on the Great Orme on Friday 21 August, followed by the climbing-heavy stage from Llanidloes to Hay-on-Wye on Saturday.
The overall winner will be crowned after Stage 5 in Royal Leamington Spa on Sunday 23 August.
UK viewers can follow the race live, with the latest television and streaming information in ProCyclingUK’s guide to watching the Tour of Britain Women 2026 in the UK. That page is live and covers BBC Sport and the official online streaming options.
