Tour of Britain Women begins under cloud but with hope of stronger future

The 2026 Tour of Britain Women starts in Cumbria on Wednesday under a cloud after the death of the Welsh rider Finlay Tarling in the Volta a Portugal last Friday.

Tarling was in a collision with a non-race vehicle during the race’s eighth stage and, while police investigations into the exact circumstances surrounding the incident continue, the professional cycling community remains in shock.

Tarling’s death has overshadowed the European racing scene and, 10 days after the Tour de France Femmes finished in Nice, the women’s peloton returns to the road, tributes will be paid to the 19-year-old, who was one of the brightest young stars on the British scene.

Less than a year before the Tour de France Femmes stages its 2027 Grand Départ in the UK, large crowds are expected on the roadside to watch racing from a peloton that has greater strength in depth than ever before.

Like the Tour de France Femmes, Britain’s only World Tour race is going from strength to strength, increasing in duration from four days to five and further boosting the status of women’s professional racing to unprecedented heights.

Although neither Kasia Niewiadoma, runner-up to Demi Vollering in the Tour de France Femmes, nor the Dutch double Tour winner are competing, the starting lineup is of high quality.

Finlay Tarling, pictured with his parents, died after a collision with a non-race vehicle last Friday. Photograph: Huw Fairclough/Getty Images

Several luminaries from the French race will feature, including stage winners Kim Le Court and Lorena Wiebes, and the former world road race champion Lotte Kopecky.

Le Court, who won stage six of the Femmes and finished ninth overall in Nice, crashed out of last year’s Tour of Britain after winning the opening stage.

“I’m looking forward to racing the Tour of Britain Women again,” she said. “Last year was a mix of emotions for me personally, so I’m looking forward to coming back and making this edition a good one from start to finish.”

The defending champion Ally Wollaston, who held off the challenge of Yorkshire’s Cat Ferguson in last year’s race and won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the Commonwealth Games, will be on the start line in Cockermouth. The five-day race takes the peloton through Cumbria, the north-west, Wales and the Borders, prior to a final stage next Sunday in Royal Leamington Spa.

The route combines rolling roads with flatter stages and some long climbs, particularly in Wales, characteristics that will suit Le Court and Kopecky well.

Wednesday’s opening stage is based on a long loop through Cumbria, out from and back to Cockermouth, with narrow lanes and plenty of scope for attacking racing. From Cumbria the peloton heads to what is likely to be a sprint finish in Blackpool, before moving to north Wales for the third stage from Mold to Llandudno which concludes with a tough, and potentially decisive, finish on the Great Orme.

Wiebes, winner of two stages in the Tour de France Femmes and also of the points classification in the nine-day race, will be the favourite to add to her tally of wins in Blackpool. But she also has the punch to compete in the race’s hillier stages in Wales.

Kopecky, winner of the Tour of Britain in 2024, is a past stage winner in Llandudno and may again use the Welsh seaside resort as the platform for her challenge. The Belgian’s epic but fruitless lone pursuit of Sigrid Haugset in stage three of the Tour Femmes was one of the highlights of the race.

While Ferguson, last year’s runner-up, is still recovering from an ankle fracture, Zoe Backstedt, from Pontyclun, who played a key role in supporting Niewiadoma’s challenge in the Tour de France Femmes, may be active in the Tour’s Welsh stages.

The British national road and time trial champion has already won on the World Tour this year, taking the third stage of the Tour of Switzerland and went on to finish 50th overall and 10th in the youth classification in her first Tour de France Femmes.

After the finish of the hilly fourth stage, in Hay-on-Wye, the race moves to its finale, based around Royal Leamington Spa, next Sunday. With audiences for women’s racing rapidly growing, TV coverage has become a hotly debated issue and free-to-air highlights packages will be available on ITV with live coverage on YouTube.