The UCI toady announced the launch of a new Women's WorldTour, a series of top races for professional women which will replace the current Road World Cup, which has been in existence since 1998.
Similar to the shift in the elite men's calendar from a series of one-day races to the WorldTour in 2005, which incorporates Classics, stage races and Grand Tours, the women's Worldtour will include 35 days of racing from the Strade Bianche in March to the La Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta in September. The World Cup, by comparison, was only 10 days of racing this season.
The WorldTour will have four stage races: the Tour of Chongming Island, the Tour of California, the Aviva Women's Tour in Great Britain, and the Giro Donne in Italy, in addition to the current World Cup races - Flèche Wallonne, GP Plouay, Tour of Flanders, the Open de Suede Vargarda road race and team time trial, the Ronde van Drenthe, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and Philadelphia Classic, but not the Sparkassen Giro or Chongming Island one-day race.
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Stepping up to this top tier of races is the Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, La Course by Tour de France, La Madrid Challenge, and Prudential RideLondon.
In addition to an individual overall ranking, there will be a category for U23 riders. The top 20 women's teams will be invited to each race, but there is an option for some organisers to increase the peloton size in their event.
Most importantly, the UCI is putting a lot of weight behind promotion of the women's races across social media and the creation of a dedicated women's cycling channel.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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