Three changes define the 2026 British Women's Team Cup: a new Combativity Classification, a revised points model, and the late founder's name on the rider support fund.
The British Women’s Team Cup opens its 2026 season on 19 April with the Florrie Newberry Classic in West Hanningfield, Essex. The annual series of women’s road races is contested by trade teams across five National B rounds, with each squad’s top four finishers scoring points toward a season-long championship.
Two meaningful scoring changes arrive this year, and the late founder Jon Miles has his name on the rider support fund for the first time.
Below we explain what the Team Cup is, what has changed for 2026, how the scoring works, which teams are registered, and what the full calendar looks like.
Featured image: Mark James
What is the British Women’s Team Cup?
The British Women’s Team Cup is a season-long competition in domestic women’s road racing in which trade teams are scored against each other across a series of National B road races. Each team may enter up to six riders per round, with the first four finishers counting toward the team’s aggregate points. Unlike an individual series, a rider placing 12th can be as valuable to the team result as a podium. Strategy, depth, and bunch craft decide the Team Cup as much as raw speed.
The series was founded in 2000 by Jon Miles and Jenny Gretton as the Women’s Team Race Series, and renamed the British Women’s Team Cup in 2020. It was conceived in response to a specific crisis — women’s racing in Britain had, as Miles described it, reached a low ebb — and designed to give domestic riders a team-oriented ladder between regional racing and the National Road Series. It has since been a proving ground for riders who went on to WorldTour careers: Laura Kenny, Lizzie Deignan, Anna Henderson, and Zoe Bäckstedt all raced Team Cup rounds early in their careers.
Miles died in 2025. He had stepped back from day-to-day organisation of the Team Cup in 2022, handing over to Lisa West — herself a 2006 Team Series rider — but he remained closely involved until the end. The BWTC’s rider support fund, which covers entry fees for riders in registered teams who would otherwise struggle to pay, has been renamed the Jon Miles Rider Support Fund in his memory, and his family asked for donations to the fund at his funeral. It is a small, practical monument to a man whose reach across British cycling ran far beyond women’s racing — Miles received British Cycling’s gold badge of honour in 2023 — but whose most durable single contribution is the series his family now helps to sustain.
What’s new in 2026
The Team Combativity Classification
Sitting alongside the existing finishing points, the Combativity Classification awards 100 points to every rider in a qualifying break. There are two trigger conditions:
Half-distance time gap: if a break of eight or fewer riders has a gap of 30 seconds or more at half distance, every rider in that break scores 100 points for their team.
Breakaway victory: if the race is won from a break of eight or fewer that has held a 30-second gap, every rider in the winning break scores 100 points for their team.
The points are awarded regardless of whether the break is ultimately caught. Early moves can therefore contribute to team standings even if they fail — and if a single break triggers both conditions (clear at half distance and still clear at the finish), its riders score both lots of 100 points. On the 150-point scale used for race winners, this is a meaningful lever: a rider in a mid-race escape can return almost as much to the team ledger as the team’s first finisher.
In the organisers’ framing, the change is a response to feedback from the 2025 BWTC rider survey, which called for explicit incentives to race aggressively. It builds on the Combativity Award that London Academy introduced in 2024 to encourage exciting, aggressive, and smart bike racing; the new classification folds that logic into the team competition itself.
Revised finishing points
From 2026, BWTC finishing points are awarded according to the position of riders within BWTC-registered teams, not their absolute position in the race. In practice: if the first five finishers of a race are not in BWTC-registered teams, the first BWTC rider across the line — finishing sixth — now scores 150 points, as the first-placed BWTC rider. The second BWTC rider scores 130, and so on down the scale.
In previous seasons the presence of UCI-registered individual entrants or strong unattached riders at the sharp end of a race could compress the points earned by BWTC teams. The new system insulates BWTC scoring from the composition of each round’s startlist, and makes it easier to compare team performance across the season regardless of which non-BWTC riders turn up.
A tighter calendar
The 2026 series has five rounds, down from six in 2025. The Ronde Van Wymeswold two-day, added as the series’ only stage-race fixture last year, does not return.
