Britain’s five women’s Continental squads could be locked out of their own national stage race from 2026, a “slap-in-the-face” consequence of new UCI rules that reserve WorldTour start-lists for WorldTeams and ProTeams only.
British Cycling hopes the move will “further amplify the extraordinary buzz around the recent Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, continuously building the event and engaging a growing audience through the joy of cycling”
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) crowned the Glasgow finale with a trademark drag-strip burst on George Square, claiming her seventh Tour of Britain Women stage and settling the day’s sprint honours. Behind her, Ally Wollaston quietly amassed the seconds that matter in stage racing, seizing every intermediate prime and the four-second award for third place at the line. The haul – thirteen seconds in total – was enough to erase Cat Ferguson’s three-second overnight cushion and leave the FDJ-Suez rider four seconds to the good when the arithmetic was done.
Cat Ferguson has long looked like the future of British cycling. Today, on the rain-slicked cobbles of Kelso’s market square, the future arrived ahead of schedule. Still just 19 and in her first season with Movistar, the Yorkshire teenager coolly out-kicked Josie Nelson (Picnic-PostNL) and Ally Wollaston (FDJ–Suez) to claim her maiden Women’s WorldTour victory — and, by virtue of the 10-second bonus, the leader’s green jersey. Not since the race’s inception has a stage winner been so young.