Who's going to win the Tour of Britain Women? Riders to watch

The 2025 Tour of Britain Women promises to be an open affair, with action from North Yorkshire to Glasgow, and as a result there are a whole host of riders to watch across the four stages.

The second edition organised in-house by British Cycling, the Women's WorldTour race was won last year by world champion Lotte Kopecky. In her absence this year, it's likely a new winner will be crowned.

Make sure you are across everything at the Tour with our complete guide to the race, which begins on Thursday 5 June, and finishes on Sunday 8 June.

Key riders to watch

Lorena Wiebes
26 | Ned | SD Worx-Protime
UCI Ranking: 3 | 2025 wins: 8

Since its inception in 2014 as the Women’s Tour, the Tour of Britain has been a happy hunting ground for sprinters, but none have ever managed to win the General Classification, the race more suited to the all-rounder. This year’s edition, though, could well see unquestionably the world’s best sprinter, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), take overall honours.

While the location of this year’s race suggests a harder parcours than ever before, the Dutchwoman has the attributes to compete and even win every stage. Aged only 26, she’s amassed 101 victories, adding eight from 18 race days this year, and one of the keys to such success is her increasing ability to climb.

Cast your mind back to last year’s Amstel Gold Race where she was second, pipped on the line while celebrating. She was sixth again this season, but it was her 20th place at Jebel Hafeet, the mountain stage at the UAE Tour, which conclusively proved she is far more than just a sprinter.

With a strong team in support, the spiky profile of the Scottish Borders stage is survivable for someone with Wiebes’s characteristics, especially as the main climbs come more than 20km from the finish in Kelso. And if her winning sprint on the uphill finish of stage one at the Vuelta Burgos is anything to go by, not even uphill finish at Saltburn-by-the-Sea will be too much.

While the rest of the peloton has become more specialised, this week Wiebes may well reap the benefits of greater versatility.

Lizzie Deignan
36 | GBr | Lidl-Trek
UCI Ranking: 142 | 2025 wins: 0

Lizzie Deignan is the only woman to have won the Tour of Britain Women, including its forebear race, more than once, taking the title in both 2016 and ’19, and, with retirement a matter of months away, a third success would be the perfect close to her stellar career.

World champion, she topped the 2020 Women’s WorldTour standings, won the overall World Cup twice and bagged classics wins as diverse as Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. She’s simply one of the most successful riders of her generation. However, her most recent win was Roubaix, almost four years ago, and she’s spent much of the time since on domestique duties.

Sixth place at the 2023 Worlds in Glasgow was proof she can still rise to the occasion when leadership opportunities arise, especially on the classics style courses we’ll see this weekend. She is also highly respected, and any GC bid will receive enthusiastic support from her team and the peloton alike.

Kim Le Court
29 | Mus | AG Insurance-Soudal
UCI Ranking: 14 | 2025 wins: 1

If persistence alone won races, Kim Le Court would permanently be on the top step. The Mauritian champion only returned to road racing last year after an extended and successful period mountain bike racing, where she won the Cape Epic, among others.

She began on the road, racing the 2015 Women’s Tour for Matrix Fitness, but, after a year riding for Bizkaia-Durango in Spain, her career faded to occasional road appearances. In 2024, after a year sending her CV to teams, AG Insurance-Soudal took a gamble, signing the now 29 year-old.

And what a signing. A long solo move saw her win the closing stage of last year’s Giro Donne, then, this spring, a series of outstanding classics culminated with a dogged victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, out-sprinting Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ).

She doesn’t have Wiebes-beating horsepower, but Le Court is the real deal and will be fighting for victories.

Kristen Faulkner
32 | USA | EF Education Oatly
UCI Ranking 58 | 2025 wins: 1

While that gold medal-winning ride at the Olympics last summer might be her highest profile victory, Kristen Faulkner has long been one of the peloton’s best breakaway riders, proving herself as the woman most likely to take a mile if given an inch.

A late comer to the sport, she won a stage in her UCI race debut, the 2020 Tour de l’Ardeche, with a characteristic solo move. In Paris she did it on the flat, at stage eight of the 2022 Giro Donne she did it in the mountains, so maybe Saturday’s saw tooth profiled Borders stage is where the former banker can expect the best return on her investment.

However, we saw during the spring the bunch has her number, jumping on her wheel the moment she moved, but should the right combinations create any hesitation the newly minted American champ will be there for a first stage race victory.

Cat Ferguson
19 | GBr | Movistar
Ranking: 52 | 2025 wins: 1

Britain and the WorldTour’s new next best thing, Cat Ferguson is most certainly the real deal. Signing for Movistar as a stagiaire last year, she promptly repaid the Spanish squad’s faith with two victories.