2026 calendar
Round
Date
Race
Location
1
19 April
Florrie Newberry Classic
West Hanningfield, Essex
2
17 May
Banbury Star Women’s Road Race
Oxfordshire
3
5 July
Inkberrow Women’s Road Race
Worcestershire
4
2 August
Duncan Murray Wines Road Race
Naseby, Northamptonshire
5
30 August
Maria Thompson Road Race
Surrey
How it works
Team entry
Teams may enter up to six riders per event. The first four finishers from each BWTC-registered team score points. Where a team wants to enter more than six riders, it can register additional teams (Team A, Team B, and so on), each racing in a different jersey design; only Team A’s riders score BWTC points. Where a race is oversubscribed, BWTC-registered teams are prioritised for entry.
Guest riders
A team unable to field a full complement can bring in guest riders, provided they are not on UCI-registered teams and that BWTC is notified in advance. Guests must wear the team jersey of the team they are guesting for. A rider may switch teams twice during a season; any points accrued stay with the team for which they were earned.
Finishing points
Points are allocated by BWTC-rider placing, as follows:
BWTC rider placing
Points
1st
150
2nd
130
3rd
115
4th
100
5th
90
6th
80
7th
70
8th
65
9th
60
10th
55
11th
52
12th
49
13th
47
14th
45
15th
43
16th
41
17th
39
18th
37
19th
35
20th
33
From 21st onwards, points descend in one-point steps to 4 points for 49th place; every subsequent finisher scores a single point.
Combativity points
As above: 100 points per qualifying rider under each of the two trigger conditions, added to the team’s finishing points.
Safety stoppage
Riders who are 15 minutes or more behind the main bunch as they enter the final lap are stopped at the finish line — but are still given a finishing position and the associated points.
2026 registered teams
Seventeen teams have registered for the 2026 series at the time of writing:
AC O’Shea Development Team
Brother UK – Team OnForm
Cowley Road Condors
Draft Racing
FTP (Fulfil The Potential) Racing
FTP Fusion
Jadan Glasdon p/b Vive le Velo
Liv CC Halo Films
London Academy
London Dynamo
Loughborough Lightning
Paralloy RT
Raptor London
Solas Cycling
Team Empella
The Hera Project
Wolfox Styrkr Le Col Race Team
Eligibility
The BWTC is pitched between regional and National A racing. Fourth-category licence holders are not eligible to compete; organisers advise riders to complete at least one regional race to gain bunch experience before stepping up. At the other end of the scale, riders on UCI-registered teams may start BWTC races but score no points, and may not guest for registered teams. Any rider who has scored UCI points during the current calendar year is barred from BWTC races entirely, preserving the series’ intended level.
Individual unattached riders can enter rounds where the organiser permits, but do not contribute to any team’s total. In oversubscribed events, BWTC team riders are prioritised.
Find out more
Follow the British Women’s Team Cup on Instagram and Facebook, or visit the BWTC website for full rules, race-by-race detail, and the Jon Miles Rider Support Fund application form.
The British Women’s Team Cup opens its 2026 season on 19 April with the Florrie Newberry Classic in West Hanningfield, Essex. The annual series of women’s road races is contested by trade teams across five National B rounds, with each squad’s top four finishers scoring points toward a season-long championship.
Two meaningful scoring changes arrive this year, and the late founder Jon Miles has his name on the rider support fund for the first time.
Below we explain what the Team Cup is, what has changed for 2026, how the scoring works, which teams are registered, and what the full calendar looks like.
Featured image: Mark James
What is the British Women’s Team Cup?
The British Women’s Team Cup is a season-long competition in domestic women’s road racing in which trade teams are scored against each other across a series of National B road races. Each team may enter up to six riders per round, with the first four finishers counting toward the team’s aggregate points. Unlike an individual series, a rider placing 12th can be as valuable to the team result as a podium. Strategy, depth, and bunch craft decide the Team Cup as much as raw speed.
The series was founded in 2000 by Jon Miles and Jenny Gretton as the Women’s Team Race Series, and renamed the British Women’s Team Cup in 2020. It was conceived in response to a specific crisis — women’s racing in Britain had, as Miles described it, reached a low ebb — and designed to give domestic riders a team-oriented ladder between regional racing and the National Road Series. It has since been a proving ground for riders who went on to WorldTour careers: Laura Kenny, Lizzie Deignan, Anna Henderson, and Zoe Bäckstedt all raced Team Cup rounds early in their careers.
