Concerns about border delays and the last-minute event organisation are among the reasons a number of women's WorldTour teams have opted to forgo next month's Tour of Britain Women.
On Wednesday, it was announced that only four top-tier teams will take part in the stage race, which begins on 6 June. As a WorldTour event, all 15 WorldTour teams would have received an invite.
The participating WorldTour teams are SD Worx-Protime, dsm-firmenich PostNL, Liv AlUla Jayco and Human Powered Health. They will be joined by a mix of lower-tier Continental teams, including all six of the British squads at this level.
In statements issued to Cycling Weekly, WorldTour outfits Movistar and Roland cited Brexit in their rationale for not taking part.
"Logistics issues inherent to the outside-European Union nature of both races [RideLondon Classique and Tour of Britain Women], and the already packed Women's WorldTour calendar make it not feasible for the team to attend," a Movistar spokesperson said.
Ruben Contreras, manager of Roland, said Brexit makes racing in the UK "very, very complicated".
"Even if we have the vans, the ATA carnet, all the equipment, all the documents, it's still very complicated," he said. "We got stuck at the customs border last year."
One team told of an incident in which their mechanics truck got "stranded" at the border for two days ahead of a UK race. The team, which asked to keep its identity anonymous, insisted it had all the appropriate paperwork, but was only allowed to enter the country less than 24 hours before the race began.
When the race was last held in 2022, then called the Women's Tour, 13 WorldTour teams were present.
Cycling Weekly understands that British Cycling, the event's new organiser, experienced difficulty in convincing WorldTour teams to commit to the race this year amid uncertainty of whether it would happen or not.
The event was removed from the UCI's online calendar in January, after its previous organiser, SweetSpot, entered liquidation. British Cycling then took over in February, with CEO Jon Dutton saying it would be a "race against the clock" to plan the event for June.
In a statement, French Women's WorldTour team FDJ-Suez said: "Our yearly race schedule was elaborated at the end of last season with the given information we had back then, and when some uncertainties unfortunately still existed about the Tour of Britain.
"Therefore, the team's management took the decision to race other competitions within that period of time – May/June. The team has been racing the [previously named] Women's Tour since 2015 and will keep doing so in the future."
Likewise, a spokesperson for Canyon-SRAM said the team had "already made arrangements and payments for training camps" during the time of the Tour of Britain Women, "before the race was announced as returning to the calendar".
The four-stage Tour of Britain Women begins in Welshpool on 6 June and finishes in Leigh, Greater Manchester on 9 June.
"We are very excited to see such a strong line-up of teams," said race director Rod Ellingworth in a press release. "In addition to the Women's WorldTour teams, we are thrilled to welcome an exciting mix of UCI Women's Continental sides. Spectators can look forward to an exhilarating race, and we can't wait to see them in action next month."
