Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) is the first UCI Women's WorldTour overall winnner (Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
The UCI announced Saturday the 2017 Women's WorldTour calendar that will include a total of 21 events with four of those new additions to the current calendar, increasing the total number of competition days by over 30 per cent (47 total days of racing). The announcement was made following the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships won by Amalie Dideriksen (Denmark).
The upcoming calendar will include the same 17 events that were part of this year's inaugural series, and then showcase two new stage races; Boels Rental Ladies Tour in Netherlands and Ladies Tour of Norway, and two new one-day races; Amstel Gold Race in Netherlands and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in Belgium.
"It is very exciting to unveil this calendar which demonstrates that the positive momentum for women's cycling continues to grow," said UCI Vice-president and President of the UCI Women's Commission Tracey Gaudry. "In 2017, we will strengthen the UCI Women's WorldTour events platform, including the sequence of races, their promotion and media coverage. We have retained all 17 already successful 2016 UCI Women's WorldTour events and added four spectacular new and exciting races."
In an interview with Cyclingnews in June, Gaudry gave the new Women's WorldTour a strong grade at its halfway point review but later revealed some of the key improvements that needed to be made in 2017.
The 2017 Women's WorldTour calendar will once again begin with the Strade Bianche in Italy in March and wrap up with the Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta in Spain in September.
This year was a breakthrough year for women's cycling with the introduction of the new series, which boasted live television broadcast of more than half the races and increased exposure on social media, however, the UCI plans on improving those elements over the course of next season.
"We are thrilled to reveal details of the newly expanded UCI Women's WorldTour and look forward to the start of racing in Italy next March," said UCI President Brian Cookson.
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"The extended calendar reflects the significant progress being made to boost the profile and professionalism of women's cycling and establish its status within mainstream sport. We will continue to move forward and look at ways we can further increase the exposure of women's cycling in line with the UCI's strategy for developing the sport.”
New events 16 April: Amstel Gold Race (the Netherlands) 23 April: Liège – Bastogne – Liège (Belgium) 17-20 August: Ladies Tour of Norway (Norway) 29 August-3 September: Boels Rental Ladies Tour (the Netherlands)
Current events 4 March: Strade Bianche (Italy) 11 March: Ronde Van Drenthe (the Netherlands) 19 March: Trofeo Binda (Italy) 26 March: Gent Wevelgem (Belgium) 2 April: Tour of Flanders (Belgium) 19 April: Flèche Wallonne (Belgium) 5-7 May: Tour of Chongming Island (China) 11-14 May: Amgen Tour of California (USA) 4 June: Philadelphia Classic (USA) 7-11 June: Aviva Women's Tour (Great Britain) 30 June-9 July: Giro Rosa (Italy) 23 July (TBC): La Course by Le Tour de France (France) 29 July: Prudential Ride London (Great Britain) 11 August: Vargarda TTT (Sweden) 13 August: Vargarda Road Race (Sweden) 26 August: GP Plouay (France) 10 September: Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta (Spain)