Miles died in 2025. He had stepped back from day-to-day organisation of the Team Cup in 2022, handing over to Lisa West — herself a 2006 Team Series rider — but he remained closely involved until the end. The BWTC’s rider support fund, which covers entry fees for riders in registered teams who would otherwise struggle to pay, has been renamed the Jon Miles Rider Support Fund in his memory, and his family asked for donations to the fund at his funeral. It is a small, practical monument to a man whose reach across British cycling ran far beyond women’s racing — Miles received British Cycling’s gold badge of honour in 2023 — but whose most durable single contribution is the series his family now helps to sustain.
What’s new in 2026
The Team Combativity Classification
Sitting alongside the existing finishing points, the Combativity Classification awards 100 points to every rider in a qualifying break. There are two trigger conditions:
The points are awarded regardless of whether the break is ultimately caught. Early moves can therefore contribute to team standings even if they fail — and if a single break triggers both conditions (clear at half distance and still clear at the finish), its riders score both lots of 100 points. On the 150-point scale used for race winners, this is a meaningful lever: a rider in a mid-race escape can return almost as much to the team ledger as the team’s first finisher.
In the organisers’ framing, the change is a response to feedback from the 2025 BWTC rider survey, which called for explicit incentives to race aggressively. It builds on the Combativity Award that London Academy introduced in 2024 to encourage exciting, aggressive, and smart bike racing; the new classification folds that logic into the team competition itself.
Revised finishing points
From 2026, BWTC finishing points are awarded according to the position of riders within BWTC-registered teams, not their absolute position in the race. In practice: if the first five finishers of a race are not in BWTC-registered teams, the first BWTC rider across the line — finishing sixth — now scores 150 points, as the first-placed BWTC rider. The second BWTC rider scores 130, and so on down the scale.
In previous seasons the presence of UCI-registered individual entrants or strong unattached riders at the sharp end of a race could compress the points earned by BWTC teams. The new system insulates BWTC scoring from the composition of each round’s startlist, and makes it easier to compare team performance across the season regardless of which non-BWTC riders turn up.
A tighter calendar
The 2026 series has five rounds, down from six in 2025. The Ronde Van Wymeswold two-day, added as the series’ only stage-race fixture last year, does not return.
2026 calendar
How it works
Team entry
Teams may enter up to six riders per event. The first four finishers from each BWTC-registered team score points. Where a team wants to enter more than six riders, it can register additional teams (Team A, Team B, and so on), each racing in a different jersey design; only Team A’s riders score BWTC points. Where a race is oversubscribed, BWTC-registered teams are prioritised for entry.
Guest riders
A team unable to field a full complement can bring in guest riders, provided they are not on UCI-registered teams and that BWTC is notified in advance. Guests must wear the team jersey of the team they are guesting for. A rider may switch teams twice during a season; any points accrued stay with the team for which they were earned.
Finishing points
Points are allocated by BWTC-rider placing, as follows:
From 21st onwards, points descend in one-point steps to 4 points for 49th place; every subsequent finisher scores a single point.
Combativity points
As above: 100 points per qualifying rider under each of the two trigger conditions, added to the team’s finishing points.
Safety stoppage
Riders who are 15 minutes or more behind the main bunch as they enter the final lap are stopped at the finish line — but are still given a finishing position and the associated points.
2026 registered teams
Seventeen teams have registered for the 2026 series at the time of writing:
Eligibility
The BWTC is pitched between regional and National A racing. Fourth-category licence holders are not eligible to compete; organisers advise riders to complete at least one regional race to gain bunch experience before stepping up. At the other end of the scale, riders on UCI-registered teams may start BWTC races but score no points, and may not guest for registered teams. Any rider who has scored UCI points during the current calendar year is barred from BWTC races entirely, preserving the series’ intended level.
Individual unattached riders can enter rounds where the organiser permits, but do not contribute to any team’s total. In oversubscribed events, BWTC team riders are prioritised.
Find out more
Follow the British Women’s Team Cup on Instagram and Facebook, or visit the BWTC website for full rules, race-by-race detail, and the Jon Miles Rider Support Fund application form.
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