Tour of Britain Women 2026 start list: Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes confirmed
All the riders confirmed to take part in the race from 19-23 August
Former champions, Tour de France Femmes Femmes avec Zwift stage winners, and teenage amateurs are all set to line up at this year's Lloyds Tour of Britain Women.
The five-day race, the only annual UCI WorldTour event held in the UK, begins next Wednesday 19 August in Cockermouth, Cumbria and finishes in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on Sunday 23 August.
Ahead of the race, the organiser, British Cycling, has been drip feeding names on the start list.
Among those already announced are the defending champion Ally Wollaston (FDJ United-Suez) and 2024's winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), a two-time world champion.
Kopecky will be joined in SD Worx's six-rider squad by star sprinter Lorena Wiebes, who won two stages of the Tour de France Femmes earlier this month, and wore the yellow jersey.
Also fresh from winning at the Tour de France Femmes is Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), who said in a press release she is "looking forward to coming back [to the Tour of Britain Women] and making this edition a good one from start to finish".
Earlier this week, British Cycling announced the names of 12 British riders who are set to compete in this year's event; these include the current British road and time trial champion Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-Sram) and her national title-winning predecessors Millie Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech), Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL) and Alice Towers (EF Education-Oatly).
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
As her EF Education-Oatly team is not competing, Towers has been called up to represent the Great Britain national squad, which also counts track Olympians Anna Morris and Jess Roberts, club cyclists Amalie Cooper and Ruby Oakes, and 18-year-old Rebecca Gardiner.
"We are absolutely delighted more world-class cyclists are on the provisional rider line-up for the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women 2026," said race director Alice Wood.
"Their presence underlines the growing stature of the race in the global cycling calendar, and guarantees fans the opportunity to see some of the biggest names in the world competing on British roads."
Nineteen teams are set to take part in this edition of the Tour of Britain Women, each allowed a maximum of six riders.
A list of all the riders named provisionally to compete is below. Cycling Weekly will update this list when more names are confirmed.
For more information about the five-day route, visit our route guide.
Start list
FDJ United-Suez
Ally Wollaston
Lauren Dickson
UAE Team L'IMAD
Elynor Bäckstedt
SD Worx-Protime
Lotte Kopecky
Lorena Wiebes
Canyon-Sram
Zoe Bäckstedt
Lidl-Trek
Fenix-Premier Tech
Millie Couzens
Flora Perkins
AG Insurance-Soudal
Kim Le Court-Pienaar
Movistar
Liv AlUla Jayco
Georgia Baker
Human Powered Health
Uno-X Mobility
Picnic PostNL
Pfeiffer Georgi
Hitec Products-Fluid Control
DAS-Hutchinson
Handsling Alba Development
O'Shea RedChilli Bikes
Smurfit Westrock
Great Britain
Alice Towers
Anna Morris
Jess Roberts
Amalie Cooper
Rebecca Gardiner
Ruby Oakes
Tom joined Cycling Weekly as a news and features writer in the summer of 2022, having previously contributed as a freelancer and been host of the TT Podcast. He is fluent in French and Spanish, and holds a master's degree in International Journalism.
An enthusiastic cyclist himself, Tom likes it most when the road goes uphill, and actively seeks out double-figure gradients on his rides. His best result is 28th in a hill-climb competition, albeit out of 40 entrants.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.