This year has certainly been a step up for the 19 year-old, and the team have put faith in her, allowing leadership opportunities which have produced results way beyond her tender years. She began 2025 with third place in her first WorldTour race, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, following that with a series of top results in the classics, closing the spring with victory at the hilly Navarra Classic.

If anyone was in any doubt, that result showed Ferguson as able to survive and win on the kinds of lumpy courses we’ll see his weekend, but she already has a lot racing in her legs this year, especially for such a young woman, so fatigue could prove an issue.

Ally Wollaston
24 | NZl | FDJ- Suez
UCI Ranking 27 | 2025 wins: 3

New Zealander Ally Wollaston is a consummate all-rounder in the making. Similar in style to world champion, Lotte Kopecky, she has followed a similar progression through the sport, establishing herself on the track, she won Olympic silver in bronze in the Team Pursuit and Omnium last summer, while developing on the road.

On the road she already has 11 wins, including two at WorldTour level. At 24, that’s more than Kopecky at the same age. Though she can handle herself in a bunch kick, most those victories come after hard, hilly days, something she’s sure to encounter at the Tour of Britain.

Form might be an issue, though. While she has three victories already this season, the most recent of them was in February, and her classics season was a stop start affair. She is on the up though, with a series of top 10 placings during the recent block of Spanish racing.

Domestic riders to watch

With five UK registered UCI Continental teams on the start list, we’re sure to see domestic based riders taking chances where they can. Now riding for the Smurfit Westrock squad, Jo Tindley is among the most aggressive and experienced in the entire peloton, she even rode the first Women’s Tour back in 2014. The former national crit champion is certain to be visible, along with CiCLE Classic winner Lucy Harris.

The Handsling Alba Development team have taken a step up this year, with Rapha Lincoln GP winner, Lauren Dickson their breakout rider also boasting a recent second place in a gnarly French UCI 1.1 race. The 25 year-old Scot has no WorldTour experience though, and Kate Richardson, fresh from overall victory at the four day Tour Feminin in the Czech Republic, is best equipped to successfully navigate her way to a good result.

For DAS-Hutchinson, Robyn Clay is fresh from her own stage win in Czechia and will be brimming with motivation, especially the first two days, riding on her home Yorkshire roads. Once the race arrives in Scotland expect another 21 year-old, the slightly more experienced Morven Yeoman, to come to the fore on her own home roads.

The Hess team began 2025 in turmoil, with rumours of financial instability and a raft of riders jumping ship, including Richardson, delaying the squad’s race debut to the start of April. They’re yet to take a UCI win, but Brits Grace Lister and Holly Ramsey have been flying in the National Road Series.

The sprinters

First among the sprinters chasing Lorena Wiebes is Elisa Balsamo. Lizzie Deignan’s Lidl-Trek team mate remains among the best in the business, but is yet to finish ahead of Wiebes on any terrain this season. She has been winning though, winning two stages at Setmana Valenciana and taking wins at both Trofeo Binda and Scheldeprijs.

Now with Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto, Chiara Consonni was once Balsamo’s chief lead out rider. Very fast in her own right, oddly she occasionally struggles for position in stage races, growing into the race as the days go by. Her German team will back her to the hilt though, so expect her on Sunday’s stage podium in Glasgow.

Another rider to have rolled off the Italian sprinter production line is Martina Fidanza. Tall and powerful, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider has hit a rich vein of form this spring, sprinting to two wins in the last month. With neither Marianne Vos or Pauline Ferrand-Prevot present to distract the squad’s resources, they’ll be fully behind the 25 year-old on the flatter days.

Picnic-PostNL’s leader, Charlotte Kool, is arguably the world’s second-best sprinter behind her former team mate, Wiebes. After the highs of two stage wins and the yellow jersey at last year’s Tour de France Femmes, 2025 has not gone to plan. The 26 year-old is yet to win, her best result being second at Scheldeprijs behind Balsamo. She’s not raced since finishing 51st at Paris Roubaix, but should she finally hit form is certainly capable of stage victories.

Others to watch

While the Tour of Britain no longer attracts all the world’s best riders, the Tour de France Femmes providing a bigger target, a host of stars and dark horses will take the start on Thursday.

Letizia Paternoster took the American squad’s first victory when the team was created in 2019, but then seemed to go off the the boil. However, since joining Liv Alula Jayco the Italian appears reborn as an all-rounder, she can infiltrate selections and regularly takes top 10 results in bunch kicks, especially after gnarly races. Her problem has been winning, though you can expect to see her coming close on all four stages.

Canadian Sarah Van Dam (Ceratizit) has been one of the revelations of the season with a string of excellent results. She made a name for herself on the track and has only been racing regularly on European roads since 2023, but it’s been an exceptional year so far, with a string of top 10 finishes, including third overall at Itzulia, where she proved her climbing and sprinting credentials.