British Stars for Women’s Tour of Britain

Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) headlines the star British riders who will be racing in the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, when the race gets underway on 5 June, from Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire.

British Stars for Women’s Tour of Britain
(press release) — Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) headlines the star British riders who will be racing in the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, when the race gets underway on 5 June, from Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire.

The former world champion will be joined in the race by teammate and last year’s runner-up Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek), rising stars of the peloton Cat Ferguson (Movistar Team), and Imogen Wolff (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), and sisters Elynor and Zoe Bäckstedt (UAE Team ADQ and Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto respectively). Having won the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women twice (2016 and 2019), and taken the mountains jersey in last year’s race, Deignan will be lining up for her final appearance in Britain’s biggest professional women’s race.

Commenting on her participation, Lizzie Deignan said; “I’m always happy to race the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women! I have such special memories from this race and over my career I have had a lot of success here. It’s always a different feeling racing in front of home crowds so I hope we see lots of fans out cheering for women’s peloton over all four days. This will be my final Tour of Britain so it will be bittersweet but I am going to be surrounded by some incredible women as part of our Lidl-Trek team so I’m confident we can make it a good week and we will be motivated to achieve some nice results together.”

ANNA HENDERSON
Riding alongside her will be Lidl-Trek teammate Anna Henderson, who added; “I am really looking forward to racing the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women again this year. It’s always special to race on home soil, and as a British rider, we don’t have so many opportunities so I will be looking to make the most of this moment and hopefully, we will see lots of enthusiastic British cycling fans out on the roads to support us.

“Last year, Lizzie and I raced together as part of the national team so it will be cool to line-up alongside her again and as part of Lidl-Trek. I think we are going to be starting with a really strong team so I am really motivated to be part of that and to hopefully have some success together over the four stages.”

The latest rider announcement includes two prodigious young British talents in Cat Ferguson and Imogen Wolff, who finished first and second respectively in last summer’s British junior road race championships. The pair have gone on to join UCI Women’s WorldTour teams – Movistar Team and Team Visma | Lease a Bike – and will make their debut in the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women. Wolff won a stage and the youth classification in her first race of the season, the Vuelta a Extremadura, before going on to race in the Spring Classics, while Ferguson, 2024’s world junior time trial and road race champion, recently took victory in the Navarra Women’s Elite Classic one-day race in Spain.

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Women will also see both Bäckstedt sisters, Elynor and Zoe, racing for the first time, as younger sister Zoe makes her debut, having recently finished 15th in Paris Roubaix. Former junior world road race champion Zoe will line-up for Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto, alongside the previously announced Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, while Elynor is the first confirmed rider for UAE Team ADQ, in what will be her third appearance in the race.

They join the likes of European champion Lorena Wiebes (Team SDWorx – Protime) and double Olympic gold medallist Kristen Faulkner (EF Education – Oatly) on the provisional start list, both of whom were among the first batch of riders for the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women to be announced. The Lloyds Tour of Britain Women gets underway in the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire on Thursday 5 June, with a stage between Dalby Forest and Redcar across the North York Moors National Park, before the second stage from Hartlepool ends with an uphill finish at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. The race concludes with a pair of stages in Scotland, the first in the Scottish Borders, starting and finishing in Kelso, before the final stage in Glasgow on Sunday 8 June.

Following the final leg, fans and cyclists of all ages and abilities will have the chance to take part in the free Lloyds Tour of Britain Family Cycling Festival, building on Glasgow’s cycling legacy, and providing a unique chance to ride on the same closed road, traffic free, circuit as the world’s best.More information on the Lloyds Tour of Britain Family Cycling Festival

Teams
UCI Women’s WorldTeams: AG Insurance – Soudal Team (Belgium); Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto (Germany); CERATIZIT Pro Cycling Team (Germany); FDJ – SUEZ (France); Lidl-Trek (USA); Liv AlUla Jayco (Australia); Movistar Team (Spain); Team Picnic PostNL (Netherlands); Team SD Worx Protime (Netherlands); Team Visma | Lease a Bike (Netherlands); UAE Team ADQ (UAE); Uno-X Mobility (Norway)

UCI Women’s ProTeams: EF Education – Oatly (USA);

UCI Continental Teams: CJ O’Shea Racing (Great Britain); DAS – Hutchinson (Great Britain); Handsling Alba Development Road Team (Great Britain); Hess Cycling Team (Great Britain); Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team (Great Britain)