The women's Spring Classics aren't a men's carbon copy, but we can't keep adding races – Analysis

If you watch or attend any of the major Spring Classics, from Strade Bianche to Liège-Bastogne-Liège, you'll notice that they all have races for both men and women. It's the norm.

In the grand scheme of cycling history, this is a relatively recent development – you only have to go back to 2020 to find no women's Paris-Roubaix and no Milan-San Remo. Look just five years prior, in 2015, and you'd also see the women's had no Liège and Amstel Gold Race, while Strade Bianche Donne had only just been created.

Looking back to 2000, really not that long ago, the concept of a men's Classic also hosting a women's event was an anomaly, with no Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem, or Dwars door Vlaanderen. La Flèche Wallonne was an outlier, the one time in the spring when the men's and women's pelotons would come together for a race.

But thanks to rapid change over the past few years, all that has changed. This spring, you notice more when a race doesn't have a women's version. The E3 Saxo Classic, taking place on the Friday before Gent-Wevelgem, sticks out like a sore thumb as the biggest omission on the women's calendar, though there are others, too.

Because adding women's versions of men's Classics has become the norm in recent years, it would be easy to start thinking that that should be the next logical step for E3, but is that right? Milan-San Remo only just arrived on the calendar, so it would be easy to think there is space to play with in the schedule, but can we just keep adding things and trying to make the women's calendar a carbon copy of the men's spring?

Let's look at the calendar as it is. From Omloop Het Nieuwsblad to Liège-Bastogne-Liège, there's a big Classic every weekend, mainly in line with the men's calendar.

The main diversion is on the final weekend of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, when Trofeo Alfredo Binda is also held, making a good Italian block of races culminating in Milan-San Remo.

We need to remember, however, that the addition of Milan-San Remo was only possible because of the unfortunate demise of the Ronde van Drenthe, which meant Binda was able to shift a week back, leaving San Remo weekend free for a women's race.

If Drenthe had survived, trying to fit La Classicissima would have been a tricky task. It's important to remember this – and that the women's spring calendar is not just full of gaps waiting to be filled.

So, what races are still missing? First up, there is Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Opening Weekend. The women's peloton take on the established Omloop van het Hageland on Sunday, and with Kuurne only being a 1.Pro race, with a junior race to worry about too, it's unlikely they'd have the capacity for a women's race, and that's not a problem.

Running into Strade Bianche and San Remo, the women don't have a Trofeo Laigueglia, which is perhaps up against the same barrier as San Remo was – it's very tough to close those coastal main roads for too long.

The GP de Denain, often known as a mini Paris-Roubaix, is also missing, and then of course the E3 Saxo Classic, so it's right to say that the women's spring Classics aren't a carbon copy of the men's, but the gaps are very small, and pretty much non-existent when you look at WorldTour-level races.

The question of whether the women's calendar even needs to follow the men's format is a bigger debate. Women's cycling does stand alone as its own sport, and events that only exist for the women's peloton should be celebrated and supported, but the reality is that there are huge benefits to having the women's peloton race in historic, well-known events.

Firstly, the riders absolutely want to ride these races, especially when it comes to monuments like Milan-San Remo, because of the prestige they hold. Secondly, it's good for audiences, who much more easily understand races they already know and can just tune into before or after the men's race they're already watching. Thirdly, race organisers clearly see the commercial and publicity value in hosting a women's event.

So whichever side of that debate you fall on, it's almost not work debating anymore, as the trend is so clearly one where the women's calendar will replicate all the key points and races of the men's season. That's just where we are now.

In the Classics, though, is that trend going to mean we see gaps like E3 being filled in the near future? There was briefly a race touted as the women's E3, the Leiedal Koerse, organised by the team behind the men's race and taking place at the end of April. However, it only lasted for two editions before being cancelled for financial reasons, and it was only a 1.1 race, mainly raced by Continental and club teams.

There certainly is some appetite for a bigger, better women's E3, with some riders and team directors definitely keen to take on the mini Tour of Flanders that is Friday's race.

Even if there is appetite for a proper women's E3, however, it's hard to believe it will happen any time soon. A big reason is that the women's peloton currently races the Classic Brugge-De Panne on the Thursday and back-to-back tough Classics if probably just not viable. So one of the races would have to move.

E3 also hosts a junior men's race on the same day, and the challenge of hosting three whole races on one Friday is probably near impossible, so again, something would have to move, and there isn't a lot of room for that.

But lastly, one key reason a women's E3 doesn't seem at all likely soon is that the organisers are just not the people to do it. They struggled to attract the sponsors to keep Leiedal Koerse going, and moreover, these are the organisers that have been in hot water multiple times over posters depicting women in sexist, sexualised or otherwise derogatory ways. It's hard to think of them as champions of women's sport.

The reality is, though, that there is not actually space to add an E3 women's race, especially not at WorldTour level, with changes in 2026 set to mean that WWT teams can only skip one WorldTour race a season.

Teams are racing as much as they can already; we can't just keep adding races because the men's peloton – which is bigger, richer, more established and better supported – do them.

Really, the calendar is as complete as it should be right now. The women race a packed, demanding schedule of Spring Classics that provides exciting and well-watched racing every year.

Milan-San Remo has filled that last gap there was, and it's now time to stop worrying about adding any more big races to the calendar. It's at capacity for the current state of the Women's WorldTour.

It's time to focus on enjoying the women's Classics in their own right, not worrying about copying the men down to every last race.

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